Twenty-Four Ways One Thing Conditions Another
This page carries Ru-Yi's complete translation of the Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha's eighth chapter, Paccayasaṅgahavibhāga ("The Compendium of Conditionality") — the theoretical summit of the whole work. Two methods are given in full: the familiar twelve-link formula of dependent arising, and the Paṭṭhāna's twenty-four conditional relations, which the root text itself organizes not condition-by-condition but by six kinds of relata — mind conditioning mind, mind conditioning mind-and-matter, and so on — before reducing all twenty-four to four master conditions. The chapter closes with an account of concepts (paññatti), the one topic outside the four ultimate realities this whole translation has been building toward since Chapter 1. Translated in full, with the Pāli alongside our English, closing with the chapter's own colophon.
Translation Method
The Pāli source is the Pali Text Society's critical edition of the Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha, edited by Ven. Hammalawa Saddhātissa, cross-checked against the Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana (Sixth Council) romanized text maintained by the Vipassana Research Institute (VRI, tipitaka.org) for internal consistency.
The English translation is Ru-Yi's own, made directly from the Pāli. No existing English translation is consulted, paraphrased, or used as a guide for wording or structure — including Bhikkhu Bodhi's copyrighted A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma, the standard modern edition of this text. That volume's charts for this chapter (Tables 8.1–8.4), including the "synthesis of conditions" diagram, are editorial apparatus — several drawn, per its own editorial note, from other sources — not part of Anuruddha's root text. This page follows the root text's own organizing structure directly rather than reproducing any published table.
Reading notes are grounded only in the chapter's own internal structure and its cross-references to earlier chapters. Each translated passage also carries a short vocabulary list for readers learning Pāli alongside the text.
Two Methods for One Question
Having spent seven chapters establishing what exists, the author turns to how one existent conditions another — announcing two complementary methods before giving either in detail.
Yesaṃ sankhatadhammānaṃ ye dhammā paccayā yathā
Taṃ vibhāgam ih'edāni pavakkhāmi yathārahaṃ.
I shall now speak here, in a fitting way, of the analysis of which conditioned states have which states as their conditions, and in what manner.
Paṭiccasamuppādanayo paṭṭhānanayo cā ti paccayasangaho duvidho veditabbo.
Tattha tabbhāvabhāvībhāvākāramattopalakkhito paṭiccasamuppādanayo. Paṭṭhānanayo pana āhaccapaccayaṭṭhitim ārabbha pavuccati. Ubhayaṃ pana vomissitvā papañcenti ācariyā.
The compendium of conditionality should be understood as twofold: the method of dependent arising, and the method of conditional relations.
Of these, the method of dependent arising is marked simply by the mode of one state's coming-to-be in dependence on the being of another. The method of conditional relations, however, is spoken of with reference to the specific, striking efficacy of the conditions. Teachers, however, elaborate the two intermixed.
dependent arising — paṭicca ("dependent on") + samuppāda ("arising"). The familiar Sutta formula, describing only that one state's mere occurrence follows another's.
conditional relations — the seventh and final book of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, which this chapter's second method draws from; unlike dependent arising, it specifies the particular causal force (satti) at work in each relation, not merely the sequence.
a famously terse phrase — literally something like "the striking-establishment of the condition" — glossed by later commentators as pointing to a condition's own specific mode of efficacy, beyond bare sequence.
The Method of Dependent Arising
The chapter first gives the familiar twelve-link formula in full — the same sequence found throughout the Suttas, here presented as the complete method before the more technical Paṭṭhāna analysis begins.
- Avijjāpaccayā sankhārā,
- sankhārapaccayā viññāṇaṃ,
- viññāṇapaccayā nāmarūpaṃ,
- nāmarūpapaccayā saḷāyatanaṃ,
- saḷāyatanapaccayā phasso,
- phassapaccayā vedanā,
- vedanāpaccayā taṇhā,
- taṇhāpaccayā upādānaṃ,
- upādānapaccayā bhavo,
- bhavapaccayā jāti,
- jātipaccayā jarāmaraṇa-soka-parideva-dukkha-domass'-upāyāsā sambhavanti.
