The Abhidhamma is a systematic account of reality, mainly mental reality, that is traced back to sections of ancient Buddhist scriptures. In this chapter I will briefly describe its textual context.Scholars divide Buddhism today into three major divisions: Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna (Gethin, 1998 p.2ff). Theravāda is found is South East Asia, mainly in Thailand, Burma, Sri-Lanka Cambodia and Laos. The language of Theravādin scriptures is Pāli, which is a type of Indian Language closely related to Sanskrit.The Buddhism of China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan is usually referred to as Mahāyāna. Its scriptures are mainly in Chinese, though some of them are definitely translations of Indian texts.
Vajrayāna is also part of the Mahāyāna, but includes Tantra (esoteric practice) which is practiced mainly in Tibet, Mongolia, Nepal and in the Indian Himalaya. The texts of this division are in Tibetan, but again, some are translations of Sanskrit Indian texts.
All three divisions look back to ancient India where Buddhism began. Mahāyāna can be traced back to around the first century BCE. Vajrayāna is a much later development. But even before the creation ofMahāyāna there were other divisions within the Buddhist community.
Historical developments within the early Buddhist community have lead to divisions on various topics. Historical fact about early Buddhism are hard to establish for all we have is based on later records from different traditions reporting on the early days. In many cases they are not in agreement with each other. However, it is generally acceptable that the first schism within the Buddhist community happened around a century after the death of the Buddha and involved a dispute regarding the implementation of the monastic code.
A schism within the community, in which a group is forced either to leave or conform, is more likely to have happened on the basis of rule violation than, say, a philosophical disagreement. Misguided views, according to Buddhist thought, are common obstacles to liberation. But it would make little sense to expel anyone who holds them, as they are present to some degree in all unliberated minds. Ignorance is the prime cause of misery, and knowledge is the cure. The community creates the conditions for gaining knowledge by learning and practicing and it does not assume that its members would accept a priori all doctrinal issues. But as much as the Buddhist community can accommodate different views, it cannot tolerate behavioural problems. The monastic code is designed to help the monks living together. Any infringement of the rules, threaten the ability to live and practice together. Hence, according to Gethin, practice is primer to doctrinal conformity in holding the community together: early Buddhism was more an orthopraxy than an orthodoxy (1998 p.51).
The first schism led to the creation of two groups: the Staviras or ”elders“ who insisted on the hard line of the monastic code and the Mahāsāṁghikas or ”the great community“ who were the majority. In the two centuries following this split many more schools have emerged. Most of them left us nothing but their names, but at least some have developed distinct philosophical agendas. Among them, suggests Ornan Rotem, some are likely to have been informal schools of thought like ”British Empiricists“ and ”Kantians“ for modern philosophy (in Gethin, 1998 p.52). The Theravādins or ”advocate of the doctrine of the elders“ trace their lineage back to a group called Vibhajyavādins or ”advocate of a doctrine of analysis“, which stemmed from the Stavira. In this case we know that Theravāda has both a unique philosophical position and a particular monastic code.
The Pāli canon is the scriptural corpus of the Theravādins, the only complete collection in an Indian language that survived to this day. According to the traditional account the collection arrived to Sri Lanka in the third century BCE, and was written down in the first century BCE. Most scholars would hesitate to claim that it existed in the third century BCE as we have it today. Nevertheless, the Pāli canon is the best account of early Buddhism available to us, and contains at least portions that go back to the third century BCE. It is also the only Buddhist canon to have been completely translated into a European language. With the right scholarly caution it provides an immense source for studying Buddhist thought, culture and history. One only has to bear in mind that this large group of texts — modern editions of the Pāli canon contain more than fifty volumes — contains ancient strata representing early Buddhism mixed with somewhat later strata unique to the Theravāda.
The Pāli canon and fragments that reached us from some of the schools indicate that early Buddhist texts have been organized from a very early stage into three sections, or ”baskets“ (piţaka): the discourses (sutta/sūtra piţaka), the monastic code (Vinaya piţaka) and the Abhidhamma (Sanskrit: Abhidharma) piţaka. (see diagram) The basket of discourses is comprised of four primary collections (Nikāya). They are extremely important to Buddhist thought, and probably most Buddhist thinkers were familiar with their content and regarded them as authoritative. Among these texts one find the first discourse given by the Buddha (see above p. 9), conversations with Brahmins and others on perception, views, intentions, ethics, self, suffering, meditation, and many more important themes. These discourses are sorted into four primary collections (Nikāya), mainly according to their length. The basket of discourses contains also a minor collection that includes various stories and poems. Both the Pāli and Chinese canons contain baskets of discourses. Although the Chinese version (called Āgama) is not directly translated from the Pāli both versions generally conforms in content (Gethin, 1998 p.44). Comparing the Pāli and the Chinese versions is a work in progress that occupies that minds of the few Buddhist scholars who have sufficient knowledge of both Pāli and Classical Chinese. The basket of monastic code contains the monastic rule, stories that explain why and how these rules were formed and sections that set the right way of performing various monastic procedures (like ordination). Both the Chinese and the Tibetan canons preserve various versions of monastic codes that have helped to organize Buddhist communities.
