The 24 Illustrated Modes of Conditionality and Their Explanations

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

Paññā dāna Preface The Buddha Rays and the Flag of Buddha Sāsanā A Summary of Pathāna The Origin of Pathāna The Emission of Buddha Rays The Place of the First Delivery of Pathāna Desanā How Pathāna Desanā reached the Human World The Wide Expanse of Pathāna Desanā Explanations of Pathāna Desanā by Illustrations The 24 Modes of Conditionality are only a Summary Contemplation of Pathāna is more beneficial than mere recitation The Prophesy of 5,000 Years of the Sāsanā - yes, but ... The Frontline Fortress Excellent Kamma, lofty ñāna and Huge Power About the Author Acknowledgement and References For the Sake Paññā Pārami

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03. The Six Rays of the Buddha and the Flag of the Buddha Sāsanā

The colours on the flag of the Buddha Sāsanā represent the six rays of the Buddha, namely nila (brown, blue), pita (yellow), lohita (red), odāta (white), manjittha (pink), pabhassara (glittering play of all the colours). It was invented out of piety and devotion by one Henry Steele Alcott, a retired colonel of the U.S. Army, himself a Buddhist, and hoisted for the first time as the Flag of the Buddha Sāsanā in Singhaladipa (Sri Lanka) in 1885.

Its acceptance as the Flag of the Buddha Sāsanā was approved by the World Buddhist Conference held in Sri Lanka in 1950. It was hoisted for the first time in Myanmar at the World Peace Pagoda and Sacred Mahāpāsana Cave where the Sixth Buddhist Synod was held in 1956 (1318 BE).

4. The Sacred Book of Pathāna in Brief

The sacred Book of Pathāna deals, in a framework of intricate details, with the various manners of interdependence and interactions (conditioned relations) between the natures of nāma (mind) and rupa (matter or corporeality).

5. The Origin of Pathāna

Before the dawn came on the day after the Full Moon of Kason (May) in the year 103 of the Mahāsakkarāj (Calendar), i.e. BC 589, Prince Siddhattha attained Sabbiññuttañāna (the Enlightenment, or Buddhahood). He is known as Gotama Buddha.

(1) From that day to the 7th waning day of the month, the Buddha spent seven days at Pallingasattāha under the Bodhi Tree in phalasamāpatti absorption .
(2) From the 8th to the 14th waning day of the month, the Buddha spent seven days at a spot, called Animissasattāha, to the north-east of the Bodhi Tree, standing motionless, not making a flicker of movement on the eye-lid, looking at the Mahābodhi Tree and the Seat (Pallinga) he had sat on.
The Tree is symbolic of the hard-earned Sabbiññuttañāna that was the end-result of the fulfillment of the ten Paramis (Perfections of character) that had been performed for four sanches ( each, an innumerable number of world cycles) and a hundred thousand kappas (world cycles). The Buddha, with grateful awareness, was contemplating its contribution to the Sabbiññuta ñāna.

(3) From the last day of Kason to the 6th, for seven days, the Buddha created a walk-way, running East-West, in-between the animissasattāha and the Bodhi Tree, walking without a rest. The Buddha knew that gods and Brahmas were thinking He was attached to the Pallinga in a wrong attitude (kilesa). Only to drive away that suspicion, the Buddha walked to and fro along the walkway without taking a rest.

(4) From the 7th waxing day to the 13th of Nayon (June), at a spot to the north-west of Mahābodhi Tree for seven days, the Buddha sat, cross-legged, in Ratanaghara (the golden house) created by gods, contemplating the Abhidhamma Pitaka (analytical examination of the Buddha's Wisdom). He viewed over mankind's adaptability of the His Wisdom and envisioned the possibility of many who can observe precepts, adapt to practice of concentration, and attain Enlightenment with proper efforts at insight meditation. So, He formulated the Vinaya Pitaka, related to proper moral conduct first. Next concentration-related Sutta Pitaka (Discourses) came. And then it was contemplation of the wisdom-related Abhidhamma Pitaka.

6. The Buddha's Rays

Whilst contemplating the first six volumes of the Abhidhamma Pitaka, namely (1) Dhammasangani, (2) Vibanga, (3) Dhātukathā, (4) Puggalapiññatti, (5) Kathāvatthu, and (6) Yamaka, the capacity of the Buddha's Sabbiññutta ñāna (Omniscience) was so vast, while the methodologies of the Dhamma so far contemplated so narrow, that not all of the Buddha's Wisdom could open up and shine out. But when the seventh volume of the unconfined Wisdom of Pathāna was contemplated (like the way the proverbial Timingla fish that was so huge in size that, only when it had come out of its original habitats of rivers and lakes, it could stretch its body and play freely in great oceanic waters) the Sabbiññuta ñāna opened up joyously and shone outward. This was outwardly displayed in the emission of the Six Rays of light from the body of the Buddha, spreading out in all directions without hindrance or confinement, stretching into the cosmos.