Evam etassa kevalassa dukkhakkhandhassa samudayo hotī ti. Ayam ettha paṭiccasamuppādanayo.
- Dependent on ignorance, kammic formations [arise];
- dependent on kammic formations, consciousness;
- dependent on consciousness, mind-and-matter;
- dependent on mind-and-matter, the six sense bases;
- dependent on the six sense bases, contact;
- dependent on contact, feeling;
- dependent on feeling, craving;
- dependent on craving, clinging;
- dependent on clinging, existence;
- dependent on existence, birth;
- dependent on birth, arise decay-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair.
Thus arises this entire mass of suffering. Herein, this is the method of dependent arising.
ignorance — identical with the cetasika delusion (moha); in the Abhidhamma method specifically non-knowledge of eight things: the Four Noble Truths, the pre-natal past, the post-mortem future, both together, and dependent arising itself.
kammic formations — here the twenty-nine mundane wholesome-and-unwholesome volitions, traditionally divided into meritorious, demeritorious, and imperturbable (immaterial-jhāna) formations.
mind-and-matter — the mental factors and kamma-produced matter that arise together with resultant consciousness; conditions mind alone in the immaterial realms, matter alone for non-percipient beings.
This formula is the same twelve links familiar from the Suttas, but the chapter's own gloss — "the mere occurrence of a state in dependence on some other state" — is doing real conceptual work: it explicitly denies that any single link is a sole, sufficient cause of the next. The commentarial definition cited alongside it, "the arising of effects evenly in dependence on a conjunction of conditions," makes the same point from the other direction — a whole cluster of supporting conditions is always operating beneath each named link, and the twelve-term chain simply names the most salient member of each cluster. This is exactly the gap the second method, the Paṭṭhāna's twenty-four conditions, exists to fill in.
The Twenty-Four Conditions
The chapter names all twenty-four conditional relations of the Paṭṭhāna at once — then, rather than defining them one by one in this order, reorganizes the entire exposition around six kinds of relata.
(1) Hetupaccayo, (2) ārammaṇapaccayo, (3) adhipatipaccayo, (4) anantarapaccayo, (5) samanantarapaccayo, (6) sahajātapaccayo, (7) aññamaññapaccayo, (8) nissayapaccayo, (9) upanissayapaccayo, (10) purejātapaccayo, (11) pacchājātapaccayo, (12) āsevanapaccayo, (13) kammapaccayo, (14) vipākapaccayo, (15) āhārapaccayo, (16) indriyapaccayo, (17) jhānapaccayo, (18) maggapaccayo, (19) sampayuttapaccayo, (20) vippayuttapaccayo, (21) atthipaccayo, (22) natthipaccayo, (23) vigatapaccayo, (24) avigatapaccayo ti ayam ettha paṭṭhānanayo.
(1) Root condition, (2) object condition, (3) predominance condition, (4) proximity condition, (5) contiguity condition, (6) conascence condition, (7) mutuality condition, (8) support condition, (9) decisive-support condition, (10) prenascence condition, (11) postnascence condition, (12) repetition condition, (13) kamma condition, (14) result condition, (15) nutriment condition, (16) faculty condition, (17) jhāna condition, (18) path condition, (19) association condition, (20) dissociation condition, (21) presence condition, (22) absence condition, (23) disappearance condition, (24) non-disappearance condition: this, herein, is the method of conditional relations.
the conditioning force — the specific power by which a given condition actually operates; compared to the heat inherent in a chili pepper, inseparable from the pepper itself.
Rather than proceeding straight through these twenty-four in the order just given, the root text immediately pivots to a different organizing principle: it classifies every conditioning and conditioned state as mind (nāma), matter (rūpa), or the two conjoined, then works through their six possible permutations — mind conditioning mind, mind conditioning mind-and-matter, mind conditioning matter, matter conditioning mind, concepts-and-mind-and-matter conditioning mind, and mind-and-matter conditioning mind-and-matter. Each of the twenty-four conditions above gets folded into whichever of these six permutations it actually belongs to; several appear in more than one.
