The Abhidhamma in your daily life

Do you find that you can verify the Abhidhamma in your daily life?

It was a great discovery for me to find that the Abhidhamma can be verified in daily life, although o­ne can in the beginning experience o­nly part of the realities the Abhidhamma explains.

At first o­ne might think that the Abhidhamma is too subtle and o­ne might doubt whether it is useful to study the many different degrees of ignorance and wisdom, but o­ne learns that each of these different degrees brings its corresponding result. In studying the Abhidhamma o­ne learns to understand more about other people as well. o­ne learns that people are different because of different accumulations of experiences in the past. Because of these different accumulations people behave differently. At each moment o­ne accumulates new experiences and this conditions what o­ne will be like and what o­ne will experience in the future.

When we understand more about the different accumulations of different people, we are less inclined to judge other people. When we see people paying respect to the Buddha with apparently very little understanding we know that their accumulations are thus and that they are performing a wholesome act according to their ability.