Abhidhamma
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(Original article from an 1911 Encyclopedia)
The Abhidhamma is the name of one of the three Pitakas, or baskets of tradition, into which the Pali Buddhist scriptures (see Pali canon) are divided. It consists of seven works:
- 1. Dhamma Sangani (enumeration of qualities).
- 2. Vibhanga (exposition).
- 3. Dhatu Katha (on relations of moral dispositions).
- 4. Puggala Pannatti (on individuals).
- 5. Katha Vatthu (bases of opinion).
- 6. Yamaka (the pairs, that is, of ethical states).
- 7. Patthana (evolution of ethical states).
These have all been published in romanized Pali by the Pali Text Society, who have also published an English translation of the first five and part of the seventh. These works, like the Canon, evolved over centuries. The basic ideas may go back to the Buddha himself.
Before the publication of the texts, when they were known in the West only by hearsay, the term Abhidhamma was usually rendered Metaphysics. This is now seen to be quite erroneous. Dhamma means "the doctrine" (see Wikipedia entry on dharma for alternative translations), and Abhidhamma has a relation to Dhamma similar to that of by-laws to laws. It expands, classifies, tabulates, and draws corollaries from the ethical doctrines laid down in the more popular treatises. There is no metaphysics in it as such, only psychological ethics.
Other shools evolved their own forms, of which the best-known is the Sarvastivadins ("Realists"), who produced their own seven Abhidharma books in Sanskrit. These are lost in India, but still exist, mostly in Chinese translations. The translations have been analysed by Professor Takakusu in the article mentioned below, and deal only with psychological ethics. In the course of further centuries these books were superseded by new treatises, and in one school at least, the Mahayana, there was eventually developed a system of metaphysics. But the word Abhidhamma then fell out of use in that school, though it is still used in the schools that continue to follow the original seven books.
See Buddhist Psychology by Caroline Rhys Davids (London, 1900), translation of the Dhamma Sangani, with valuable introduction; or the Royal Asiatic Society, 1892, contains an abstract of the Katha On the Abhidhamma books of the Sarvastivadins, by Prof. Takakusu, in Journal of the Pali Text Society, 1905.
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Abhidhamma" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhidhamma, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
