Dhamma Charts
Interactive structural maps of early Buddhist phenomenological frameworks. Designed to clarify the causal mechanics of stress and release without commentarial mysticism or scholastic clutter.
⚖️ The Four Noble Truths (Caturāriyasacca)
The medical diagnostic framework discovered by the Buddha: Problem, Cause, Health, and Treatment. Each Truth carries an explicit practical duty (kicca-ñāṇa).
1. Dukkha (The Problem)
dukkha-saccaStress, friction, and unsatisfactoriness. Physical pain is biological; psychological suffering arises when the changing 5 aggregates are appropriated as “me” or “mine.”
2. Samudaya (The Cause)
dukkha-samudayaThe fuel that feeds the fire: compulsive thirst (taṇhā) for sensual pleasure (kāma), for becoming someone (bhava), or for annihilation/escape (vibhava), coupled with appropriation (upādāna).
3. Nirodha (The Cure)
dukkha-nirodhaThe cessation of friction: when fuel is removed, the fire goes out on its own. Nibbāna is the immediate, verifiable cooling of greed, hatred, and delusion here and now.
4. Magga (The Treatment)
dukkha-nirodha-gāminī paṭipadāThe Noble Eightfold Path: the integrated lifestyle, ethical container, and mental culture that systematically deconstructs craving and aligns perception with reality.
For each truth, three levels of insight must occur: (1) Sacca-ñāṇa: Recognizing what the truth is; (2) Kicca-ñāṇa: Knowing what duty must be performed with it; (3) Kata-ñāṇa: Verifying that the duty has been completed. Only when all 12 facets are complete is full awakening declared.
☸️ The Noble Eightfold Path (Ariya Aṭṭhaṅgika Magga)
An organic, non-linear training circuit. Right View is the pioneer, while Right Effort and Right Mindfulness circle around every factor (MN 117).
Wisdom (Paññā)
SteeringCorrect perceptual orientation and intentional aim.
Ethics (Sīla)
FoundationBehavioral hygiene protecting from agitation and guilt.
Composure (Samādhi)
EngineMental stabilization and glare-free collected awareness.
Right View is always the forerunner. Right Effort works to eliminate the wrong and nurture the right. Right Mindfulness stands vigilant at the sense doors so that Right View and Right Effort remain active. These three factors continuously circle around every other path factor.
🔄 Dependent Origination & Conditionality
The causal physics of mental suffering: how blind ignorance congeals into an ego identity that suffers at sensory contact.
Imasmiṁ asati idaṁ na hoti; imassa nirodhā idaṁ nirujjhati.
When this is not, that is not; with the cessation of this, that ceases.”
The 12 Links in Real-Time Phenomenological Contact:
When sensory contact (phassa) occurs with mindfulness rather than ignorance, feeling (vedanā) is experienced simply as raw biological feedback without triggering craving (taṇhā). When craving is not sparked, clinging (upādāna) has no fuel. Without clinging, no ego-becoming (bhava) occurs, and no suffering (dukkha) can be born.
🔍 The Three Marks of Existence (Tilakkhaṇa)
The three universal characteristics governing all conditioned reality. These are not philosophical dogmas, but analytical lenses for loosening mental grasping.
Anicca
ImpermanenceAll conditioned physical and mental phenomena are in continuous flux. Nothing remains static for two consecutive moments.
Dukkha
UnsatisfactorinessBecause conditioned things are unstable (anicca), demanding that they provide permanent bliss or security generates friction and stress.
Anattā
Not-SelfBecause phenomena are unstable and produce stress when clung to, they cannot be legitimately claimed as an unchanging self or property.
“What is impermanent (anicca)—is that painful or pleasant?” — “Painful, venerable sir.”
“What is impermanent, painful, and subject to change—is it fit to be regarded thus: ‘This is mine, this I am, this is my self’?” — “No, venerable sir.”
“Therefore, any form, feeling, perception, fabrication, or consciousness—past, future, or present—should be seen as it actually is with proper wisdom: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self’ (N’etaṁ mama, n’eso’ham asmi, na me so attā).”
