Namo Tassa Bhagavatho Arahatho Samma Sambuddhassa ......
(Homage to The Blessed One, Worthy, and Fully Self-Enlightened...)
Vichitta Mathi Gambhira-Manantha Naya Mandithan
Pattanan Sammasanthassa-Wimala Mitha Buddhiya,
Yassa Deha Nikkhaminsu-Subha Jabbanna Ransio
Neela Peetha Ratta Setha-Manjittha Pabassara,
Than Lokanathathan Sugathan-Dhammancha Jina Sevithan
Sangha Niranganan Settang-Namami Sirasa Daran.
The Buddha’s body and mind were so purified when he pondered on the Book of Relations - Patthana, the seventh treatise of the Abhidhamma, that six-coloured rays emitted from his body. I pay homage with my head to the Fully Self-Enlightened and Blessed One. I pay homage with my head to the Dhamma (teachings) of the Blessed One and I also pay homage with my head to the Sangha (Disciples of the Buddha.
Reciting and listening to the Patthana is very important. It makes our minds calm, peaceful and serene. Patthana chanting also protects us all around, warding off dangers, calamities and disasters and bringing in success, prosperity, good health, peace and harmony. Chanting and listening to the Patthana also helps us repeat our reflections on them, preventing our minds from unwholesome and evil tendencies related to greed, hatred and delusion. Chanting Patthana guide us to reflect on the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha and thus gain true understanding of the path to Peace and Happiness.
Head of the Abhidhamma Department of International Theravada Institute Ven Deniyaye Upasama Thera said that it is beneficial for every Buddhist to recite daily at least a few verses from the Patthana Vandanā, recalling the sublime qualities of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha.
Patthanappakarana
Ven. Upasama Thera has studied the Abhidhamma with specialisation in the Patthanappakarana, the seventh and most profound book in the basket of Abhidhamma and had taught Abhidhamma in Burmese language in Myanmar and also in Sinhala at several Sri Lankan monastic education institutes. He is arguably the best academic in the field of Patthana studies in Sri Lanka.
“Listening to Patthana can even bring an animal to nibbana,”. Referring to the story about the hanging bats in a cave where a monk was meditating and reciting the Patthāna, Venerable Thera said that there were 500 wild bats living in a dark cave during Kassapa Sammasambuddha’s time. Two Theras in the cave too, recite Abhidhamma scriptures, question each other, discuss Abhidhamma. These bats, though not knowing human language, caught the voice of recitation and listened to it. Every day when the two Theras recite Abhidhamma, these bats stop all their work and listen to the voice attentively and grew fond of it. Eventually, these 500 bats died. They were reborn as 500 mighty Devas. When These 500 Devas investigated their cause of rebirth, they found out that it was the Abhidhamma recitation that caused this Heavenly rebirth.
It was due to their acquired interest and faith in that Abhidhamma voice, instilled peace and merits in their minds. There in heaven, these 500 Devas made an aspiration that in lives coming to be, they would fulfill the Paramitas and become the Receivers and Masters of Abhidhamma teachings taught by the Buddha. Eventually after many lives, they were reborn as 500 disciples of Arahant Sariputta Thera. Having learned Abhidhamma from Arahant Sariputta Thera, these 500 disciples too attained Arahantship.
Concentration
“If we can recite the Patthana, we can concentrate on all things. Normally, we think about this or that. And we are quite occupied with our work load, job related things, and emotions, but when we recite the Patthana, we can focus on the nature of the dhamma, the conditions. If we do good deeds we will get good returns or things like that. We also feel secure, during the recitation and after the recitation,” he said.
Some lay people, hearing the Patthāna and the words altered their moods, or restored a sense of personal calm or strength.
Patthana belongs to the “higher teachings” of the Buddha, the Abhidhamma of Theravada Buddhism. The term “Patthana” (Pali) is composed of the prefix “pa,” various, and “thāna,” cause or condition; thus, Patthāna means “various causes or conditions,” or “a system of relations.” Patthana is usually translated as “conditional relations.”
The Patthana, the last and most complex volume of the Abhidhamma, is envisioned as a keystone in the long-term preservation of the Buddha’s teachings, which are also understood to inevitably disappear. As a result of these conditions and understandings, a popular ritualised and amplified recitation of this difficult text has been developed to maintain the text’s presence in popular consciousness.
This is a conscientious move by Burmese Buddhist practitioners to create opportunities for people to hear the Buddha’s teachings, while also providing merit for all of the people involved in the production of the ritualised recitation, including the listeners. The accrual of this merit can provide for a better rebirth, for example, in a time when the future Buddha returns to earth and restores these teachings to humans once again.
Significance of sound
The amplified practices of this festival drew my attention to the significance of sound in the role of place making, not only at the sites of these festivals but also within the monastery I stayed at while completing fieldwork for this thesis. That is, I found sound and a sensibility of sound to be a critical means by which individual and collective memory makes sense and place out of experience. In this iii Burmese Buddhist cosmological context, sensing sound was an avenue by which to preserve the Buddha’s teachings, accrue merit, obtain enlightenment, and expand the sacred space of effective practice.
