Abhidhamma Pitaka

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The Abhidhamma Pitaka (Pali; English: Basket of Higher Doctrine) is the last of the three pitakas (Pali for "baskets") constituting the Pali Canon, the scriptures of Theravāda Buddhism. [1]

Pali middle Indo-Aryan language

Pali or Magadhan is a Middle Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Pāli Canon or Tipiṭaka, and is the sacred language of some religious texts of Hinduism and all texts of Theravāda Buddhism. The earliest archaeological evidence of the existence of canonical Pali comes from Pyu city-states inscriptions found in Burma dated to the mid 5th to mid 6th century CE.

Theravada branch of Buddhism

Theravāda is the most ancient branch of extant Buddhism today, and the one that preserved their version of the teachings of Gautama Buddha in the Pāli Canon. The Pāli Canon is the only complete Buddhist canon which survives in a classical Indian language, Pāli, which serves as both sacred language and lingua franca of Theravāda Buddhism. For more than a millennium, Theravāda has focused on preserving the dhamma as preserved in its texts, and it tends to be very conservative with regard to matters of doctrine and monastic discipline. Since the 19th century, meditation practice has been re-introduced, and has become popular with a lay audience, both in traditional Theravada countries and in the west.

Buddhism World religion, founded by the Buddha

Buddhism is the world's fourth-largest religion with over 520 million followers, or over 7% of the global population, known as Buddhists. Buddhism encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on original teachings attributed to the Buddha and resulting interpreted philosophies. Buddhism originated in ancient India as a Sramana tradition sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, spreading through much of Asia. Two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars: Theravada and Mahayana.

Contents

The Abhidhamma Pitaka is a detailed scholastic analysis and summary of the Buddha's teachings in the Suttas. Here the suttas are reworked into a schematized system of general principles that might be called 'Buddhist Psychology'. In the Abhidhamma the generally dispersed teachings and principles of the suttas are organized into a coherent science of Buddhist doctrine. [2]

The other two collections are the Sutta Pitaka and the Vinaya Pitaka. [1]

Origins

Tradition [3] holds that the Buddha thought out the Abhidhamma immediately after his enlightenment then taught it to the gods some years later. Later the Buddha repeated it to Sariputta who then handed it on to his disciples. This tradition is also evident in the Parivara, a very late addition to the Vinaya Pitaka, [4] which mentions in a concluding verse of praise to the Buddha that this best of creatures, the lion, taught the three pitakas. [5]

Scholars, however, generally date the Abhidhamma works to originating some time around the third century BCE, 100 to 200 years after the death of the Buddha. 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. [6] Rupert Gethin however said that important elements of Abhidhamma methodology probably go back to the Buddha's lifetime. [7] A. K. Warder and Peter Harvey both suggested early dates for the matikas on which most of the Abidhamma books are based. Abhidhamma started out as elaboration of the suttas,[ dubious – discuss ] but later developed independent doctrines. [8]

Rupert Mark Lovell Gethin is Professor of Buddhist Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and codirector of the Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Bristol, and president of the Pali Text Society. He holds a BA in Comparative Religion (1980), a master's degree in Buddhist Studies (1982), and a PhD in Buddhist Studies (1987), all from the University of Manchester. He was appointed Lecturer in Indian Religions by the University of Bristol in 1987, and then Professor In Buddhist Studies in 2009.

A. K. Warder Canadian indologist

Anthony Kennedy Warder was a British scholar of Indology, mostly in Buddhist studies and related fields, such as the Pāḷi and Sanskrit languages. He wrote 15 books and numerous articles. He held the title of Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit in the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto.