⛓️ The Ten Fetters (Saṁyojana) & Stages of Awakening
The ten psychological chains that bind consciousness to the cycle of stress (saṁsāra), dismantled sequentially across the four noble stages.
| Stage of Release | Fetters Severed / Weakened | Psychological Transformation |
|---|---|---|
|
1. Stream-Enterer (Sotāpanna) First Opening |
1. Sakkāya-diṭṭhi (Identity view / illusion of an unchanging self) 2. Vicikicchā (Paralyzing skeptical doubt about the path) 3. Sīlabbata-parāmāsa (Clinging to empty rituals and superstitious rules) |
Irreversible break with magical thinking. Direct verification that no aggregate is a permanent self. The practitioner steps onto the one-way river to Nibbāna. |
|
2. Once-Returner (Sakadāgāmī) Radical Weakening |
4. Kāmarāga (Sensual craving) — Greatly weakened 5. Vyāpāda / Paṭigha (Ill-will / anger / aversion) — Greatly weakened |
Sensual addictions and reactive anger lose their compulsive grip. The mind experiences deep calm, returning only minimally to reactive patterns. |
|
3. Non-Returner (Anāgāmī) Lower Fetters Gone |
4. Kāmarāga — Completely severed 5. Vyāpāda / Paṭigha — Completely severed |
Total eradication of all capacity for hatred, irritation, and compulsive sensual hunger. The heart-mind never returns to constructing an ego around biological drives. |
|
4. Arahant (Arahant) Total Freedom |
6. Rūparāga (Craving for subtle material form/absorption) 7. Arūparāga (Craving for formless immaterial states) 8. Māna (Conceit: subtle comparative measuring “better/worse/equal”) 9. Uddhacca (Restlessness / subtle mental drift) 10. Avijjā (Fundamental cognitive blindness) |
The complete drying up of all outflows (āsavakkhaya). Total cessation of “I am” (asmi-māna). The burden is laid down; perfect mental health and unshakeable cooling. |
The first three fetters are severed through pure Right View—seeing that the “I” is an assembled fiction. The remaining fetters require the deep emotional unbinding and mental composure developed through Sīla, Samādhi, and the cultivation of non-sensual joy (pīti-sukha).
🌊 The Āsavas, Latencies & Unwholesome Roots
The subterranean psychological forces that leak into conscious experience and poison sensory perception.
The 3 Āsavas (Mental Outflows / Taints)
Deep-seated psychological fermentations that distort awareness like alcohol fermenting in a vat:
The 3 Anusayas (Latent Tendencies)
Automatic cognitive reflexes triggered the moment feeling (vedanā) arises at sensory contact:
The Three Unwholesome Roots (Akusalamūla) & Wholesome Antidotes
Frantic mental contraction claiming: “This is mine, I need this to be whole.”
Resentment, hatred, and complaint: holding a hot coal hoping someone else gets burned.
Existential cataracts mistaking changing processes for a permanent “I”.
👁️ The Five Aggregates & The Six Senses (The All)
The experiential boundary of human life. In the Sabba Sutta (SN 35.23), the Buddha defines the 6 sense bases as “The All”—anything beyond is speculative delusion.
“What is the All? The eye and forms, the ear and sounds, the nose and scents, the tongue and tastes, the body and tactile objects, the intellect and mental phenomena. This is called the All. If anyone says: ‘Rejecting this All, I will point out another All’—that would be an empty boast, and he would end in frustration, because it lies beyond his range.”
The Five Aggregates (Pañcakkhandha) — Impersonal Software & Hardware
1. Rūpa (Physical Form / Body)
HardwareThe biological organism composed of the four primary elements (earth/solidity, water/cohesion, fire/temperature, air/motion). Subject to fatigue, aging, and injury.
2. Vedanā (Feeling Tone)
AffectThe immediate raw hedonic valence of contact: pleasant, painful, or neutral. Biological feedback, not an identity.
3. Saññā (Perception / Labeling)
RecognitionThe cognitive faculty that recognizes, identifies, and categorizes sense data based on past memory (e.g. “red,” “bell,” “threat”).
4. Saṅkhāra (Mental Formations)
FabricationVolitions, intentions (cetanā), thoughts, emotional reactions, and stories cooked up in the psychological kitchen.
5. Viññāṇa (Consciousness / Sensory Awareness)
CognitionThe dependent cognitive act of knowing through one of the six sense doors (eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, etc.). It arises only when organ meets object; it is not an unconditioned cosmic soul floating behind experience.
The aggregates in themselves are harmless natural processes. Suffering (dukkha) only arises when the mind commits identity view across 4 modes for each aggregate (20 modes total): regarding the aggregate as self, the self as possessing the aggregate, the aggregate as inside the self, or the self as inside the aggregate. Drop the ownership, and the aggregates function peacefully on their own.
Methodological Anchor
These charts reflect the pristine early Dhamma as articulated in the Pali Nikāyas and demonstrated by Ven. Ajahn Buddhadāsa and Ven. Ñāṇavīra Thera. Everything is mapped to the six sense bases (Sabba Sutta) and real-time biological experience. Free and open Dhamma for serious practitioners.