The Synthesis — Mind as Condition for Mind
The synthesis proper opens with a verse announcing all six permutations and their total count (6+5+1+1+2+9 = 24), then works through them one at a time, beginning with mind conditioning mind — sixfold.
Chadhā nāman tu nāmassa pañcadhā nāmarūpinaṃ
Ekadhā puna rūpassa rūpaṃ nāmassa c'ekadhā.
Paññattināmarūpāni nāmassa duvidhā dvayaṃ
Dvayassa navadhā cā ti chabbidhā paccayā—kathaṃ?
Mind is a condition for mind in six ways; for mind-and-matter, in five ways. Again, for matter in one way, and matter for mind in one way. Concepts and mind-and-matter are a condition for mind in two ways; and mind-and-matter for mind-and-matter, in nine ways. Thus the conditions are sixfold. How?
Anantaraniruddhā cittacetasikā dhammā paccuppannānaṃ cittacetasikānaṃ dhammānaṃ anantara-samanantara-natthivigatavasena; purimāni javanāni pacchimānaṃ javanānaṃ āsevanavasena; sahajātā cittacetasikā dhammā aññamaññaṃ sampayuttavasenā ti chadhā nāmaṃ nāmassa paccayo hoti.
Consciousness and mental factors that have just ceased are a condition for present consciousness and mental factors, by way of proximity, contiguity, absence, and disappearance. Preceding javanas are a condition for subsequent javanas by way of repetition. Conascent consciousness and mental factors are a condition for one another by way of association. In these six ways, mind is a condition for mind.
| Relation | Condition(s) |
|---|---|
| Just-ceased mind → present mind | proximity, contiguity, absence, disappearance (4 names, 1 relation) |
| Preceding javana → subsequent javana | repetition |
| Conascent mind → conascent mind | association |
proximity and contiguity — nearly synonymous, differing mainly in emphasis: proximity stresses that nothing intervenes, contiguity that the succession follows the mind's own fixed order; even an Arahant's death consciousness fails this condition, since nothing follows it.
repetition — from āsevati, "to cultivate, practise." Each javana in a run strengthens the next of the same ethical quality, "as a student grows more proficient through repeated study"; a path citta never itself becomes this condition, since it is followed only by resultant fruition, not another javana of its own kind.
associated — the same four-mark bond from Chapter 2's opening definition of a cetasika (common arising, ceasing, object, base), here doing double duty as a named condition in its own right.
The Synthesis — Mind Conditioning Mind-Matter, Matter, and the Reverse
Three shorter permutations follow: mind conditioning mind-and-matter together (five ways), mind conditioning matter alone (one way — postnascence), and matter conditioning mind alone (one way — prenascence).
Hetu-jhānanga-maggangāni sahajātānaṃ nāmarūpānaṃ hetādivasena; sahajātā cetanā sahajātānaṃ nāmarūpānaṃ; nānākkhaṇikā cetanā kammābhinibbattānaṃ nāmarūpānaṃ kammavasena; vipākakkhandhā aññamaññaṃ sahajātānaṃ rūpānaṃ vipākavasenā ti ca pañcadhā nāmaṃ nāmarūpānaṃ paccayo hoti.
Roots, jhāna factors, and path factors are a condition for conascent mind-and-matter, by way of root and so forth. Conascent volition is a condition for conascent mind-and-matter [by way of kamma]; volition at a different moment, for mind-and-matter brought about by kamma, by way of kamma. The resultant aggregates are a condition for one another and for conascent matter, by way of result. In these five ways, mind is a condition for mind-and-matter.
Pacchājātā cittacetasikā dhammā purejātassa imassa kāyassa pacchājātavasenā ti ekadhā va nāmaṃ rūpassa paccayo hoti.
Cha vatthūni pavattiyaṃ sattannaṃ viññāṇadhātūnaṃ; pañc'ālambanāni ca pañcaviññāṇavīthiyā purejātavasenā ti ekadhā va rūpaṃ nāmassa paccayo hoti.
Only in one way is mind a condition for matter: subsequently-arisen consciousness and mental factors are a condition for this previously-arisen [material] body, by way of postnascence.