As the last major division of the canon, the Abhidhamma Pitaka has had a checkered history. It was not accepted as canonical by the Mahasanghika school[ dubious – discuss ] [2] [9] and several other schools[ dubious – discuss ]. [10] Another school included most of the Khuddaka Nikaya within the Abhidhamma Pitaka. [2] 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. [11] The various Abhidhamma philosophies of the various early schools have no agreement on doctrine [12] and belong to the period of 'Divided Buddhism' [12] (as opposed to Undivided Buddhism). The earliest texts of the Pali Canon have no mention of (the texts of) the Abhidhamma Pitaka. [13] The Abhidhamma is also not mentioned in some reports of the First Buddhist Council, which do mention the existence of the texts of the Vinaya and either the five Nikayas [14] or the four Agamas, although it may be noted that the Venerable [Sariputta] foremost in Abhidhamma had passed on before the Buddha, before the First Council took place[ citation needed ]. [15] Other accounts do include the Abhidhamma. [16]

Khuddaka Nikaya the last of the 5 nikayas in the Pāli Sutta Pitaka; consists of between 15 and 18 parts (depending on edition)

The Khuddaka Nikāya 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. This nikaya consists of fifteen (Thailand), seventeen, or eighteen books (Burma) in different editions on various topics attributed to the Buddha and his chief disciples.

Pre-sectarian Buddhism

Pre-sectarian Buddhism, also called early Buddhism, the earliest Buddhism, and original Buddhism, is Buddhism as theorized to have existed before the various subsects of Buddhism came into being.

Āgama (Buddhism) Buddhist scriptures

In Buddhism, an āgama is used as "sacred scriptures". "Sacred work", as it is mistakenly used by Monier and Williams, is too narrow a meaning. In the Pali Canon of the Theravada, the term nikāya is used. The word āgama does not occur in this collection. Monier and Williams, as well as Rhys Davids and Stede, borrowed āgama from the earlier Russian and French Sanskritists who studied the Mahāyāna Scriptures such as the Lotus Sutra that indeed has the word āgama. The five āgamas together comprise the Sutra Collection of the early Mahayanistic Buddhist schools primarily in China and the Himalayas.

In the Theravadin Abhidhamma Pitaka, unlike the Abhidharma Pitaka of the Sarvastivada school, ontological theorizing is absent, and the question of ontological status of dharmas remains a moot point. The notion of sabhava (Sanskrit: svabhava ) is only utilized in late Theravadin texts. [17] The doctrine of momentariness is also a late addition to Theravada thought. [18] It only appears at the time of Buddhaghosa. [19]

Contents

The Abhidhamma Piṭaka consists of seven books: [20]

Dhammasaṅganī

The Dhammasangani (Summary of Dharma) is a manual of ethics for monks. [1] It begins with a mātikā (translated as matrix) which lists classifications of dhammas (translated as phenomena, ideas, states, etc.). The mātikā starts with 22 threefold classifications, such as good/bad/unclassified, and then follows with 100 twofold classifications according to the Abhidhamma method. Many of these classifications are not exhaustive, and some are not even exclusive. The mātikā ends with 42 twofold classifications according to the sutta method; these 42 are only used in the Dhammasangani, whereas the other 122 are used in some of the other books as well.

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

Vibhaṅga

The Vibhanga (Division or Classification) [1] consists of 18 chapters, each dealing with a different topic. For example, the first chapter deals with the five aggregates. A typical chapter consists of three parts. The first of these parts explains the topic according to the sutta method, often word-for-word as in actual suttas. The second is Abhidhamma explanation, mainly by lists of synonyms as in the Dhammasangani. The third employs questions and answers, based on the mātikā, such as "How many aggregates are good?"

Dhātukathā

The Dhatukatha (Discussion of Elements) [1] 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?"

Puggalapaññatti

The Puggalapannatti (Designation of Person) [1] 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. It lists human characteristics encountered on the stages of a Buddhist path. [1] Most of the lists of persons and many of the explanations are also found in the Anguttara Nikaya.

