Expert: Justin Choo - 9/28/2010

Question
I have learned in the beginning phrases of the early chapters of the Abridged Abhidhamma literature, which can be closely interpreted as follows.

"Within this entire and infinite universe, no matter how wide and varied are the terms (conventional or apparent truths) such as human, deities, bramas, demons, animals and insects of all kinds, mountains, rivers, oceans, planets, and so on etc.,  in essence, when extracted, there are only four ultimate and fundamental constituents. They are

1. Consciousness (Citta)
2. Mental Factors/Concomitants (Cetasika)
3. Matter (Rupa), and
4. Nibbana. "

Based on the above and my further knowledge on the Abridged Abhidhamma, my personal scientific interpretation is as follows.

A. Of the above 4 ultimate constituents, Consciousness (Citta) has an approximate frequency of 1 million million (12 zeroes after 1) Hz (oscillations per second). (Literature says Consciousness arises and passes away 1 million million times within a tick of a thumb.)

B. Likewise, Mental Concomitants (Cetasika), being concurrent with Consciousness (arising and passing away together), share the same frequency (with Consciousness) approximately 1 million million Hz.

C. Meanwhile, Matter (Rupa), being made up of 4 fundamental elements (being water-like, fire-like, wind/air-like, earth-like elements), is 17 times slower than Consciousness and Mental Concomitants, and thus has a frequency of approximately 59 thousand million Hz.

D. Lastly, Nibbana, being an extinguished state, would have a frequency of 0 (zero) Hz.

My question to you is;

Yourself being a Theravadan Buddhist, do you share the same knowledge (1) on the 4 ultimate/fundamental constituents of the universe (as described in the first paragraph), and (2) the approximate frequencies of the ultimate/fundamental constituents (as described in the paragraphs A to D)?

I only want to confirm with you whether my knowledge tally with yours.

Your comments, advice or confirmation would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards.

Answer
Hi Kirin,

I must admit that I am not a Buddhist scholar and I am not that well versed with the exact scriptures.

I concur with you that 1 to 4 are the fundamentals of Abhidhamma.

As for the second part, this is the first time I came across such statistics.  I am not aware of such statistics.  I have a book with me in reference, "The Buddha's Explanation of The Universe" by C.P. Ranasinghe, which he gave some figures about the duration of a thought moment, which roughly translates to a minute fraction of a "flash of lightning".  And each unit of the mind has 7 major currents which cause the continuous flow of the 17 waves in each beat of the mind.  I don't know whether this has any semblance to your interpretation.  I am sorry I am unable to comment on this any further.  Thanks for sharing, just the same.

Take care.

Justin Choo