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The Abhidhamma teaches us that:
1.there are natural laws which govern the universe (niyaama dhammaa);
2.our mental and physical states arise dependent on causes — dependent origination (pa.ticca samuppaada); and
3.conditioning and influencing relationships exist between these effects and their causes (paccaya).
The Natural Laws
The Buddhist texts recognize five laws holding sway over the natural order.
1.Physical inorganic law (utuniyaama). This law governs inorganic processes, working through variations in heat to bring about changes in the body and the outer world. In the body it governs decay and illness, in the outer world wind and rain, the regular sequence of seasons, differences of climate, etc.
2.Physical organic law (biijaniyaama). This law operates in both the animal and vegetable kingdoms to account for heredity, genetics, and the tendency of like to beget like.
3.Law of kamma (kammaniyaama). Kamma is volitional action, bodily, verbal, or mental. Such action produces a result appropriate to itself. The result is not a reward or punishment meted out by some overseer but an inherent consequence of the action itself. Good actions bring happiness, bad actions bring suffering.
4.Law of the mind (cittaniyaama) governs the order of consciousness and mental processes and also makes possible such feats as telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, clairaudience, and recollection of past lives.
5.Law of the dhamma (dhammaniyaama) accounts for the phenomena that occur at the last birth of a bodhisatta and also the happenings during the life and at the death of the Buddhas.
Dependent Origination
The doctrine of dependent origination shows that the sentient being is nothing but a flow of mental and physical phenomena which arises and continues in dependence on conditions. The layout of these conditions brings to light the cause of suffering and shows how suffering can be ended.
The doctrine is based on the following principle:
When THIS is present, there is THAT,
With the arising of THIS, THAT arises.
When THIS is not present, there isn"t THAT,
With the cessation of THIS, THAT ceases.
Dependent origination is set forth in a series of relations:
1.Dependent on ignorance there are activities (avijjaapaccayaa sa"mkhaaraa);
2.Dependent on activities there is consciousness (sa"mkhaarapaccayaa viññaa.na"m);
3.Dependent on consciousness there is mentality-materiality (viññaa.napaccayaa naama-ruupa"m);
4.Dependent on mentality-materiality there are the six bases (naamaruupapaccayaa sa.laayatana"m);
5.Dependent on the six bases there is contact (sa.laayatanapaccayaa phasso);
6.Dependent on contact there is feeling (phassapaccayaa vedanaa);
7.Dependent on feeling there is craving (vedanaapaccayaa ta.nhaa);
8.Dependent on craving there is clinging (ta.nhaapaccayaa upaadaana"m);
9.Dependent on clinging there is becoming (upaadaanapaccayaa bhavo);
10.Dependent on becoming there is birth (bhavapaccayaa jaati);
11.Dependent on birth there is old age and death (jaatipaccayaa jaraa mara.na"m).
The sequence of events covered by the doctrine falls into three existences — the immediately past, the present, and the future one. The first two factors in the sequence refer to the past life, the last two to the future life, and the rest to this present existence. However, these events intersect, so the factors assigned to the past and future existences also can be found in the present. The doctrine indicates how and why we came into this present existence and where we came from, confuting two erroneous interpretations of our nature and destiny:
1.that there is a soul, either uncreated or of divine origin, lasting eternally into the future; and
2.that we came into existence from nowhere and face nothing but annihilation at death.
Dependent on ignorance there are activities. From an inconceivable beginning we have performed activities of body, speech, and mind dominated by ignorance. Ignorance is lack of insight into the Four Noble Truths. Any volitional action performed through ignorance becomes kamma with a potential to react, to bring about rebirth, and other consequences in accordance with the kammic law. Only the arahant, who has ended ignorance, can perform volitional acts without forming kamma.
Dependent on activities there is consciousness. After death the five aggregates disintegrate but kamma remains with its potential intact. This residual kamma helps form the embryo in the new existence. It is responsible for the rebirth consciousness, the first citta of the new life. The ovum and the sperm constitute the body of the embryo, kamma contributes the mind and mental functions. A kamma formation of the previous existence manifests itself as the passive consciousness which, from the very first moment of conception, receives all the potentialities resulting from past volitional actions. No consciousness passes over from one existence to the next but the stream of consciousness goes on, a flux, constantly becoming.
Dependent on consciousness there is mentality-materiality. The union of the ovum, sperm and rebirth consciousness brings the mental-material compound into being. Mentality (naama) signifies the mental factors conascent with passive consciousness — feeling (vedanaa), perception (saññaa), volition (cetanaa), contact (phassa), and attention (manasikaara). Materiality (ruupa) comprises the four primary elements of matter and their derivatives, described earlier. It must be noted that kamma plays a role in the arising of materiality too. At the moment of conception kamma generates three units of matter: the decads of sex, body, and the mind basis. In the course of life kamma causes and sustains the functioning of the senses and vitality. Rebirth consciousness is a conascent condition for the arising of materiality. Thereafter, consciousness conditions materiality via a number of relationships, to be given in the section on conditioning relationships below. Thus mentality and materiality are mutually dependent.
Author Bio :
Provided Courtesy : Access to Insight Readings in Theravada Buddhism http://www.accesstoinsight.org/index.html
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