Kathāvatthu

The Kathavatthu (Points of Controversy) [1] consists of more than two hundred debates on questions of doctrine. The questions are heretical in nature, and are answered in such a way as to refute them. It starts with the question of whether or not a soul exists. [1] 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. [21] It is the only portion attributed to a specific author, Moggaliputta. [1]

Yamaka

The Yamaka (Pairs) [1] 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?" In essence, it is dealing with psychological phenomena. [1]

Paṭṭhāna

Patthan (Activations or Causes) [1] 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. This Patthana text comprise many cause and effects theory detail expositions, limitation and unlimitation of to their direction depended nature with ultimate.

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, Burma has become the main centre of Abhidhamma studies. However, all of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka hold it in high regard. [1]

Translations

The first five books and part of the seventh of the Abhidhamma Pitaka have been translated by the Pali Text Society, which offers an option to order them through their website.

See also

Related Research Articles

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Buddhist councils

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The Vinaya Pitaka is a Buddhist scripture, one of the three parts that make up the Tripitaka. The other two parts of the Tripitaka are the Sutta Pitaka and the Abhidhamma Pitaka. Its primary subject matter is the monastic rules for monks and nuns. The name Vinaya Pitaka is the same in Pāli, Sanskrit and other dialects used by early Buddhists.

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Abhidharma Buddhist texts from the 3rd century BCE and later, containing detailed scholastic reworkings of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist sutras, according to schematic classifications

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Pāli Canon Buddhist scriptures preserved in the Pāli language by the Theravada tradition

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "Abhidhamma Pitaka". Encyclopædia Britannica. I: A-ak Bayes (15th ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. pp. 30–31. ISBN   978-1-59339-837-8.
  2. 1 2 3 "Abhidhamma Pitaka." Encyclopædia Britannica. Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008.
  3. ↑ Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, India Office, 1938, reprinted Pali Text Society, Bristol, volume I, page 138
  4. ↑ This work (the Parivara) is in fact a very much later composition, and probably the work of a Ceylonese Thera. from: Book of the Discipline, volume VI, page ix (translators' introduction)
  5. ↑ Book of the Discipline, volume VI, page 123
  6. ↑ "Abhidhamma Pitaka." Encyclopædia Britannica. Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008.
  7. ↑ Foundations of Buddhism , Oxford University Press, 1998, page 48
  8. ↑ Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2004), pages 1, 4
  9. ↑ Buddhist Sects in india, Nalinaksha Dutt, 1978, page 58
  10. ↑ several schools rejected the authority of abhidharma. in: Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2004), page 2. (A similar statement can be found on pages 112 and 756.)
  11. ↑ "Buddhism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008.
  12. 1 2 Kanai Lal Hazra, Pali Language and Literature - A Systematic Survey and Historical Survey, 1994, Vol. 1, page 415
  13. ↑ Kanai Lal Hazra, Pali Language and Literature - A Systematic Survey and Historical Survey, 1994, Vol. 1, page 412
  14. ↑ I.B. Horner, Book of the Discipline, Volume 5, page 398. An older translation of this texts can be found at: Eleventh Khandhaka: On the council of Rajagaha.
  15. ↑ The Mahisasaka Account of the First Council. see http://santifm.org/santipada/2010/the-first-council/
  16. ↑ Warder, Indian Buddhism, 3rd ed, page 196
  17. ↑ Richard King, Early Advaita Vedānta and Buddhism: The Mahāyāna Context of the Gauḍapādīya-kārikā. SUNY Press, 1995, page 94.
  18. ↑ Noa Ronkin, Early Buddhist Metaphysics: the Making of a Philosophical Tradition." Routledge, 2005, page 59.
  19. ↑ David Kalupahana, Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism. The University Press of Hawaii, 1975, pages 72, 82. Kalupahana cites texts in the agamas and nikayas that contradict the doctrine of momentariness.
  20. ↑ Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2012). Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma: The Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha of Acariya Anuruddha (PDF ed.). Pariyatti Publishing. p. 2. ISBN   978-1-938754-24-1.
  21. ↑ Bareau, Les Sectes bouddhiques du Petit Véhicule, Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient, Saigon, 1955
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