Although systems like the Abhidhamma might have had infinitely more relevance…were infinitely more valuable and important before the advent of the commonality of books…still even today many people find them valuable for their understanding of life and mind…and in many ways often they are the source and inspiration of many of the modern books…

In traditional Buddhist countries the Abhidhamma system is very high regarded and for many meditative schools it serves as the basic system and language for delineating and describing the practice (although often admittedly differing in understanding regarding the items of the system).

Examples of application

If you have a name for your condition, you can find a solution for it. You can ask for help in the matter of of it A feeling is experienced…is it rooted in anger, is it rooted in greed, is it rooted in delusion?…. or is it rooted in non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion…

You consider about a certain condition in the body …and parallel with that you consider about a certain mental condition, such as worry, depression..etc…. you might consider about one of these as being pre- or as post-nascened,…that means f.ex. a depression arose before f.ex. a condition of cancer, or it arose thereafter (being caused or causing it)

Purejata (prenascence): a certain mental state existing before a certain type of materiality, producing it (f.ex. negative emotions creating cancer…and making it grow (ahara-paccaya (nutriment-condition)

Pacchajata (postanascence): a certain mental state arising after a certain type of materiality came into existence (f.ex. a negative emotion (worry, anxiety) arises due to cancer, a certain tension, etc.) If certain mental factors, such as mindfulness, energy, etc. are present (atthi- paccaya) certain negative forces (unwholesome mindstates) don’t have the possibility of overpowering the mind

If certain mental factors, such as mindfulness, energy,..etc. are not present (natthipaccaya),…negative forces (unwholesome mindstates) will have the possibility of overpowering the mind. A wholesome (or unwholesome) concept arises in the mind,…if it gets no nutriment (ahara) (of…f.ex. consciousness)….it will disappear by itself (disappearance condition (vigatapaccaya)),…but if it gets nutriment (by f.ex. consciousness applied to it)…nutriment condition (ahara-paccaya),….it can be made a factor of the path (path condition (maggapaccaya))…such as knowledge, right applied thought (vitakka), right view (samma ditthi), right mindfulness…. or if it was an unwholesome concept ….wrong view, wrong application of mind, wrong mindfulness …

Having made a wholistic, spiritual or religious object, the object of the mind, …beautiful mental factors will arise in dependence of (/on)that…(arammana paccaya/ object condition)

A future object (perhaps some event in the future) …relates to a present mental state (of f.ex. worry (kukkucca)) by means of object conditionMatter can influence the body (taking of medicine, suitable food, exercise, breathing…) and mind can influence mind such as when attending to an wholesome object, positive thinking (object condition, proximity condition/contiguity, kamma condition, absence/disappearance condition, repetition condition, association condition.

Dissociating the registering part of the mind, from an unwholesome emotion or thought (by registering things in line with the Dhamma) …will change the habitual direction of the mind (dissociation condition- vippayutta paccaya).

The presence, non-disappearance of certain factors (f.ex. wholesome factors) conditions the absence/non-presence of certain other factors (f.ex. unwholesome mental factors).

Matter conditions Mind through f.ex. the Sense Faculties (Object-condition, Support-condition), through the Body (Hunger, sickness, health, well- being, discomfort…..)….

Thus practically considered, the mind can be influenced by the body (health, bodily actions etc.) as well as by change of environment (association condition),… and the body can be changed by the mind (positive thinking, calmness and peacefulness of mind, attention to certain signs (nimittas) (object condition), active breathing, body sweeping(disappearance condition, association condition).

Temperature born food becomes nutriment for the body, which is a conditioning factor for consciousness-born materiality (Hormones and other endocrine secretions), which in turn influence the kamma-born- material substances like the Faculties and the Nervous system (the endocrine secretions are a condition for the production of nervous energy)

Anger arises…it produces mindborn materiality (hormones)…which in turn conditions further mindstates of anger….but with mindfulness one can change the composition of ones’ blood/make those mindborn materiality cease to spread and thus cease to influence further mindstates (disappearance condition) (mind conditions matter, matter conditions mind -mutuality condition (annamannapaccaya))…a similar thing happens with greed….a beautiful form comes in contact with the eye…perhaps sex materiality² enters the blood-stream (arises)…which is a further condition for the arising of mental states of desire, which arise together/ or produce mind-born matter….which again can be a further condition for mental states to follow…but with the arising of mindfulness….this process can be made to cease…

–> Mindborn materiality containing the essential information of the thought that produced it (/that arose together with it) –> contradictory thoughts and intentions, the struggling with undesirable thoughts and intentions (through meditation and prayer) (force & resistance) –> produces friction –> that produces energy –> that energy contains in it the overriding desire or formatory information of the struggle (kammasatti- kamma-energy) –> of that kammic force it would perhaps be practical to think of containing certain magnetic properties, which attracts to itself, certain resonating conditions, as well as will be attracted to certain conditions of resonating qualities or properties (kamma-condition) –> perhaps after some time the kammic force, or maybe better the ‘force part of the kammic force ‘ is loosing its force (the force cools down).. a remainder energy of longer ‘half-time’….remains as a kind of waste product (perhaps similar to a metal remaining after an ore has been heated) … this may remain in the body for a longer time (cancers etc.) as a latent energy (latent tendency)

Consciousness arises in dependence of a physical bases (although there might be exceptions to that), thus by influencing the base a person can change his state of consciousness….in the same way, the body can equally be influenced by ones state of consciousness,…both for better or for worth….by changing ones consciousness one changes ones’ reality

If one notices certain material qualities within oneself, one can try to find if there are certain corresponding mental states that one does not see (strong pressure, heat etc. might relate f.ex. to anger (sign of anger)….)…and thus one can f.ex. begin to prevent the growth of these states into verbal and physical actions or on the other hand when wholesome, cultivate them (as in the case of the samadhi-nimitta/ sign of calm)

Staying in a certain place…outer events and conditions become objects for the mind …these objects condition mind and mental factors …thus it can be called object condition (arammana-paccaya)

Virtue and the mastery of the environment are a strong supporting cause for the attainment of concentration (the wholesome mentalities of confidence, uprightness, conscience, non-greed and non-hatred function as a strong supporting cause (upanissaya-paccaya) for the attainment of one-pointedness)