Only in one way is matter a condition for mind: the six bases, during the course of existence, are a condition for the seven consciousness-elements; and the five objects, for the process of fivefold sense-consciousness — [both] by way of prenascence.
postnascence — a later citta supports an already-arisen material body "as later rainfall promotes the growth of already-existing vegetation"; this begins with the first bhavaṅga supporting the kamma-born matter of rebirth-linking.
prenascence — matter that has already reached the stage of presence conditions a later-arising mind, "as the sun, having already risen, gives light to those who appear after it."
The "five ways" for mind-conditioning-mind-and-matter quietly folds the whole of Chapter 3's root-and-hetu analysis back into this chapter's framework: the six roots, seven jhāna factors, and path factors from Chapter 7 condition their conascent mind-and-matter simply by being present as roots — the same firmness-imparting function Chapter 3 first described them by. Nothing new is claimed about roots here; the Paṭṭhāna is simply naming, as a formal condition, a relationship the text has already established twice before.
The Synthesis — Concepts and Mind-Matter Conditioning Mind
The fifth permutation admits, for the first time in this chapter, that mind can be conditioned not only by other real phenomena but by concepts — in two ways: as object, and as decisive support.
Ārammaṇavasena upanissayavasenā ti ca duvidhā paññatti nāmarūpāni nāmass'eva paccayā honti.
Tattha rūpādivasena chabbidhaṃ hoti ārammaṇaṃ.
Upanissayo pana tividho hoti: ārammaṇūpanissayo, anantarūpanissayo, pakatūpanissayo cā ti. Tatth'ālambanam eva garukataṃ ārammaṇūpanissayo. Anantaraniruddhā cittacetasikā dhammā anantarūpanissayo. Rāgādayo pana dhammā saddhādayo ca sukhaṃ dukkhaṃ puggalo bhojanaṃ utu senāsanañ ca yathārahaṃ ajjhattañ ca bahiddhā ca kusalādidhammānaṃ kammaṃ vipākānan ti ca bahudhā hoti pakatūpanissayo.
Concepts and mind-and-matter are conditions for mind alone in two ways: by way of object, and by way of decisive support.
Herein, the object is sixfold, as visible form and the rest.
Decisive support, however, is threefold: object decisive support, proximity decisive support, and natural decisive support. Of these, the object itself, when given weight, is object decisive support. Consciousness and mental factors that have just ceased are proximity decisive support. But lust and the like, faith and the like, pleasure, pain, a person, food, season, and lodging — internal and external, as fits the case — [each] a condition for wholesome states and the rest; and kamma, likewise, a condition for its results: this, in its many forms, is natural decisive support.
decisive support — a strong, weighty form of dependence, threefold: tied to a compelling object, to an immediately-preceding mental state, or — most broadly — to any past state at all (pakatūpanissaya, "natural decisive support") strong enough to influence what arises much later.
natural decisive support — the widest of all twenty-four conditions in scope: prior lust conditioning a later act of theft, prior faith conditioning a later act of generosity, even climate or lodging conditioning a state of mind, so long as the influence is strong enough.
This is the first point in the entire Saṅgaha where a concept (paññatti) — something the text will insist, in its very last section, has no ultimate reality at all — is formally admitted as a condition. The object condition's sixfold list includes the mental-object base, which by Chapter 7's own accounting includes concepts. A concept cannot be conditioned (nothing produces or sustains a concept, since it never truly arises), but it can condition — an object needs no reality of its own to shape the mind that takes it up.
The Synthesis — Mind-Matter Conditioning Mind-Matter, in Nine Ways
The sixth and largest permutation — mind-and-matter conditioning mind-and-matter — gathers nine further conditions, each given its own brief formula.
Adhipati-sahajāta-aññamañña-nissaya-āhāra-indriya-vippayutta-atthi-avigatavasenā ti yathārahaṃ navadhā nāmarūpāni nāmarūpānaṃ paccayā bhavanti.
By way of predominance, conascence, mutuality, support, nutriment, faculty, dissociation, presence, and non-disappearance — in these nine ways, as fits the case, mind-and-matter is a condition for mind-and-matter.
