BIKKHU BODHI, 2025

Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi opens by weighing the traditional account of the Abhidhamma's origin against the critical-historical view of its gradual evolution, then explains how chitta, or mind-moment, is broken into eighty-nine states of consciousness, classified by plane of existence and by roots like greed, hatred, and delusion. Using everyday examples — craving chocolate, being coaxed into ice cream — he shows how feeling, view, and prompted versus spontaneous arising shape these categories, then traces the path from jhanic absorption to the supramundane fruits of liberation. In the Q&A, he distinguishes delusion from wrong view and reflects candidly on where his own practice departs from the traditional model.