That incident was the climax of the Buddha's unbounded Omnipotence and Omniscience, the result of the paramis (deeds of perfection) fulfilled in the past uncountable eons of time. With the opening-up of the unbounded Wisdom came the unrestricted interplay of the mind and its associates (citta and cetasikas). And there arose a great satisfaction and joy (piti) in the consciousness continuum of the Buddha; the blood in the heart (hadayavatthu) where the mind and its associates dwell became so pure and crystal clear that it glistened with radiance: this initiated the whole blood system together with the flesh, the bones, the sinews and the skin, as well as the dependent rupas, namely the cittaja, kammaja, āhāraja and utuja, but in fact, the whole sacred body of the Buddha to glow and radiate rays of bright light in six wavelengths, in the size of a house or a mountain of cumulus, glittering and shining, traveling their journey through the cosmos, and believed to be still in progress today.

There was no such profoundly dramatic show of the Omniscience before, when other piles of Dhamma were being contemplated. Only during contemplation of the Pathāna the six characteristic Rays of the Buddha came into play. It is the unique property of the Pathāna Dhamma.

7. The Native Place of the Book of Pathāna

The Buddha contemplated the Piles of Pathāna at Ratanāghara; there was no utterance of it by word of mouth there and then yet.
In the 7th Year of Buddhahood, after an exhibition of miracles involving water-and-fire display in pairs coming out from the eyes, ears, nostrils and the mouth at the foot of the white mango tree in Sāvatthi, the Buddha took a trip to Tāvatimsā, the heavenly home of the second-level gods. No one in the audience except Ashin Moggalāna, the Etadagga title-holder for miraculous powers, saw the Buddha take the steps toward Tavatimsā.

Prince Siddattha's mother, Queen Mahāmāyā Devi, passed away seven days after giving birth to the prince, the Bodhisatta, and became a male deva in Tāvatimsā. Because the Buddha wanted to pay back the debt of gratitude to His mother, and because the only people who could listen to the Abhidhamma in one stretch were devas and Brahmas, He delivered the address in the heavenly home; it could not be done to the human audience.

The delivery of the Abhidhamma Pitaka to the audience of the heavenly beings headed by the human-mother-turned-deva took the whole three months of Lent; the non-stop delivery flowed like the incessant downpour of a waterfall.

8. How Pathāna reached the Human world

The Buddha created a Nimmita Buddha (an exact replica of the living Buddha) that carried on expounding the Abhidhamma, and himself descended to the human realm to do daily ablutions, go to water-closet, collect and eat alms-food, and rest for the day. During the day's rest, His Chief Marshal of the Dhamma, Ashin Sāriputtarā, attended to the needs of the Buddha while the Lord delivered a conspectus of the Pathāna in sections that He had been delivering to the gods in Tāvatimsā. The Ashin comprehended the gist of the Abhidhamma in his own various ways of explanation with appropriate commentaries.

The Ashin taught the Abhidhamma, so rendered, to his five hundred disciples (who were once five hundred bats, opportune to have listened to the recitation of Abhidhamma in a cave by bhikkhus of a bygone Buddha's Era). The Pathāna Desanā of the present-day Theravāda Sāsanā is this version, not too short or too long, as rendered by Ashin Sāriputtarā.

Due Respects and References

I bow down with full conviction and confidence, and pay homage to the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, teachers and parents as well as all the scholar sayadaws and laity who had compiled the books of reference as mentioned below.

For the compilation of this booklet, I have heavily depended on the following reference literature: (1) various pocket-size publications on 24 paccayas;

(2) Ashin Janakabhivamsa's "Basic Pathāna Desanā:
(3) (Ministry of Religious Affairs) U Kyaw Htut's "Saddhammajotika Pathāna;
(4) Mahā Buddavamsa Vol. II;
(5) Questions and answers (as available); and etc...

About the Translator (Corrected Version)

Born in 1936, U Nyi is a native of Kyaukse, educated there (Matriculation 1954); studied two years at the University College, Mandalay (1954 to '56); 1st Year Engineering at the University of Rangoon (1956-57); and finished his B.E. degree in Mining at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand in 1961.

A mining engineer by profession, he had worked with Burma Corporation (1951) Ltd., later nationalized as No.1 Mining Enterprise, for 27 years at Bawddwin lead-zinc-silver mine and later at the Monywa Copper Mine, retiring as G.M. in early 1989, and working as a freelance engineer ever since.

His translation works include, Myanmar into English, Min Yu Wai's "Mingalar Tales" and "Dhammapada Stories", Paragu's "Pancawaggi", and English-Myanmar, Roger Bischoff's "Buddhism in Myanmar". His own work is "Introducing Insight Meditation" in English. He had written in his University days some short stories and poetry, and later on, articles on Mining in Ngwetaryi, Myawaddy and several local annual magazines in the Northern Shan State.