Abhidhamma

The abhidhamma is the name of one of the three pitakas, or baskets of tradition, into which the Pāli Buddhist scriptures (see Pāli Canon) of the Theravada school are divided. It consists of seven sections:

• 1. Dhamma Sangani (enumeration of qualities).
• 2. Vibhanga (exposition).
• 3. Katha Vatthu (bases of opinion).
• 4. Puggala Pannatti (on individuals).
• 5. Dhatu Katha (on relations of moral dispositions).
• 6. Yamaka (the pairs, that is, of ethical states).
• 7. Patthana (evolution of ethical states).

These have all been published in romanized Pāli by the Pali Text Society, and have been translated into English as well. Scholars date these works from about 400 BC to about 250 BC, the first being the oldest and the third the latest of the seven.

Before the publication of the texts in the West, when they were known in the English-speaking world only by hearsay, the term abhidhamma was usually rendered metaphysics, but some now feel that this is misleading. Dhamma (Sanskrit: dharma) has a variety of meanings, which can include "custom", "natural law", or "religious teachings", and abhidhamma that which underlies or support dhamma. It expands, classifies, systematizes, and draws corollaries from the ethical doctrines laid down in the more popular treatises.

Given that the interpretations of the Buddha's teachings varied in different Buddhist schools, it is understandable that they produced distinct secondary works. Thus, abhidamma or, more commonly, the Sanskrit equivalent, abhidharma, can also refer to similar texts by schools other than the Theravada. The only complete set of these that still exists was composed in Sanskrit by the Sarvastivadins, no later than the first centuries BC and CE produced. These are lost in India, but still exist in Chinese translations. According to an analysis by Professor Takakasu, the translations deal only with psychological ethics. In the course of further centuries, a variety of other texts, including various shastras, filled a similar role for other schools, although these were generally not termed abhidhamma or abhidharma.

Sources

• Buddhist Psychology, Caroline Rhys Davids, (London, 1900)
• "On the Abhidhamma books of the Sarvastivadins", by Professor Takakusu, in Journal of the Pali Text Society, 1905.

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