The Abhidhamma (Sanskrit: Abhidharma) basket contains an attempt to present Buddhist doctrine in a systematized way, without the narratives that accompany the accounts in the basket of discourses. The Abhidhamma is probably the earliest attempt to provide a systematized account of the Buddhist doctrine. Though it is traditionally thought of as the words of the Buddha (like the discourses and monastic code), scholars agree that it is probably a slightly later creation. Gethin suggests that the Abhidhamma might have been a very early commentarial attempt created by the first generation of Buddhist followers (1998 p.54). It is no surprise then that different schools have different versions of it. Of the various Abhidharmas that might have existed in India, only three have reached us: (1) The Sarvastivāda Abhidharma that has been central to the development of Mahāyāna and Tibetan philosophy. (2) A work called Śāriputra-abhidharma-śāstra that probably belong to the extinct Dharmaguptaka school, and (3) the Theravāda Abhidhamma (Nyanaponika, 1998 p.x).
The different Abhidharmas vary quite dramatically both in structure and content. This thesis is concerned only with the Abhidhamma of the Theravāda and therefore no space is dedicated to the exploration of the other treatises. In addition to it, the basket of discourses (Sutta Piţaka) contains discussion of human psychology and I will use its Pāli version occasionally.
The Abhiadhamma is a long and rather technical text in seven books. It is an attempt to present Buddhist ideas in a systematic method that might be seen as a commentary on the Sutta Piţaka. Nevertheless, the Abhidhamma itself served as a root for a rich commentarial tradition. The two first books, the Dhammasńgaņī and the Vibhańga have their own commentaries: the Atthasālinī and the Sammoha-vinodanī respectively. The other five books have one commentary on them called Pāñcappakaraņa-aţţhakathā. These commentaries are attributed to the fifth century CE scholar-monk Buddhaghosa, who is also said to have composed and edited the commentaries on the basket of discourses.
Buddhaghosa is also the compiler of a very influential guide to Buddhist practice called the Visuddhimagga, or in English translation ”The Path of Purification“. This work has become very central to Theravāda thought and is sometimes considered as ”applied Abhidhamma“ (Nyanaponika, 1998 p.xii).
The commentaries on the Abhidhamma have led to yet another layer of sub-commentaries, which led to attempts to summarize them all in a more concise form of a manual. Composed around the 11th century CE the Abhidhammattha-sańgaha has become a standard manual or ”handbook“ for Abhidhamma studies throughout Theravāda religions. As its style is very condensed, it evoked the need for explanatory notes. Among the many commentaries on this text two are available to us in English. One is translation of the 12th century Abhidhammatthavibhāvinī-ţīkā (Anuruddha & Sumangala, 2002), and the other is the 20th century A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma (Anuruddha, 2000). [The two books contain translations of the original text, hence they are sorted under the same 11th century author Anuruddha. There is a third one: Paramatthadīpanī Sangaha Mahā-òīkā by Ledi Sayadaw which has been translated into English by U Nandamala from Myanmar, but the translation is still unpublished. (thanks to Erik Braun from Harvard for the information)]
The evolution of commentaries and sub-commentaries is described by the contemporary scholar and translator of the Pali Bhikkhu Boddhi as a ”rhythmic alteration of condensed and expansive modes of treatment, the systole and diastole phases in the evolution of Theravāda Buddhist doctrine.“ (Introduction to Nyanaponika, 1998 p.xiii). Indeed to some extent the history of Theravāda doctrine is the history of its textual evolution. However, the Abhidhamma is not only a classical text and its traditional exegesis. It is also a living tradition with relevance to Buddhist practice and education. The analytical method of the Abhidhamma influences the way Buddhists analyze the mental/phenomenal world and has crucial relevance to the study and practice meditation.
The prefix abhi means ”beyond“ or ”above“ and dhamma means ”teaching“, ”truth“ and ”phenomenon“. A translation of the compound abhi-dhamma can be therefore ”the high truth“. But the Atthasālinī commentary state that dhamma in this case means ”teachings“, and the compound means ”that which exceeds and is distinguished from the teachings“, i.e., that which exceeds the teachings of the sutta piţaka (in Anuruddha, 2000 p.5).
The presentation of teachings in the suttas and the ”high“ teaching of the Abhidhamma are different in scope and method. The former presents a situated truth in a personal context, with stories, similes and within conversations in particular circumstances. The latter aims at a comprehensive impersonalized presentation. Therefore, Abhidhamma is more than a set text that is being re-interpreted through the years. It is a particular way of analytical approach to reality, especially mental reality. It provides a method of breaking the phenomenal world apart, and re-constructing it according to the Buddhist understanding of reality. This project is a fascinating intellectual endeavor, but for Buddhists it also important to the practice of meditation, and the progress of insight that would eventually lead to liberation of the mind. In short, the Abhidhamma crystallizes the idea that knowing the mind is what leads to its liberation.
Books mentioned in this post:
Anuruddha. (2000). A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma: The Abhidhammattha Sangaha of Acariya Anuruddha (M. Narada & B. Bodhi, Trans.). Seattle: BPS Pariyatti Editions. Buy it with Amazon
Anuruddha, & Sumangala. (2002). Summery of the Topics of Abhidhamma and Exposition of the Topics of Abhidhamma (R. Gethin & R. P. Wijeratne, Trans.). Oxford: The Pali Text Society. Buy it with Amazon
Gethin, R. (1998). The Foundations of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Buy it with Amazon
Nyanaponika, T. (1998). Abhidhamma Studies: Buddhist Exploration of Consciousness and Time (4th ed.). Kandy/Boston: Buddhist Publication Society & Wisdom Publication. Buy it with Amazon
אסף פדרמן הוא דוקטורנט לפסיכולוגיה בודהיסטית ואבא טרי חושב וכותב על מה שמענין אותו.
