abhidharma

 

(ŭb'ĭdŭr'mə) [Skt.,=higher dharma, or doctrine], schools of Buddhist philosophy. Early Buddhism analyzed experience into 5 skandhas or aggregates, and alternatively into 18 dhatus or elements. Later schools developed the process of analysis and classification that was called Abhidharma; their treatises were collected in the Abhidharmapitaka, one of the three main divisions of the Pali Buddhist canon (see Buddhist literature, Pali canon). The five skandhas analyzed experience to demonstrate the absence of an abiding “self.” The categories of analysis were dharmas, or natures, ultimate qualities or principles that arise and pass away in irreducible moments of time. Lists of dharmas varied from 75 to 157, with different schools classifying the dharmas into different groups, and the exact definition of a dharma eventually became the subject of great controversy. The greatest systematizer of Abhidharma thought was Vasubandhu (5th cent. A.D.), who wrote the encyclopedic Abhidharma-kosa or Treasury of Abhidharma.

Bibliography

See H. Guenther, Philosophy and Psychology in the Abhidharma (1957); T. Stcherbatsky, The Central Conception of Buddhism (4th ed. 1970).

Translations of abhidhamma Pali: abhidhamma Sanskrit: abhidharma Sinhala: අභිධර්ම (abhidharma) Chinese: 阿毗達磨 (pinyin: āpídámó) Japanese: 阿毘達磨 Vietnamese: A-tì-đạt-ma Tibetan: chos mngon pa Buddhism Glossary

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Abhidharma (Sanskrit) or Abhidhamma (Pāli) is a category of Buddhist scriptures that attempts to use Buddhist teachings to create a systematic, abstract description of all worldly phenomena. The Abhidharma represents a generalization and reorganization of the doctrines presented piecemeal in the narrative sūtra tradition.

The literal translation of the term Abhidharma is unclear. Two possibilities are most commonly given: 1) abhi- higher or special + dharma- teaching, philosophy, thus making Abhidharma the 'higher teachings', or 2) abhi - about + dharma of the teaching, translating it instead as 'about the teaching' or even 'meta-teaching'.

In the West, the Abhidhamma has generally been considered the core of what is referred to as 'Buddhist Psychology'.^[1]

Origins

Many scholars generally believe that the Abhidharma emerged after the time of the Buddha, as the growth of monastic centers and support for the Buddhist sangha provided the resources and expertise necessary to systematically analyze the early teachings. However, some scholars believe that the Abhidhamma represents an expansion of a set of teachings and categorisations that were employed during the earliest period of Buddhism and were then later developed and elaborated upon.

Traditionally, Theravada Buddhists have held that the Abhidhamma was not a later addition to the tradition, but rather represented the first, original understanding of the teachings by the Buddha. According to legend, shortly after his awakening the Buddha spent several days in meditation, during which he formulated the Abhidhamma. Later, he traveled to the heavenly realm and taught the Abhidhamma to the divine beings that dwelled there, including his deceased mother Mahāmāyā, who had rearisen as a celestial being. The tradition holds that the contents of the teachings given in the heavenly realm were related to the monk Śāriputra, who passed them on. The Abhidhamma is thus presented as a pure and undiluted form of the teaching that was too difficult for most practitioners of the Buddha's time to grasp. Instead, the Buddha taught by the method related in the various suttas, giving appropriate, immediately applicable teachings as each situation arose, rather than attempting to set forth the Abhidhamma in all its complexity and completeness. Thus, there is a similarity between the traditions of the Adhidhamma and that of the Mahayana, which also claimed to be too difficult for the people living in the Buddha's time.

Numerous apparently independent Abhidharma traditions arose in India, roughly during the period from the 2nd or 3rd Century BCE to the 5th Century CE. The 7th Century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang reportedly collected Abhidharma texts from seven different traditions. In the modern era, only the Abhidharmas of the Sarvastivadins and the Theravadins have survived intact, each consisting of seven books. The Theravāda Abhidharma, the Abhidhamma Pitaka (discussed below), is preserved in Pāli, while the Sarvastivadin Abhidharma is mostly preserved only in Chinese - the (likely Sanskrit) original texts having been lost. A small number of other Abhidharma texts of unknown origin are preserved in translation in the Chinese canon.

Theravada Abhidhamma

The Abhidhamma Pitaka is the third pitaka, or basket, of the Tipitaka (Sanskrit: Tripiṭaka), the canon of the Theravada school of Buddhism. It consists of the seven sections as described below.

1. Dhammasangani ('Enumeration of Factors') - Describes the fundamental phenomena or dhamma which constitute human experience.
2. Vibhanga ('Analysis') - An analysis of various topics by a variety of methods, including catechism using material from the Dhamma Sangani.
3. Dhatukatha ('Discussion of Elements') - Some interrelations between various items from the first two books, formulated as sets of questions and answers.
4. Puggalapannatti ('Descriptions of Individuals') - An enumeration of the qualities of certain different 'personality types'. These types were believed to be useful in formulating teachings that an individual would respond to positively.
5. Kathavatthu ('Points of Controversy') - A collection of debates on points of doctrine, traditionally said to have been compiled by Moggaliputta Tissa at the Buddhist Council sponsored by King Ashoka, which took place in the 3rd Century BCE.
6. Yamaka ('The Pairs') - Deals with various questions relating to interrelations within various lists of items; here the items belong to the same list, whereas in the Dhātu Kathā they are in different lists.
7. Patthana ('Foundational Conditions' or 'Relations') - The laws of interaction by which the dhamma described in the Dhamma Sangani operate.

