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Abhidhamma
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Abhidhamma
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'.
Origins
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 rather than being wholly created by later thinkers, the
Abhidharma represents an expansion of a set of mnemonic lists and
categories that were employed by early Buddhists to preserve the oral
tradition.
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.
Traditionally, Theravada Buddhists have been of the belief 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 myth, 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 reincarnated 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.
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 Tipitaka, 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". 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.
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.
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