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Abhidhamma Pitaka

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Religious texts

   The Abhidhamma Pitaka (abhidhammapiṭaka) is the last of the three
   pitakas, that is, baskets, constituting the Pali Canon, the scriptures
   of Theravāda Buddhism. It presents a more formal, abstract, systematic
   form of teaching than the others.

Nature of abhidhamma

   Abhidhamma has been variously described as philosophy, psychology,
   metaphysics etc. Most scholars regard it as an attempted
   systematization of the teachings of the Sutta Pitaka, but L. S.
   Cousins, former Lecturer in the Department of Comparative Religion at
   Manchester University and former President of the Pali Text Society,
   says that the abhidhamma methodology looks at things in terms of
   occasions or events instead of sequences or processes. Tradition says
   that the abhidhamma is the absolute teaching whereas the suttas are
   adapted to particular hearers.

Origins

   According to the scriptures themselves, the abhidhamma was taught by
   the Buddha himself. Tradition says that he thought it out immediately
   after his enlightenment, but only taught it some years later, to the
   gods. He then repeated it to Sariputta, who handed it on to his
   disciples. Scholars do not take this literally, dating these works
   generally around the third century B.C.E. However, some consider
   important aspects do or may go back earlier. Thus Cousins says that the
   abhidhamma methodology goes back earlier, perhaps to the Buddha
   himself. Dr Rupert Gethin, Lecturer in Indian religions in the
   Department of Theology and Religious studies, and co-director of the
   Centre for Buddhist Studies, at the University of Bristol, and current
   (2006) President of the Pali Text Society, also says important elements
   of abhidhamma methodology probably go back to the Buddha's lifetime. A.
   K. Warder, Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit at the University of Toronto,
   and Dr Peter Harvey of the University of Sunderland both suggest much
   earlier dates for the matikas on which most of the abidhamma books are
   based.

Contents

   The Abhidhamma Pitaka consists of seven books.
     * Dhammasangani (-saṅgaṇi or -saṅga&7751ī)
     * Vibhanga (vibhaṅga)
     * Dhatukatha (dhātukathā)
     * Puggalapannatti (-paññatti)
     * Kathavatthu (kathā-)
     * Yamaka
     * Patthana (paţţhāna)

Dhammasangani

   This book begins with a matika (mātikā, literally, matrix), listing
   classifications of dhammas, variously translated as phenomena, ideas,
   states, etc. It starts with 22 threefold classifications, beginning
   with good/bad/unclassified, and follows this with 100 twofold ones
   according to the abhidhamma method. Many of these classifications are
   not exhaustive, and some are not even exclusive. The matika ends with
   42 twofold classifications according to the sutta method, which are
   used only in this book, whereas the other 122 are used also in some of
   the other books.

   The main body of the book is in four parts. The first of these goes
   through numerous states of mind, listing and defining, by lists of
   synonyms, factors present in them. The second deals with material form,
   beginning with its own matika, classifying by ones, twos and so on,
   explained after. The third explains the book's matika in terms of the
   first two parts, as does the fourth, by a different method, and
   omitting the sutta method.

Vibhanga

   This book is in 18 chapters, each dealing with a different topic; for
   example the first deals with the five aggregates. A typical chapter
   (there are a number of divergences from this pattern) is in three
   parts. The first explains the topic according to the sutta method,
   often word-for-word the same as in actual suttas. The second is
   abhidhamma explanation, mainly by lists of synonyms as in the
   Dhammasangani. The third uses questions and answers, based on the
   matika: "How many aggregates are good etc?"

Dhatukatha

   This book covers both the matika and various topics, mostly from the
   Vibhanga, relating them to the 5 aggregates, 12 bases and 18 elements.
   The first chapter is fairly simple: "In how many aggregates etc. are
   good dhammas etc. included?" The book progressively works up to more
   complicated questions: "From how many aggregates etc. are the dhammas
   dissociated from attention etc. dissociated?"

Puggalapannatti

   This book starts with its own matika, which begins with some standard
   lists but then continues with lists of persons grouped numerically from
   ones to tens. This latter portion of the matika is then explained in
   the main body of the work. Most of the lists of persons and many of the
   explanations are also found in the Anguttara Nikaya.

Kathavatthu

   This book consists of more than two hundred debates on questions of
   doctrine. It does not identify the participants. The commentary says
   the debates are between the Theravada and other schools, which it
   identifies in each case. These identifications are mostly consistent
   with what is known from other sources about the doctrines of different
   schools.

Yamaka

   This book consists of ten chapters, each dealing with a different
   topic; for example, the first deals with roots. A typical chapter
   (there are a number of divergences from this pattern) is in three
   parts. The first part deals with questions of identity: "Is good root
   root?" "But is root good root?" The entire Yamaka consists of such
   pairs of converse questions, with their answers. Hence its name, which
   means pairs. The second part deals with arising: "For someone for whom
   the form aggregate arises, does the feeling aggregate arise?" The third
   part deals with understanding: "Does someone who understands the eye
   base understand the ear base?"

Patthana

   This book deals with 24 conditions in relation to the matika: "Good
   dhamma is related to good dhamma by root condition", with details and
   numbers of answers.

Place in the tradition

   The importance of the Abhidhamma Pitaka in classical Sinhalese Buddhism
   is suggested by the fact that it came to be furnished, not only, like
   much of the canon, with a commentary and a subcommentary on that
   commentary, but even with a subsubcommentary on that subcommentary. In
   more recent centuries, however, Burma has become the main centre of
   abhidhamma studies.

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