Abhidharma or
Abhidhamma (
Pāli
) are ancient (3rd century BCE and later) Buddhist texts which contain detailed scholastic and scientific reworkings of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist
SutraSūtra is an aphorism or a collection of such aphorisms in the form of a manual. Literally it means a thread or line that holds things together and is derived from the verbal root siv-, meaning to sew , as does the medical term...
s, according to schematic classifications. The Abhidhamma works do not contain systematic philosophical treatises, but summaries or abstract and systematic lists.
According to the Macmillan
Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Abhidhamma started as an elaboration of the teachings of the suttas, but later developed independent doctrines.
The literal translation of the term Abhidharma is unclear. Two possibilities are most commonly given:
- abhi - higher or special + dharma- teaching, philosophy, thus making Abhidharma the "higher teachings"
- abhi - about + dharma of the teaching, translating it instead as "about the teaching" or even "metateaching".
In the West, the Abhidhamma has generally been considered the core of what is referred to as "
Buddhist PsychologyBuddhism and psychology overlap in theory and in practice. Over the last century, three strands of interplay have evolved:* Descriptive phenomenology: Western and Buddhist scholars have found in Buddhist teachings a detailed introspective phenomenological psychology .* Psychotherapeutic meaning:...
".
According to the commentarial tradition
In the commentaries of
TheravādaTheravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
Buddhism it was 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
MahāmāyāQueen Māyā of Sakya was the birth mother of the historical Gautama Buddha, Siddhārtha of the Gautama gotra, and sister of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī the first Buddhist nun ordained by the Buddha. "Māyā" means "illusion" or "enchantment" in Sanskrit and Pāli. Māyā is also called Mahāmāyā and Māyādevī...
, who had rearisen as a celestial being. The tradition holds that the Buddha gave daily summaries of the teachings given in the heavenly realm to the monk
ŚāriputraŚāriputra or Sāriputta was one of two chief male disciples of the Buddha along with Maudgalyayana , counterparts to the nuns Khema and Uppalavanna, named the two chief female disciples...
, 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
MahayanaMahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...
, which also claimed to be too difficult for the people living in the Buddha's time.
According to scholars
Scholars generally believe that the Abhidharma emerged after the time of the Buddha, in around the third century BCE. Therefore the seven Abhidhamma works are generally claimed by scholars not to represent the words of the Buddha himself, but those of disciples and scholars. Factors contributing to its development could have been the growth of monastic centers, the growing support for the Buddhist
sanghaSangha is a word in Pali or Sanskrit that can be translated roughly as "association" or "assembly," "company" or "community" with common goal, vision or purpose...
, and outside influences from other religious groups. 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 later developed and elaborated upon.
As the last major division of the canon, the Abhidhamma works have had a checkered history. They were not accepted as canonical by the Mahasanghika school and several other schools. Another school included most of the
Khuddaka NikayaThe Khuddaka Nikaya is the last of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka, the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism...
within the Abhidhamma Pitaka. Also, the Pali version of the Abhidhamma is a strictly Theravada collection, and has little in common with the Abhidhamma works recognized by other Buddhist schools. The Theravadin Abhidhamma is in some respects rather skeletal, with the details not entirely fleshed out. According to Rupert Gethin however, obvious care and ingenuity have gone into its development.
The various Abhidhamma philosophies of the various early schools have no agreement on doctrine and belong to the period of 'Divided Buddhism' (as opposed to
Undivided BuddhismThe term pre-sectarian Buddhism is used by some scholars to refer to the Buddhism that existed before the various subsects of Buddhism came into being. Other terms that have been used to refer to this first period of Buddhism are: the earliest Buddhism, original Buddhism and the Buddhism of the...
). The earliest texts of the Pali Canon (the
Sutta NipataThe Sutta Nipata is a Buddhist scripture, a sutta collection in the Khuddaka Nikaya, part of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism. All its suttas consist largely of verse, though some also contain some prose. It is divided into five sections:...