According to Theravada tradition, the essence of the Abhidhamma was formulated by the Buddha during the fourth week after his Enlightenment. The fourth week, the Buddha spent in a jewelled chamber (Rathana - ghara) contemplating the intricacies of the Abhidhamma. Buddha’s body and mind were so purified when he pondered on the Book of Relations, Patthana the seventh treatise of the Abhidhamma, which six coloured rays emitted from his body.
The Abhidhamma stands as an essential pillar of the classical Theravada Buddhist thought. The Abhidhamma Piþaka is one of the divisions of the Pali Canon recognised by Theravada Buddhism as the authoritative recession of the Buddha’s teachings. This canon was compiled at the three great Buddhist councils held in India in the early centuries following the Buddha’s demise: the first, at Rájagaha, convened three months after the Buddha’s Parinibbana by five hundred senior monks under the leadership of the Elder Mahakassapa; the second, at Vesali, a hundred years later; and the third, at Pataliputta, two hundred years later.
Tripitaka
The canon that emerged from these councils, preserved in Pali, is known as the Tripitaka, the three “baskets” or collections of the teachings. The first collection, the Vinaya Pitaka, is the book of discipline, containing the rules of conduct for the bhikkhus and bhikkhunis—the monks and nuns—and the regulations governing the Sangha, the monastic order. The Sutta Pitaka, the second collection, brings together the Buddha’s discourses spoken by him on various occasions during his active ministry of forty-five years.
And the third collection is the Abhidhamma Piþaka, the “basket” of the Buddha’s “higher” or “special” doctrine. This third great division of the Pali Canon bears a distinctly different character from the other two divisions.
Whereas the Suttas and Vinaya serve an obvious practical purpose, namely, to proclaim a clear-cut message of deliverance and to lay down a method of personal training, the Abhidhamma Piþaka presents the appearance of an abstract and highly technical systemisation of the doctrine. The collection consists of seven books: the Dhammasangani, the Vibhanga, the Dhatukatha, the Puggalapannatti, the Kathavatthu, the Yamaka, and the Patthana.
Unlike the Suttas, these are not records of discourses and discussions occurring in real-life settings; they are, rather, full-blown treatises in which the principles of the doctrine have been methodically organised, minutely defined, and meticulously tabulated and classified. Though they were no doubt originally composed and transmitted orally and only written down later, with the rest of the canon in the first century B.C., they exhibit the qualities of structured thought and rigorous consistency more typical of written documents.
Great Treatise
The Patthana, the “Book of Conditional Relations,” is probably the most important work of the Abhidhamma Pitaka and thus is traditionally designated the “Great Treatise” (mahapakaraoa). Gigantic in extent as well as in substance, the book comprises five volumes totalling 2,500 pages in the Burmese-script Sixth Council edition. The purpose of the Patthana is to apply its scheme of twenty-four conditional relations to all the phenomena incorporated in the Abhidhamma matrix. The main body of the work has four great divisions: origination according to the positive method, according to the negative method, according to the positive-negative method, and according to the negative-positive method.
“Hetupaccayo, ārammanapaccayo, adhipatipaccayo, anantarapaccayo, samanantarapaccayo, sahajātapaccayo, aññamaññapaccayo, nissayapaccayo, upanissayapaccayo, purejātapaccayo, pacchājātapaccayo, āsevanapaccayo, kammapaccayo, vipākapaccayo, āhārapaccayo, indriyapaccayo, jhānapaccayo, maggapaccayo, sampayuttapaccayo, vippayuttapaccayo, atthipaccayo, natthipaccayo, vigatapaccayo, avigatapaccayoti.”
The 24 modes of conditional relations
1. Hetu-paccayo - root condition
2. ârammaõa-paccayo
- object condition
3. Adhipati-paccayo
- predominance condition
4. Anantara-paccayo
- proximity condition
5. Samanantara-paccayo
- contiguity condition
6. Sahajàta-paccayo
- co-nascence condition
7. Arammana-paccayo
- mutuality condition
8. Nissaya-paccayo - support condition
9. Upanissaya-paccayo
- decisive support condition
10. Purejàta-paccayo
- pre-nascence condition
11. Pacchàjàta-paccayo
- post-nascence condition
12. Asevana-paccayo
- repetition condition
13. Kamma-paccayo
- karma condition
14. Vipàka-paccayo
- karma result condition
15. âhàra-paccayo
- nutriment condition
16. Indriya-paccayo - faculty condition
17. Jhàna-paccayo - jhàna condition
18. Magga-paccayo - path condition
19. Sampayutta-paccayo
- association condition
20. Vippayutta-paccayo
- dissociation condition
21. Atthi-paccayo - presence condition
22. Natthi-paccayo - absence condition
23. Vigata-paccayo
- separation condition
24. Avigata-paccayo
- non-separation condition.
Each of these in turn has six sub-divisions: origination of triads, of dyads, of dyads and triads combined, of triads and dyads combined, of triads and triads combined, and of dyads and dyads combined.
Within this pattern of 24 sections, the 24 modes of conditionality are applied in due order to all the phenomena of existence in all their conceivable permutations. Despite its dry and tabular format, even from a “profane” humanistic viewpoint, the Patthana can easily qualify as one of the truly monumental products of the human mind, astounding in its breadth of vision, its rigorous consistency, and its painstaking attention to detail. To Theravada belief, it is the most eloquent testimony to the Buddha’s unimpeded knowledge of omniscience.