Tattha garukataṃ ālambanaṃ ālambanādhipativasena nāmānaṃ sahajātādhipati catubbidho pi sahajātavasena sahajātānaṃ nāmarūpānan ti ca duvidho hoti adhipatipaccayo.
Cittacetasikā dhammā aññamaññaṃ sahajātarūpānañ ca, mahābhūtā aññamaññaṃ upādārūpānañ ca, paṭisandhikkhaṇe vatthu-vipākā aññamaññan ti ca tividho hoti sahajātapaccayo.
Cittacetasikā dhammā aññamaññaṃ, mahābhūtā aññamaññaṃ paṭisandhikkhaṇe vatthu-vipākā aññamaññan ti ca tividho hoti aññamaññapaccayo.
Cittacetasikā dhammā aññamaññaṃ sahajātarūpānañ ca mahābhūtā aññamaññaṃ upādārūpānañ ca cha vatthūni sattannaṃ viññāṇadhātūnan ti ca tividho hoti nissayapaccayo.
Predominance condition is twofold: a weighted object [is a condition] for mind by way of object-predominance; the fourfold conascent predominance [is a condition] for conascent mind-and-matter by way of conascence.
Conascence condition is threefold: consciousness and mental factors, for one another and for conascent matter; the great essentials, for one another and for derived matter; the base and the resultants, for one another at the moment of rebirth-linking.
Mutuality condition is threefold: consciousness and mental factors, for one another; the great essentials, for one another; the base and the resultants, for one another at the moment of rebirth-linking.
Support condition is threefold: consciousness and mental factors, for one another and for conascent matter; the great essentials, for one another and for derived matter; the six bases, for the seven consciousness-elements.
Kabaḷīkāro āhāro imassa kāyassa, arūpino āhārā sahajātānaṃ nāmarūpānan ti ca duvidho hoti āhārapaccayo.
Pañcapasādā pañcannaṃ viññāṇānaṃ, rūpajīvitindriyaṃ upādinnarūpānaṃ, arūpino indriyā sahajātānaṃ nāmarūpānan ti ca tividho hoti indriyapaccayo.
Okkantikkhaṇe vatthu vipākānaṃ, cittacetasikā dhammā sahajātarūpānaṃ sahajātavasena, pacchājātā cittacetasikā dhammā purejātassa imassa kāyassa pacchājātavasena, cha vatthūni pavattiyaṃ sattannaṃ viññāṇadhātūnaṃ purejātavasenā ti ca tividho hoti vippayuttapaccayo.
Sahajātaṃ purejātaṃ pacchājātaṃ ca sabbathā
Kabaḷīkāro āhāro rūpajīvitam icc'ayan ti.
Pañcavidho hoti atthipaccayo avigatapaccayo ca.
Nutriment condition is twofold: edible food, for this body; the immaterial nutriments, for conascent mind-and-matter.
Faculty condition is threefold: the five sensitivities, for the five [kinds of] consciousness; the material life faculty, for matter born of kamma; the immaterial faculties, for conascent mind-and-matter.
Dissociation condition is threefold: at the moment of rebirth-linking, the base and the resultants, [conascent]; consciousness and mental factors, for conascent matter, by way of conascence; postnascent consciousness and mental factors, for this prenascent body, by way of postnascence; the six bases, during the course of existence, for the seven consciousness-elements, by way of prenascence.
Conascence, prenascence, postnascence in every way; edible food; and materiality-as-life — presence condition and non-disappearance condition are thus fivefold.
| # | Condition | Principal formula |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Predominance | weighted object → mind; one of 4 predominants → conascent mind-matter |
| 2 | Conascence | mind ↔ conascent matter; great essentials ↔ derived matter; base ↔ rebirth-resultants |
| 3 | Mutuality | the same triads, but strictly reciprocal |
| 4 | Support | mind/essentials as foundation; the 6 bases for the 7 consciousness-elements |
| 5 | Nutriment | edible food → body; contact/volition/consciousness → conascent mind-matter |
| 6 | Faculty | 5 sensitivities → 5 consciousnesses; life faculty; 15 immaterial faculties |
| 7 | Dissociation | mind and matter mutually support while remaining categorically distinct |
| 8 | Presence | conascence + prenascence + postnascence + food + life, all at once |
| 9 | Non-disappearance | identical in scope to presence |
predominance — object-predominance (a compellingly attractive object dominating the mind that takes it) is close kin to object decisive-support, differing mainly in force: one attracts and dominates, the other strongly enables arising.
mutuality — "each other." A special, strictly reciprocal case of conascence, compared to the three legs of a tripod, each supporting and supported by the other two at once.
dissociation — the one condition on this list that requires the conditioning and conditioned states to be of different types entirely, one mental and one material, "like water and oil placed together, remaining distinct."