, parts of the
JatakaThe Jātakas refer to a voluminous body of literature native to India concerning the previous births of the Buddha....
s, and the first four
NikayaNikāya is a word of meaning "collection", "assemblage", "class" or "group" in both Pāḷi and Sanskrit. It is most commonly used in reference to the Buddhist texts of the Sutta Piṭaka, but can also refer to the monastic divisions of Theravāda Buddhism...
s of the Suttapitaka) have no mention of (the texts of) the Abhidhamma Pitaka. The Abhidhamma is also not mentioned at the report of the
First Buddhist CouncilThe First Buddhist council was convened in the year following the Buddha's Parinibbana, which is 543–542 BCE according to Theravada tradition, at various earlier dates according to certain Mahayana traditions, and various later dates according to certain Western estimates. According to late...
, directly after the death of the Buddha. This report of the first council does mention the existence of the
VinayaThe Vinaya is the regulatory framework for the Buddhist monastic community, or sangha, based in the canonical texts called Vinaya Pitaka. The teachings of the Buddha, or Buddhadharma can be divided into two broad categories: 'Dharma' or doctrine, and 'Vinaya', or discipline...
and the five
NikayaNikāya is a word of meaning "collection", "assemblage", "class" or "group" in both Pāḷi and Sanskrit. It is most commonly used in reference to the Buddhist texts of the Sutta Piṭaka, but can also refer to the monastic divisions of Theravāda Buddhism...
s (of the Suttapitaka).
According to
L. S. CousinsLance Selwyn Cousins is a scholar in the field of Buddhist Studies. Born in Hertfordshire, he studied history and oriental studies at Cambridge University, and took up a post in the Department of Comparative Religion at Manchester University...
, the
suttaSūtra is an aphorism or a collection of such aphorisms in the form of a manual. Literally it means a thread or line that holds things together and is derived from the verbal root siv-, meaning to sew , as does the medical term...
s deal with sequences and processes, while the Abhidhamma describes occasions and events.
Variety of Abhidhammic teachings and books
Numerous apparently independent and unrelated Abhidharma traditions arose in
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, roughly during the period from the 2nd or 3rd Century BCE to the 5th Century CE. The 7th century Chinese pilgrim
XuanzangXuanzang was a famous Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator who described the interaction between China and India in the early Tang period...
reportedly collected Abhidharma texts from seven different traditions. The various Abhidhammic traditions have very fundamental disagreements with each other. These various Abhidhammic theories were (together with differences in
VinayaThe Vinaya is the regulatory framework for the Buddhist monastic community, or sangha, based in the canonical texts called Vinaya Pitaka. The teachings of the Buddha, or Buddhadharma can be divided into two broad categories: 'Dharma' or doctrine, and 'Vinaya', or discipline...
) the major cause for the majority of splits in the monastic
SanghaSangha is a word in Pali or Sanskrit that can be translated roughly as "association" or "assembly," "company" or "community" with common goal, vision or purpose...
, which resulted in the fragmented early Buddhist landscape of the 18
Early Buddhist SchoolsThe early Buddhist schools are those schools into which, according to most scholars, the Buddhist monastic saṅgha initially split, due originally to differences in vinaya, and later also due to doctrinal differences and geographical separation of groups of monks.The original saṅgha split into the...
.
In the modern era, only the Abhidharmas of the
SarvāstivādinsThe Sarvāstivāda were an early school of Buddhism that held to 'the existence of all dharmas in the past, present and future, the 'three times'. Vasubandhu's states:-Name:...
and the
TheravādinsTheravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
have survived intact, each consisting of seven books, with the addition of the Sariputra Abhidharma. The Theravāda Abhidharma, the Abhidhamma Pitaka (discussed below), is preserved in Pāli, while the Sarvāstivādin Abhidharma is mostly preserved only in Chinese - the (likely
SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
) original texts having been lost, though some Tibetan texts are still extant.
