Within the Abhidhamma, what is ordinarily taken as a solid person or world is carefully unpacked into two streams of ultimate realities: mind (nāma) and matter (rūpa). Mind is not treated as a single enduring entity, but as a succession of discrete consciousness-moments (citta) accompanied by mental factors (cetasikas) such as feeling, perception, volition, mindfulness, and various wholesome or unwholesome qualities. These mental events arise, perform their function, and vanish in extremely rapid succession, forming what can be called a stream of consciousness conditioned by previous moments and other supporting conditions. Matter, in turn, is analyzed into the four great elements—earth, water, fire, and air—understood as basic qualities like solidity, cohesion, temperature, and motion, together with material phenomena derived from them, including the sense organs and their objects. Both mind and matter are thus presented as impersonal processes rather than as substances or selves.

The Abhidhamma further clarifies that material phenomena arise dependent on specific causes: past kamma, present consciousness, temperature, and nutriment. In this way, the body and the physical environment are seen as conditioned configurations of rūpa, continually arising and passing away. Mind and matter, though distinct in their characteristics, are deeply interdependent; bodily processes provide the sense-bases for consciousness, while mental volitions condition bodily and verbal actions. This network of conditionality is elaborated as a complex web of relations, showing that no mental or material event stands alone, and that both operate according to their own lawful patterns.

Underlying this analytical vision is a consistent emphasis on the three marks that characterize all these dhammas: impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and non-self (anattā). Because every citta, every mental factor, and every unit of rūpa arises and ceases moment by moment, none can serve as a stable foundation for lasting happiness or identity. The supposed continuity of a person is revealed as a conceptual overlay on a rapidly changing series of conditioned events. By contemplating mind and matter in this finely grained way, the practitioner is encouraged to loosen attachment to the idea of a permanent “I” and to see experience as a dynamic interplay of mental and material processes unfolding according to conditions.