Dharmas are the ultimate constituents of reality in Abhidharma, functioning as irreducible psychological and physical elements that compose all moments of experience.
Abhidharma Buddhism breaks experience into dharmas—fundamental, irreducible elements that arise and pass away in rapid succession. Unlike Western psychology's focus on unified mental states, Abhidharma deconstructs consciousness into momentary dharmas: sensations, mental factors, objects of perception. Patanjali's analytical approach to gunas (qualities) and tattvas (principles) parallels this dharmic analysis, seeking the irreducible components of nature and mind. This framework liberates practitioners from illusions of permanence and solid selfhood by revealing experience as a continuously flowing mosaic of distinct elements. In Buddhist psychology in depth, understanding dharmas transforms how we relate to thoughts, emotions, and sensations—no longer as belonging to a self, but as impersonal, momentary phenomena arising according to natural laws. This atomization of experience becomes profoundly liberating.
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