The Theravada Abhidharma, like the rest of the Tipitaka, was orally transmitted until the last century BC. Due to famines and constant wars, the monks responsible for recording the oral tradition felt that there was a risk of portions of the canon being lost. With the rest of the Canon the Abhidharma pitaka was written down for the first time. These have all been published in romanized Pali by the Pali Text Society, and most have been translated into English as well. Some scholars date these works from about 400 BCE to about 250 BCE, the first being the oldest and the fifth the latest of the seven. Additional post-canonical texts composed in the following centuries attempted to further clarify the analysis presented in the Abhidhamma texts. The best known such texts are the Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosa and the Abhidhammavatara of Buddhadatta.

Early Western translators of the Pāli canon found the Abhidhamma Pitaka the least interesting of the three sections of the Tipiṭaka, and as a result this important aspect of Buddhist philosophy was little studied in the West until the latter half of the 20th Century. Caroline Rhys Davids, a Pāli scholar and the wife of Pali Text Society founder T. W. Rhys Davids, famously described the ten chapters of the Yamaka as "ten valleys of dry bones".^[2] Interest in the Abhidhamma has grown in the West as better scholarship on Buddhist philosophy has gradually revealed more information about its origins and significance.

Within the Theravada tradition, the prominence of the Abhidhamma has varied considerably from country to country, with Burma (Myanmar) placing the most emphasis on the study of the Abhidhamma.

Sarvastivada Abhidharma

The Sarvastivada Abhidharma also consists of seven texts. However, comparison of the content of the Sarvastivada texts with that of the Theravada Abhidhamma reveals that it is unlikely that this indicates that one textual tradition originated from the other. In particular, the Theravada Abhidharma contains two texts (the Katha Vatthu and Puggala Pannatti) that seem entirely out of place in an Abhidharma collection.

The texts of the Sarvāstivādin Abhidharma are:

• Sangitiparyaya ('Discourses on Gathering Together')
• Dharmaskandha ('Aggregation of Dharmas')
• Prajnaptisastra ('Treatise on Designations')
• Dhatukaya ('Body of Elements')
• Vijnanakaya ('Body of Consciousness')
• Prakaranapada ('Exposition')
• Jnanaprasthana ('Foundation of Knowledge')

Following these, are the texts that became the authority of the Vaibhasikas, the Kasmiri Sarvastivada Orthodoxy:

• Mahavibhasa ("Great Commentary", on the Jnanaprasthana)

Little research in English has been made in these texts.

East Asian and Tibetan Abhidharma

In the traditions derived from Sanskrit Buddhism, such as the Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese, the two main Abhidharma texts are Asanga's Abhidharma Samuccaya (Compendium of Higher Knowledge) - which is an early Yogacara work, and Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosha (Treasury of Higher Knowledge) - which is a synopsis on the Mahavibhasa of the Sarvastivada tradition, with the addition of various Sautrantika and Vaibhajyavada perspectives.^[3]

These are both works from approximately 4 - 5 th century India, and are extant in Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan translations, as well as the Sanskrit.

The Abhidharmakosha is considered Vaibhasika / Sautrantika.

The Abhidharma Samuccaya is Mahayana Yogacara.

See also

• Buddhist texts:
  • Tipitaka
  • Sutta Pitaka
  • Vinaya Pitaka

• Buddhist concepts:
  • Pratitya-samutpada
  • Skandha

Notes

1. ^ See, for instance, Rhys Davids (1900), Trungpa (1975) and Goleman (2004).
2. ^ Rhys Davids (1914).
3. ^ Goleman (2004), pp. 382-383, n. 12.

References

• Cox, Collett (2004). "Abhidhamma," in Robert E. Buswell (ed.), Encyclopedia of Buddhism. NY: McMillan. ISBN 0-02-865910-4.

• Goleman, Daniel (2004). Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama. NY: Bantam Dell. ISBN 0-553-38105-9.

• Rhys Davids, Caroline A. F. ([1900], 2003). Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics, of the Fourth Century B.C., Being a Translation, now made for the First Time, from the Original Pāli, of the First Book of the Abhidhamma-Piṭaka, entitled Dhamma-Sangaṇi (Compendium of States or Phenomena). Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-4702-9.

• Rhys Davids, Caroline A. F. (1914). Buddhist Psychology: An Inquiry into the Analysis and Theory of Mind in Pali Literature.

• Takakusu (1905). "On the Abhidhamma books of the Sarvastivadins", in Journal of the Pali Text Society (1905).

• Trungpa, Chogyam (1975, 2001). Glimpses of Abhidharma: From a Seminar on Buddhist Psychology. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 1-57062-764-9.

External links

• www.abhidhamma.org - Numerous books and articles on Abhidhamma by Sujin Boriharnwanaket and others
• www.abhidhamma.com - Abhidhamma the Buddhist Philosophy and Psychology
• BuddhaNet - description of the Abhidhamma
• BuddhaNet - Abhidhamma articles
• Access to Insight - description of the Abhidhamma
• Online excerpt of a well-known book about the Abhidhamma

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