A small number of other Abhidharma texts of unknown origin are preserved in translation in the Chinese canon. These different traditions have some similarities, suggesting either interaction between groups or some common ground antedating the separation of the schools.
Theravāda Abhidhamma
The
Abhidhamma PitakaThe Abhidhamma Pitaka is the last of the three pitakas constituting the Pali Canon, the scriptures of Theravāda Buddhism....
is the third pitaka, or basket, of the
TipitakaThe Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the only completely surviving early Buddhist canon, and one of the first to be written down...
(Sanskrit: ), the canon of the
TheravadaTheravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
school of
BuddhismBuddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
. It consists of seven sections or books:
- Dhammasangani
The Dhammasangani is a Buddhist scripture, part of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism, where it is included in the Abhidhamma Pitaka.Translations:* A Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics, tr C. A. F...
('Enumeration of Factors') - Describes the fundamental phenomena (dhamma) which constitute human experience.
- Vibhanga
The Vibhanga is a Buddhist scripture, part of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism, where it is included in the Abhidhamma Pitaka. One known English translation is contained in The Book of Analysis, first published in 1969....
('Analysis') - An analysis of various topics by a variety of methods, including catechismA catechism , i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present...
, using material from the Dhammasangani.
- Dhatukatha
The Dhatukatha is a Buddhist scripture, part of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism, where it is included in the Abhidhamma Pitaka.Translation: Discourse on Elements, tr U Narada, 1962, Pali Text Society, Bristol...
('Discussion of Elements') - Some interrelations between various items from the first two books, formulated as sets of questions and answers.
- Puggalapannatti
The Puggalapannatti is a Buddhist scripture, part of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism, where it is included in the Abhidhamma Pitaka.Translation: A Designation of Human Types, tr B. C. Law, 1922, Pali Text Society, Bristol...
('Descriptions of Individuals') - An enumeration of the qualities of certain different 'personality types'. These types were believed to be useful in formulating teachings to which an individual would respond positively.
- Kathavatthu
Kathāvatthu , translated as "Points of Controversy", is a Buddhist scripture, one of the seven books in the Theravada Abhidhamma Pitaka...
('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 Third Century, BCE.
- Yamaka
The Yamaka is part of the Pali Canon, the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism. It is included in the Abhidhamma Pitaka, which according to the scriptures themselves was taught by the Buddha himself...
('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 DhātukathāThe Dhatukatha is a Buddhist scripture, part of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism, where it is included in the Abhidhamma Pitaka.Translation: Discourse on Elements, tr U Narada, 1962, Pali Text Society, Bristol...
they are in different lists.
- Patthana
The Patthana is a Buddhist scripture, part of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism, where it is included in the Abhidhamma Pitaka.Translation: Conditional Relations, 1969- , in progress, 2 volumes so far tr U Narada, Pali Text Society, Bristol...
('Foundational Conditions' or 'Relations') - The laws of interaction by which the dhammas described in the Dhammasangani operate.
The Theravāda Abhidhamma, like the rest of the Tipitaka, was orally transmitted until the first 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 so the Abhidhamma was written down for the first time along with the rest of the Canon.
These have all been published in romanized
Pali
by the
Pali Text SocietyThe Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pali texts".Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved...
, and most have been translated into
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as well. Some scholars date the seven Pali Abhidhamma books from about 400 BCE to about 250 BCE, the first book being the oldest of the seven and the fifth being the newest. Additional post-canonical texts composed in the following centuries attempted to further clarify the analysis presented in the Abhidhamma texts. The best known of such texts are the
VisuddhimaggaThe Visuddhimagga , is the 'great treatise' on Theravada Buddhist doctrine written by Buddhaghosa approximately in 430 CE in Sri Lanka. A comprehensive manual condensing the theoretical and practical teaching of the Buddha, it is considered the most important Theravada text outside of the Tipitaka...
