u/Structuralyes111

👆?

Has anyone read the book A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma: The Abhidhammattha Sangaha of Acariya Anuruddha and could outline if it's worth reading/how beneficial it is for where I am. I understand it's quite a fairly advanced text. For reference I would say I am intermediate in terms of my practice. I've done 3 10 day vipassana retreats and some weekend ones on top of this. I practice maybe an hour day and have done this for 3-4 years.

For context - I’m in my third DNOS following on from 2 prior. This one is more manageable but it’s had its gruesome bits. I’m less stuck to the content of it.

I had a calming realisation today walking in a forest near me looking at a tree along the path. For the first time i think I’m seeing the tree as it properly was.

It was beautiful and distinctive in its own form, and didn’t have a specific box I could categorise it other than “treeness”. It’s like words or protections or categorisations just didn’t exist or do it justice - and they were ugly and incorrect in trying to stamp on it from my own mind.

I had a huge sense of peace following this in that I was actually never in control of defining what this tree or other objects/people ever were and that my whole life I’ve been caught in seeing things through my own projections rather than what they are in and of themselves.

This extends to trying to listen to people fully and see objects how they should be - rather than running a narrative and judging/compartmentalising.

Does this make sense and can anyone relate? I’m not sure I want to categorise it as something special as I’ll start attaching to it - but interested to see if others have had similar experiences ✌️