Definition
It is the last of the seven books of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka.
The Paṭṭhāna is the seventh and last book of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka. It may be described as “the book of causal relationships.” It consists of three divisions, i.e., Eka, Duka, and Tīka. The whole of this book deals in great detail with the 22 tīkas (group of three’s) and 100 couplets dukas (group of two’s) with reference to the 24 paccayas or modes of relations which are assumed between phenomena (dhammā), psychological, and material: causal relationship, relationship of the subject and object, reciprocity, dependence, co-nascence, coexistence, contiguity, antecedence, and so on. The book primarily drives the point home that with the sole exception of Nirvāṇa which is absolute, there is nothing which is not relative in one way or another, i.e., which is not related to another thing in one of the 24 modes. Each...
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Sarao, K.T.S. (2017). Paṭṭhāna. In: Sarao, K.T.S., Long, J.D. (eds) Buddhism and Jainism. Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0852-2_303
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