Process of Consciousness and Matter - Abhidhamma.com

I. CONSCIOUSNESS AND ITS FACTORS
One understands and gives names to these according to their shape,
form, colour etc. However, the Abhidhamma teaching maintains that
these notions do not possess ultimate validity. The objects that they
signify do not exist in their own right as irreducible realities. Their
mode of being is conceptual, not actual. They are products of mental
construction (parikappanā), not realities existing by reason of their
own nature.
Ultimate realities, however, exist by reason of their own intrinsic
nature (sabhāva). These are all those of mental and material
phenomena that are the final irreducible components of existence, the
entities that result from right analysis of the phenomenal world. Thus,
just as one extracts oil from sesame seed, so one can extract the
ultimate realities from the conventional realities. The ultimate
realities, therefore, are characterised not only from the ontological
perspective as the true ultimate entities but also from the
epistemological perspective as the ultimate object of right knowledge.
For example, a so called “being”, “man” or “woman” is a conceptual
or conventional reality. In fact, however, the “being”, “man” or
“woman” is just a combination of ultimate realities. When we
analyses such conceptual or conventional realities in the light of the
Abhidhamma, we find that they do not possess any ultimate truth,
even though this might appear to be strongly implied by the concepts.
They are merely a conventional reality comprising of an assemblage
of ever changing factors, of mental and physical processes. Thus, by
examining the conventional realities with wisdom, we will finally
come to realise that it is only the ultimate realities (paramattha
dhamma) that maintain their intrinsic nature independently.
The word paramattha is a compound form of parama and attha.
Parama is defined as immutable (aviparīta) or abstract (nibbattita).
Attha means thing. Although the term immutable is used here, this
should not be interpreted as saying that all ultimate realities are eternal
or permanent. In fact, all mental and material forces are subject to
change, they are impermanent and in fact are constantly changing.
However, their distinctive characteristics are the same whenever they
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