Rūpa and the Sense Bases: Physicality as the Ground of Cognition in Theravāda Abhidhamma

This article examines how rūpa (materiality) functions as the indispensable basis for cognition in the Theravāda Abhidhamma. While consciousness (citta) and mental factors (cetasika) are treated as primary in knowing, Abhidhamma insists that cognition in the sensory domain depends on specific forms of rūpa, especially sense-faculties (pasāda-rūpa) and sense-objects (rūpārammaṇa / other ārammaṇa). The study examines the Abhidhamma classification of rūpa, the operation of the six sense bases (saḷāyatana), and how physical conditions enable cognitive episodes through structured processes (citta-vīthi). It also compares the Abhidhamma model with key sutta presentations of sense bases, contact (phassa), and dependent arising. The article argues that the “law of physicality” here is not a substance metaphysics but a conditional principle: cognition arises in dependence on a reliable material support and an object domain, revealing impermanence and non-self through analytic insight.