Bhante, how important is studying the Abhidhamma Pitaka to the practice of vipassana?
Some dismiss it by saying that the Abhidhamma was preached to the Devas and Brahmas and that the Sutta Pitaka is enough for us humans.
Right.
I like to consider that the Tipitaka in its entirety
is really best used by a teacher to pass on the teaching.
A person who reads the Tipitika without a teacher, I would say, whatever Pitika it be, is
in danger of misunderstanding the teachings for so many reasons.
One, of course, is the translation.
So unless you're accessing the Pali, there's always that, that you read a certain translation and it
It can throw you off based on your understanding of the words and the translator's understanding of the Pali and so on.
But the teachings, for example, the suttas can throw you off.
because their design, some of them, many of them were directed at a particular audience and that audience may not be you and it may not be universal.
So some people, I think the Buddha even said this, that some people mistake a specific teaching for a universal teaching and some people mistake a universal teaching for a specific teaching.
and so you say well the Buddha said this and that contradicts this and it can even lead of course to to doubting the Buddha but because you see one in one place he says one thing in another place he seems to say another thing with the Abhidhamma because it's so terse in fact if you study the Abhidhamma
the potential for misunderstanding is great.
Mostly I would say the potential for getting lost is great and getting discouraged and giving up.
So long story short, I wouldn't put too much emphasis on the importance of studying Abhidhamma unless you're a teacher who has been given the teachings by a teacher yourself and is interested in using these teachings to explain
some of the experiences that come up in meditation, which the Abhidhamma is able to do.
It's able to categorize and help us to stay on the straight and narrow.
So it is possible that they work together in this way, most especially for a teacher, because where the Sutta Pitaka is vague and inexact, the Abhidhamma can sharpen it up.
and so they can work together and I guess if I was going to say anything that the three Pittaikas should or do work very well together obviously many people say that Abhidhamma is not even the Buddha's teaching some people say it goes against the Buddha's teaching even but I would say it complements the suttas quite nicely because if you just read the suttas you're reading talks that the Buddha gave to audiences
If you read the Abhidhamma, you're reading theory, very specific and exact theory.
Now whether you agree with that theory or believe it was the Buddha's theory, that's another thing.
And the Vinaya, of course, without the Vinaya, just reading the suttas without the Vinaya,
deprives you of the base of morality, which is essential for keeping you on the right track and making sure that the meditation that you do cultivate is grounded in wholesomeness, which the Vinaya Pitika does.
So I would say if you're going to read them all, but don't certainly rely on the Pitika, much more rely on
well maybe not much more but at least as much rely on the teacher because then of course the other problem is how do you know that the teacher is going by the Buddha's teaching?
There's no easy answer to that but of course your question was simply the importance of studying the Abhidhamma where is its place I would say in helping to
straighten or direct the sutta pittika and keep it from running astray because you've got categories and you've got lots of very specific and exact guidelines for what is real and what fits where, what is wholesome, what is unwholesome and so on and so on.
There's very strict guidelines that allow you to answer some of the questions that are posed by the sutta pittika, for example.
But in studying vipassana, not really important unless you don't have a teacher.
If you don't have a teacher at all, then all you've got is the
The Tipitaka, I would say, all three of them go together and have an equal importance, or have an importance, how equal it is I can't say, but are important and it seems to me fairly equal, the importance of the three.
I think if you give up the Abhidhamma, you're running in danger of the ambiguity of the suttas.