What role does Abhidhamma play in your practice?
Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 1:35 pm
Hi all
One thing that confuses me these days is Abhidhamma and what role it can play in practice for people of limited understanding. How can objects of such fleeting nature be objects of awareness for us? Is it actually nimatta that is object of awareness, the after image that if I understand correctly is kind of copied and goes on after the objects have risen and fallen away in a flash? I'm thinking that Abhidhamma can only be understood as a model of how the most profoundly developed minds could cognize objects and for the rest of us, it is just theory.
I'm posting this question in this corner because I'd rather not invite responses from people who reject Abhidhamma, or belittle its importance. I'm particularly curious to hear from pt1 (?) who I noticed asked very excellent questions about Abhidhamma at DSG, but who is a meditator. I was impressed by your ability to continue to learn from Nina and others despite differences in attitudes towards practice. Or from Chris or others who are meditators but keen on Abhidhamma as well.
So how do you (all) see Abhidhamma within your practice? What are you finding from it that you don't find fully served by the suttanta? Again, I'm not asking this to dispute Abhidhamma. I'm hoping to have my Abhidhamma studies kick-started again.
Metta,
Phil
One thing that confuses me these days is Abhidhamma and what role it can play in practice for people of limited understanding. How can objects of such fleeting nature be objects of awareness for us? Is it actually nimatta that is object of awareness, the after image that if I understand correctly is kind of copied and goes on after the objects have risen and fallen away in a flash? I'm thinking that Abhidhamma can only be understood as a model of how the most profoundly developed minds could cognize objects and for the rest of us, it is just theory.
I'm posting this question in this corner because I'd rather not invite responses from people who reject Abhidhamma, or belittle its importance. I'm particularly curious to hear from pt1 (?) who I noticed asked very excellent questions about Abhidhamma at DSG, but who is a meditator. I was impressed by your ability to continue to learn from Nina and others despite differences in attitudes towards practice. Or from Chris or others who are meditators but keen on Abhidhamma as well.
So how do you (all) see Abhidhamma within your practice? What are you finding from it that you don't find fully served by the suttanta? Again, I'm not asking this to dispute Abhidhamma. I'm hoping to have my Abhidhamma studies kick-started again.
Metta,
Phil