The Abhidharma 209
do not always make the best poets, writers, or orators. But just
as the theoretical understanding of language cannot be achieved
without the study of grammar, so the theoretical understand-ing of Buddhism must be based in the study of ,some form of
Abhidharma.
Abhidharma represents the theoretical counterpart to what themeditator actually experiences in meditation. It can be summed
up as the attempt to give a systematic and exhaustive account of
the world in terms of its constituent physical and mental events.
This enterprise has two aspects: first, to categorize all possible
types of event; secondly, to consider all possible ways in which
those mental events can interact and so categorize the various
kinds of causal relationships.
Physical and mental events are known as dharmas (Pali
dhamma). The relationship between Dharma and dharmas might
be stated as follows. Dharma is the way things ultimately are;
it is also the Buddha's teaching since th1s is in accordance with
the way things ultimately are. Physical and mental events are the
ultimate building blocks of the way things ultimately are; thus to
understand the Buddha's teaching and see Dharma is to see things
in terms of dharmas.
Ultimately dharmas are all that there is. In this respect dharmas
are very like atoms (when atoms were regarded as the ulti-
mate 'bits' of matter). Thus just as a table might be analysed by
a chemist as consisting of innumerable atoms, so a person is ana-
lysed by Abhidharma as consisting of innumerable dharmas.
While the analogy of atoms is a useful one, we must always bear
in mind that dharmas embrace both physical and mental things,
not just physical ones. These mental and physical events that are
dharmas fall into various classes. Again this is analogous to the
way atoms are of different types: there are hydrogen atoms, oxy-
gen atoms, lead atoms; gold atoms, a:qd so on. In fact chemistry
tells us that the physical world is constructed out of one hundred
or so basic types of atom. So, just as the wood that makes up a
table can be analysed into atoms of various elements, a person's
mind and body can be analysed into dharmas of various classes.