of
BuddhaghosaBhadantācariya Buddhaghoṣa（Chinese: 覺音）was a 5th-century Indian Theravadin Buddhist commentator and scholar. His best-known work is the Visuddhimagga, or Path of Purification, a comprehensive summary and analysis of the Theravada understanding of the Buddha's path to liberation...
and the Abhidhammatthasangaha of
AnuruddhaAnuruddha was one of the five head disciples and a cousin of Gautama Buddha.-Early years:Anuruddha was the son of Sukkhodana and brother to Mahanama. Since Sukkhodana was the brother of Suddhodana, king of the Sakyas in Kapilavastu, Anuruddha was cousin to Siddhartha, . He was a kshatriya by...
.
Early Western translators of the Pāli canon found the Abhidhamma Pitaka the least interesting of the three sections of the Tipiṭaka. Caroline Rhys Davids, a Pāli scholar and the wife of
Pali Text SocietyThe Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pali texts".Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved...
founder T. W. Rhys Davids, famously described the ten chapters of the Yamaka as "ten valleys of dry bones". As a result this Abhidhammic aspect of Buddhism was little studied in the West until the latter half of the 20th Century. 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 Theravāda tradition the prominence of the Abhidhamma has varied considerably from country to country with Burma (
MyanmarBurma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
) placing the most emphasis on the study of the Abhidhamma.
Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma
The Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma also consists of seven texts. However, comparison of the content of the Sarvāstivāda texts with that of the Theravāda Abhidhamma reveals that it is unlikely that this indicates that one textual tradition originated from the other. In particular, the Theravāda Abhidharma contains two texts (the
Katha Vatthu and
Puggala Pannatti) that some consider entirely out of place in an Abhidharma collection.
The texts of the Sarvāstivādin Abhidharma are:
- Sangitiparyaya
Sangitiparyaya or Samgiti-paryaya-sastra is one of the seven Sarvastivada Abhidharma Buddhist scriptures. It was composed by Mahakausthila or Sariputra . The Chinese recension was translated by Xuanzang: T26, No...
('Discourses on Gathering Together')
- Dharmaskandha
Dharmaskandha or Dharma-skandha-sastra is one of the seven Sarvastivada Abhidharma Buddhist scriptures. Dharmaskandha means "collection of dharmas". It was composed by Sariputra or Maudgalyayana . The Chinese edition was translated by Xuanzang, and appears as: T26, No...
('Aggregation of Dharmas')
- Prajnaptisastra
Prajnaptisastra or Prajnapti-sastra is one of the seven Sarvastivada Abhidharma Buddhist scriptures. The word Prajnaptisastra means "designation" . It was composed by Maudgalyayana or Mahakatyayana . The Chinese translation is by : T26, No...
('Treatise on Designations')
- Dhatukaya
Dhatukaya or Dhatukaya-sastra is one of the seven Sarvastivada Abhidharma Buddhist scriptures.Dhatukaya means "group of elements". It was written by Purna , or Vasumitra . It was translated into Chinese translated by Xuanzang: T26, No...
('Body of Elements')
- Vijnanakaya
Vijnanakaya or Vijnanakaya-sastra is one of the seven Sarvastivada Abhidharma Buddhist scriptures. "Vijnanakaya" means "group of consciousness". It was composed by Devasarman , with the Chinese translated by Xuanzang: T26, No...
('Body of Consciousness')
- Prakaranapada
Prakaranapada or Prakaranapada-sastra, composed by Vasumitra, is one of the seven Sarvastivada Abhidharma Buddhist scriptures. The Chinese was translated by Xuanzang as: T26, No. 1542, 阿毘達磨品類足論, 尊者世友造, 三藏法師玄奘奉 詔譯, in 18 fascicles; with another partial translation by Gunabhadra and Bodhiyasa: T26,...