Notice how many of these nine conditions turn out, on inspection, to be near-duplicates of ones already given: mutuality is simply conascence made strictly reciprocal; presence and non-disappearance are stated to be "identical in meaning, differing only in the letter"; support condition's main variety is identical to conascence condition outright. The Paṭṭhāna's twenty-four-fold scheme is not twenty-four independent discoveries — it is a small number of genuinely distinct relationships (perhaps half a dozen), named and renamed from slightly different angles depending on which feature of the relationship a given context needs to highlight. The chapter's own closing move, reducing all twenty-four to four master conditions, is simply making this redundancy explicit.
Four Master Conditions
Having given all twenty-four conditions their formulas, the chapter closes the Paṭṭhāna method with its most compressed statement: every one of the twenty-four is already included within just four of them.
Āramman'-ūpanissaya-kamma-atthipaccayesu ca sabbe pi paccayā samodhānaṃ gacchanti.
Sahajātarūpan ti pan'ettha sabbatthā pi pavatte cittasamuṭṭhānānaṃ paṭisandhiyaṃ kaṭattā rūpānañ ca vasena duvidho hoti veditabbaṃ.
All conditions, without exception, are included within the object condition, the decisive-support condition, the kamma condition, and the presence condition.
Herein, "conascent matter," in every case, should be understood as twofold: during the course of existence, matter born of consciousness; at rebirth-linking, matter born of kamma.
Iti tekālikā dhammā kālamuttā ca sambhavā
Ajjhattañ ca bahiddhā ca sankhatāsankhatā tathā.
Paññattināmarūpānaṃ vasena tividhā ṭhitā
Paccayā nāma paṭṭhāne catuvīsati sabbathā ti.
Thus states belonging to the three times, and those independent of time, internal and external, conditioned and unconditioned alike — standing threefold by way of concepts, mind, and matter — are, in the Paṭṭhāna, called conditions: twenty-four in all.
"included, comprised together" — the chapter's technical term for how the twenty specialized conditions all reduce without remainder into the four broadest: object, decisive support, kamma, and presence.
The closing verse's phrase "conditioned and unconditioned alike" is easy to read past, but it is doing something quietly remarkable: Nibbāna, the one unconditioned reality in this whole system, is still said to function as a condition — specifically as an object, taken by supramundane path and fruition cittas under the object condition. Nibbāna itself is never conditioned by anything (nothing produces or sustains it), but the Paṭṭhāna insists it still conditions: an object needs no causal history of its own in order to be what a citta takes hold of.
A Final Word on Concepts
Having completed the four ultimate realities and their conditional relations, the chapter closes with an unexpected coda: a brief, formal account of paññatti, concepts — the one topic that falls entirely outside ultimate reality, yet without which no teaching could ever be communicated.
Tattha rūpadhammā rūpakkhandho va; cittacetasikasaṅkhātā cattāro arūpino khandhā nibbānañ cā ti pañcavidham pi arūpan ti ca nāman ti ca pavuccati.
Tato avasesā paññatti pana paññāpiyattā paññatti, paññāpanato paññattī ti ca duvidhā hoti.
Herein, the material states are simply the aggregate of matter. Consciousness and mental factors, reckoned as the four immaterial aggregates, together with Nibbāna, are the five kinds called "immaterial" and also "mind."
What remains — concept — is twofold: concept as what is made known, and concept as that which makes known.
