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Abhidhamma Studies: Buddhist Explorations of Consciousness and Time (book review) Nyanaponika Thera, Nyanaponika Thera

if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com


230514: I do not claim to understand it all, but what I do get is fantastic. this is sort of the opposite of [book:Beyond the Self|7201886], in the sense it is dense, academic, scholarly- and obviously not intended for casual perusal. this is a lot of strenuous fun for my intellect. this is perhaps the wrong way to fully appreciate the Abhidamma, too abstract, not practiced, not mediated on. not, I feel, placed fully in context of buddhist culture, history, literature, the books of the Abidhamma, other books, commentaries, disagreements...


if I had grown up in buddhist culture I might be less entranced. I might have viewed the Pali in which these discourses are written no more interesting than Medieval Latin. on the other, I might have been more educated to understand ways of thought eg. comparison of western psychology with complexes, fixations, neurosis, on the way to creating healthy ordinary human, versus buddhist psychology with none of these, with awareness of emptiness, transience, on the way to liberation. this difference is clear in [book:Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the Path of Liberation|25656467] philosophy in the buddhist sense is at least as different as in [book:Buddhism: A Philosophical Approach|18443946]...


this book outlines the first books of Abhidamma (dhammasanangi) is concerned with the doctrine of non-self, then in support detailed analysis of moments of consciousness. the next books with 'conditioning' or relative aspects of these minute, tabulated, named moments. there are pentad of sense-contact, factors of absorption, faculties, powers, path factors, wholesome roots, ways of action, guardians of the world, six pairs of qualitative factors, helpers, paired combination, last dyad, supplementary factors, all intertwined. there is level of analytic logic that certainly emphatically reinforces buddhist thought and awareness. after this list comes the second book (pathana) . in which the buddha asserts the method of induction to help clarify his claims. in no way does he ever aver to metaphysics. this is very practical, immediate sense of instruction: phase one is contemplation of phenomena appearing in oneself, phenomena appearing in others, combination of both. phase two is phenomena arising, phenomena passing away, combination of two. we must advance both the analytical and synthetical sids of our awareness. this is the middle way...


I have read this through once: the second time I went from section to section as inspired. this is not buddhism as religion but as philosophy and psychology. this is what I want. perhaps I will read it again, it is from u library, or even buy it. it interests me in the complex, completely other structure of phil-Indic-buddhism. be patient. be generous with your own errors in thought or prejudices. read. probably helps if you meditate. or just enjoy thinking...


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