('Exposition')
- Jnanaprasthana
Jnanaprasthana or Jnanaprasthana-sastra, composed by Katyayaniputra is one of the seven Sarvastivada Abhidharma Buddhist scriptures. Jnanaprasthana means "establishment of knowledge"...
('Foundation of Knowledge')
Following these, are the texts that became the authority of the
VaibhāṣikaThe Vaibhāṣika was an early Buddhist subschool formed by adherents of the Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra, comprising the orthodox Kasmiri branch of the Sarvāstivāda school...
, the Kasmiri Sarvāstivāda Orthodoxy:
- Mahavibhasa
The Abhidharma ' Śāstra is an ancient Buddhist text. It is thought to have been authored around 150 CE.-The Compendia: is a term meaning 'compendium', 'treatise' or simply 'explanation', derived from vi + , 'to speak' or 'to explain'...
("Great Commentary", on the Jnanaprasthana)
Little research in English has been made in these texts, although all of them are summarized, many in fine detail, in the
Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Vol. VII: Abhidharma Buddhism.
East Asian and Tibetan Abhidharma
In the traditions derived from
SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
BuddhismBuddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, such as the Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese, the two main Abhidharma texts are
AsangaAsaṅga was a major exponent of the Yogācāra tradition in India, also called Vijñānavāda. Traditionally, he and his half-brother Vasubandhu are regarded as the founders of this school...
's
Abhidharmasamuccaya (Compendium of Higher Knowledge) - which is an early
YogacaraYogācāra is an influential school of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing phenomenology and ontology through the interior lens of meditative and yogic practices. It developed within Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism in about the 4th century CE...
work, and
VasubandhuVasubandhu was an Indian Buddhist monk, and along with his half-brother Asanga, one of the main founders of the Indian Yogācāra school. However, some scholars consider Vasubandhu to be two distinct people. Vasubandhu is one of the most influential figures in the entire history of Buddhism...
's
AbhidharmakoshaAbhidharma-kośa is a key text in verse written in Sanskrit by Vasubandhu. It summarizes Sarvāstivādin tenets in eight chapters with a total of around 600 verses...
(Treasury of Higher Knowledge) - which is a synopsis of the
MahavibhasaThe Abhidharma ' Śāstra is an ancient Buddhist text. It is thought to have been authored around 150 CE.-The Compendia: is a term meaning 'compendium', 'treatise' or simply 'explanation', derived from vi + , 'to speak' or 'to explain'...
of the
VaibhāṣikaThe Vaibhāṣika was an early Buddhist subschool formed by adherents of the Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra, comprising the orthodox Kasmiri branch of the Sarvāstivāda school...
-
SarvastivadaThe Sarvāstivāda were an early school of Buddhism that held to 'the existence of all dharmas in the past, present and future, the 'three times'. Vasubandhu's states:-Name:...
tradition, with the addition of Sautrantika perspectives. These are both works from approximately 4-5th century India, and are extant in Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan translations, as well as the
SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
.
See also
Buddhist texts
- Tipitaka
- Abhidhamma Pitaka
The Abhidhamma Pitaka is the last of the three pitakas constituting the Pali Canon, the scriptures of Theravāda Buddhism....
- Sutta Pitaka
The Sutta Pitaka is the second of the three divisions of the Tipitaka or Pali Canon, the Pali collection of Buddhist writings, the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism...
- Vinaya Pitaka
The ' is a Buddhist scripture, one of the three parts that make up the Tripitaka. Its primary subject matter is the monastic rules for monks and nuns...
Buddhist concepts
- Pratitya-samutpada
Dependent origination or dependent arising is a cardinal doctrine of Buddhism, and arguably the only thing that holds every Buddhist teaching together from Theravada to Dzogchen to the extinct schools. As a concept and a doctrine it has a general and a specific application, both being integral to...
- Skandha
In Buddhist phenomenology and soteriology, the skandhas or khandhas are any of five types of phenomena that serve as objects of clinging and bases for a sense of self...
External links