http://www.buddhismw...4308-Abhidhamma
25 Mar 13, 05:52 #3
Hi ML,
There appear to be mixed views about the Abhidhamma. I seem to remember reading somewhere that the famous Thai teacher Ajahn Buddhadasa said it should be thrown in to the sea!
Regarding Ajah Chah's comments from ''A still Forest Pool " ....{C}The Chicken or the Egg?http://www.what-budd....orest_Pool.htm
During his first visit to England, Achan Chah spoke to many Buddhist groups. One evening after a talk he received a question from a dignified English lady who had spent many years studying the complex cybernetics of the mind according to the eighty-nine classes of consciousness in the Buddhist abhidharma psychology texts. Would he please explain certain of the more difficult aspects of this system of psychology to her so she could continue her study?
Dharma teaches us to let go. But at first, we naturally cling to the principles of Dharma. The wise person takes these principles and uses them as tools to discover the essence of our life.
Sensing how caught up she was in intellectual concepts rather than benefiting from practice in her own heart, Achaan Chah answered her quite directly,
''You, madam, are like one who keeps hens in her yard," he told her, "and goes around picking up the chicken droppings instead of the eggs."
and from Ajahn Sumedho's "Gratitude for Luang Po Chah":
"What impressed me about Luang Por Chah was his emphasis on teaching the Four Noble Truths. I hadn’t come across this before with other teachers, or perhaps I just hadn’t picked it up – there was always a problem around language because I didn’t speak Thai.http://www.forestsan....edho&Itemid=25
Many of the meditation techniques I learned were based on Abhidhamma teaching, which I found very boring. The last thing I wanted to learn was all that incredibly complex Abhidhamma.
I remember going to an Abhidhamma teacher in Bangkok who gave lectures on it in English; I was never so bored in my life. I thought, “That is not what I want from this religion”.
Aloka