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Conditions

Conditional Relations

The detailed descrip­tion of all dham­mas, that is, all cit­tas (con­scious­ness), their accom­pa­ny­ing cetasikas (men­tal fac­tors) and all rupas (phys­i­cal phe­nom­e­na), is found in the Dham­masan­gani — the first book of the canon­i­cal Abhid­ham­ma col­lec­tion. Dham­masan­gani explains which cetasikas accom­pa­ny which cit­tas as well as which rupas arise and how. On the oth­er hand, Dham­masan­gani is not par­tic­u­lar­ly con­cerned with the con­di­tions for the aris­ing of dham­ma. The descrip­tion of these con­di­tions is to be found in the Patthana – the sev­enth and last book of the Abhid­ham­ma collection.


All dham­mas — except Nib­bana — are con­di­tioned. Patthana (also known by the title Con­di­tion­al Rela­tions) describes in detail all con­di­tions for dham­mas to arise and their rela­tions. The expo­si­tion in the Patthana is struc­tured around 24 con­di­tions, list­ed below, and then describes the var­i­ous ways in which these con­di­tions con­nect the men­tal and mate­r­i­al phe­nom­e­na enu­mer­at­ed in the Dhammasangani.

  • 1: Root condition
  • 2: Object condition
  • 3: Predominance condition
  • 4: Proximity condition
  • 5: Contiguity condition
  • 6: Co-nascence condition
  • 7: Mutuality condition
  • 8: Support condition
  • 9: Decisive support condition
  • 10: Pre-nascence condition
  • 11: Post-nascence condition
  • 12: Repetition condition

  • 13: Kamma condition
  • 14: Result condition
  • 15: Nutriment condition
  • 16: Faculty condition
  • 17: Jhana condition
  • 18: Path condition
  • 19: Association condition
  • 20: Dissociation condition
  • 21: Presence condition
  • 22: Absence condition
  • 23: Disappearance condition
  • 24: Non-disappearance condition

No dham­ma aris­es from a sin­gle cause, there will always be mul­ti­ple con­di­tions involved for dham­ma to arise. In any rela­tion­ship, the fol­low­ing three fac­tors will be involved:

  • 1: The con­di­tion­ing states (pac­cayad­ham­ma)
  • 2: The con­di­tion­al­ly arisen states (pac­cayup­pan­nad­ham­ma)
  • 3: The con­di­tion­ing force of the con­di­tion (pac­cayasat­ti)

All that we per­ceive as real­i­ty are con­di­tioned phe­nom­e­na. Noth­ing that aris­es due to con­di­tions is per­ma­nent. Each cit­ta that aris­es and pass­es away is imme­di­ate­ly fol­lowed by anoth­er aris­ing cit­ta. The process­es take place so quick­ly that the ordi­nary mind can­not per­ceive their com­po­nents. Patthana explains how the aris­ing of whole­some or unwhole­some cit­tas in the at any giv­en time cur­rent micro-moment are con­di­tions for the aris­ing of whole­some or unwhole­some cit­tas in the future. The con­tin­u­ous process then leads to whole­some and unwhole­some mind-states of some extend­ed dura­tion are accu­mu­lat­ed and perceived.


Com­ing up next sea­son: Details of the 24 pac­cayas (con­di­tions)


to be con­tin­ued Spring 2025

June 2024.