Dear Yong Peng,
This is very interesting. You wanted to skip it, but I am glad you posted
this. See below.
op 14-03-2004 11:13 schreef Ong Yong Peng op ypong001@...:

> the word this week is hetupaccayaa, nom. plural of hetupaccaya.
>
> hetu (m.) cause, reason, condition.
> paccaya (m.) cause, reason, condition, requisite, means, support.
>
> The two words can be treated as synonyms, but when put together as
> hetupaccaya, each has a different meaning. The combined word
> hetupaccaya means condition and cause, or the efficacy of kamma.
>
> Quote (PED paccaya): paccaya became synonymous with our "relation,"
> understood in a causal sense, hetu meaning condition, causal
> antecedent, and 23 other relations being added as special modes of
> causality.
>
> Since this compound is not found in the Suttapitaka at all, I have
> decided to skip the example this week. But I'd appreciate an
> elaboration on the meaning of the term.

N: hetu: in the Dhammasangani (first book of the Abhidhamma): three akusala
hetus: lobha, dosa and moha. Three sobhana hetus: alobha, adosa and amoha
or pa~n~naa. Each akusala citta has moha as root, and in addiiton it can be
rooted in lobha, or in dosa. Each kusala citta is rooted in alobha and
amoha, and it can also have pa~n~naa as root.
As PED implies, there are 24 classes of conditions, paccayas, see Patthana
(seventh Book of the Abhidhamma). One of them is hetu-paccaya: the above
mentioned hetus (they are cetasikas, mental factors) condiiton the citta
they accompany by way of root-condition, hetu-paccaya. I think it is very
important to know this, so that we can understand the akusala cittas and
kusala cittas arising in our life, and the ways they are conditioned. This
again helps to realize that they are anattaa.
In the Atthasaalinii different meanings of dhamma are given, and one of
these is:
<Hetumhi ~naa.na.m dhamma pa.tisambhidaa"ti-aadiisu (vibha. 720) hetumhi.
In such passages as ,²Knowledge of root-conditions is analysis of dhamma
(pa.tisambhidaa)-dhamma means root-condition or cause. >

The Saddaniti explains dhamma as condition, paccaya, in the same way as
hetu, cause, when it refers to the analytical knowledge of cause,
dhammapa.tisambhidaa:

<Hetumhi ~naa.na.m dhammapa.tisambhidaa"ti-aadiisu paccaye.
In such passage as ³the knowledge of cause is analytical knowledge of
dhamma², dhamma means condition.

The Saddaniti also explains:

<Yo ca hetu, so eva paccayo.
What is a cause, that is indeed a condition.>
N: The terms hetu and paccaya are often used together, for example in the
³Kindred Sayings²(IV, XXXV, § 93, Duality: yo pi hetu, yo pi paccaya...so pi
hetu, so pi paccaya.. : that condition, that relation...
N: Thus, here we see that they are used together in the Suttanta. They do
not merely refer to the efficacy of kamma.
Nina.