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The Patthana

The Ancient Book of Quantum Particles

A little more than 100 years ago, the science of physics discovered that all material objects did not actually exist by themselves, but consisted of atoms. Over the following decades, physicists gradually learned that atoms did not exist by themselves either, but consisted of rapidly fluctuating subatomic entities that emerged from the unknown, only to almost instantly disappear again. These discoveries were made by colliding atoms and various composite subatomic entities with each other and analyzing the traces left behind. The traces proved that the colliding particles indeed were composites of even tinier entities, which were named quarks, leptons and bosons.  The laboratory experiments went hand in hand with extensive mathematical calculations that formed the basis of quantum field theory, according to which there is no such thing as stable elementary particles – rather, it is a question of small vibrating packets of not understood basic energy forms.

Photo from deep space
Deep space photo from the Webb space telescope

More than 2000 years ear­li­er, Bud­dhist monks and schol­ars dis­cov­ered and ana­lyzed sim­i­lar phe­nom­e­na and came to very sim­i­lar con­clu­sions. While physi­cists focus on the mate­r­i­al aspects of real­i­ty, neglect­ing the exis­tence of mind and con­scious­ness, Bud­dhist monks and schol­ars explored sim­i­lar phe­nom­e­na with a pri­ma­ry empha­sis on the men­tal and spir­i­tu­al realms. Their dis­cov­er­ies and con­clu­sions were for­mu­lat­ed in the Abhid­ham­ma – a promi­nent part of the canon­i­cal Bud­dhist lit­er­a­ture – of which the Patthana is the sev­enth and final book. 


 

Dham­mas — the ele­men­tary par­ti­cles of Patthana 

The Ther­ava­da coun­ter­part to the term ​‘ele­men­tary par­ti­cle’ is the term ​‘dham­ma’. All things are ulti­mate­ly noth­ing but man­i­fes­ta­tions of dham­mas. There are four dham­ma types named cit­ta, cetasi­ka, rupa, and nib­bana. While not iden­ti­cal by any stretch or in any way, the dham­ma types can be con­sid­ered Patthana coun­ter­parts to quarks, lep­tons, and bosons. Cit­ta, cetasi­ka and rupa dham­mas are con­di­tioned by oth­er things. Nib­bana on the oth­er hand is not con­di­tioned by anything. 


 

Dham­ma types 

  • Cit­ta dham­mas (aware­ness, state of mind, attention) 
  • Cetasi­ka dham­mas (men­tal fac­tors, mind conditioners) 
  • Rupa dham­mas (sub­stance, uncon­scious nature) 
  • Nib­bana dham­ma (absolute peace, total anni­hi­la­tion of crav­ing, aver­sion and delusion) 


 

Cit­ta is con­scious­ness. It is the nature which is capa­ble of know­ing, sens­ing or being aware of objects. Exam­ples of cit­ta include the visu­al con­scious­ness, audi­to­ry con­scious­ness, olfac­to­ry con­scious­ness, gus­ta­to­ry con­scious­ness, tac­tile con­scious­ness, and cog­ni­tive con­scious­ness. Cetasi­ka always aris­es with cit­ta and dis­ap­pears with cit­ta. Exam­ples of cetasikas are irri­ta­tion, anger, hatred, rage, jeal­ousy, crav­ing, igno­rance, depres­sion, fear­less­ness, shame­less­ness, love, attach­ment, cling­ing, con­ceit and many more. Rupa is mate­r­i­al, all mat­ter — solids, liq­uids, gas­es, mol­e­cules, atoms, quarks, lep­tons, etc. is made up of rupa dham­mas. Nib­bana is the ulti­mate real­i­ty — i.e the supreme, fun­da­men­tal, and objec­tive truth under­ly­ing all exis­tence, tran­scend­ing any sen­so­ry perception. 


 

According to Patthana, there are (usually) 89 different citta dhammas, 52 cetasika dhammas, 28 rupa dhammas and 1 nibbana dhamma. In certain advanced meditative states, 32 more citta dhammas may appear. In this section, all of these dhammas and their interactions will be described in more detail.

 

 

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