Kathaṃ? Taṃtaṃ bhūtapariṇāmākāram upādāya tathā tathā paññattā bhūmipabbatādikā, sasambhārasannivesākāram upādāya geharathasakaṭādikā, khandhapañcakam upādāya purisapuggalādikā, candāvattanādikam upādāya disākālādikā, asamphuṭṭhākāram upādāya kūpaguhādikā, taṃtaṃ bhūtanimittaṃ bhāvanāvisesañ ca upādāya kasiṇanimittādikā cā ti evam ādippabhedā pana paramatthato avijjamānā pi atthacchāyākārena cittuppādānam ālambanabhūtā taṃtaṃ upādāya upanidhāya kāraṇaṃ katvā tathā tathā parikappiyamānā sankhāyati, samaññāyati, voharīyati, paññāpīyatī ti paññattī ti pavuccati.
How? By way of the mode of transformation of the elements, things are named "land," "mountain," and so on; by way of the mode of the arrangement of components, "house," "chariot," "cart," and so on; by way of the fivefold aggregates, "person," "individual," and so on; by way of the moon's revolution and the like, "direction," "time," and so on; by way of the mode of non-impingement, "well," "cave," and so on; by way of a given element as sign, together with a specific meditative development, the kasiṇa signs and so on. All such various things, though not existing in the ultimate sense, become objects of arisings of consciousness in the mode of a shadow of [ultimate] things; and, taken up, referred to, and made into a basis in this way and that, they are reckoned, named, spoken of, and made known — thus they are called "concept."
Vacīghosānusārena sotaviññāṇavīthiyā
Pavattānantaruppannā manodvārassa gocarā
Atthā yassānusārena viññāyanti tato paraṃ
Sāyaṃ paññatti viññeyyā lokasanketanimmitā ti.
Iti Abhidhammatthasaṅgahe Paccayasaṅgahavibhāgo nāma aṭṭhamo paricchedo.
By following the sound of speech through the course of the ear-consciousness process, and then, thereafter, through what arises immediately after as the range of the mind door — the meaning is understood, in due course, by following that. This — concept — should be understood as fashioned by the convention of the world.
Thus ends, in the Compendium of the Things Contained in the Abhidhamma, the eighth chapter, called the Compendium of Conditionality.
concept — from paññāpeti, "to make known." Twofold: atthapaññatti (a concept-as-meaning, like the notion "dog") and nāmapaññatti (a concept-as-name, the word "dog" itself) — what is made known, and what makes it known.
"the shadow of a thing" — the chapter's own striking image for how a concept, though not itself ultimately real, still becomes an object of consciousness: a shadow cast by real things, not a real thing itself.
"the convention of the world" — the closing verse's own final characterization of every concept without exception: fashioned by, and only by, worldly agreement.
This closing section answers a question the whole translation project has been implicitly raising since Chapter 1's very first distinction between paramattha (ultimate reality) and sammuti (conventional reality): if only 72 entities plus Nibbāna genuinely exist, what is actually happening when this text itself uses words like "person," "chariot," or "land" — words for things the Abhidhamma itself says are not ultimately real? The answer given here is neither that such words are meaningless nor that they secretly refer to something ultimate: a concept is a "shadow" cast by real things, capable of becoming a genuine object of consciousness (and, as the previous section just showed, a genuine condition) without itself possessing the intrinsic nature that would make it one of the 72 entities. The Saṅgaha can therefore keep using ordinary language for eight chapters running — "the meditator," "the dying person," "a boy steals an apple" — without ever contradicting its own official ontology, because it has, in this very last section, formally made room for exactly that kind of speech.
Paccayasaṅgaha Complete
This closes the translation of the Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha's eighth chapter, Paccayasaṅgaha ("The Compendium of Conditionality") — the twelve-link formula of dependent arising in full; the twenty-four conditional relations of the Paṭṭhāna, synthesized by six kinds of relata rather than treated one by one; their reduction to four master conditions; and the chapter's closing formal account of concepts, the one topic that lies outside the four ultimate realities. This closes the theoretical core of the entire work. The ninth and final chapter, Kammaṭṭhānasaṅgaha — the compendium of meditation subjects, covering the forty traditional objects of calm and the stages of insight leading to the supramundane paths — continues from here, the last undertaking for this translation.