Abhidharma

Abhidharma [Skt.,=higher dharma, or doctrine], schools of Buddhist philosophy. Early Buddhism analyzed experience into 5 skandhas or aggregates, and alternatively into 18 dhatus or elements. Later schools developed the process of analysis and classification that was called Abhidharma ; their treatises were collected in the Abhidharmapitaka, one of the three main divisions of the Pali Buddhist canon (see Buddhist literature , Pali canon ). The five skandhas analyzed experience to demonstrate the absence of an abiding "self." The categories of analysis were dharmas, or natures, ultimate qualities or principles that arise and pass away in irreducible moments of time. Lists of dharmas varied from 75 to 157, with different schools classifying the dharmas into different groups, and the exact definition of a dharma eventually became the subject of great controversy. The greatest systematizer of Abhidharma thought was Vasubandhu (5th cent. AD), who wrote the encyclopedic Abhidharma-kosa or Treasury of Abhidharma.

Bibliography: See H. Guenther, Philosophy and Psychology in the Abhidharma (1957); T. Stcherbatsky, The Central Conception of Buddhism (4th ed. 1970).

Abhidharma (Skt.; Pāli, Abhidhamma). Term meaning ‘higher doctrine’ and denoting the scholastic analysis of religious teachings. The earliest Abhidharma material was composed over several centuries beginning around 300 bce and formed the substance of the various collections of canonical scholastic treatises (Abhidharma Piṭaka) of the different early schools. Influential later non-canonical compendia of Abhidharma teachings include the Abhidharma-kośa of Vasubandhu and the Abhidharma-samuccaya of Asaṅga. The contents of the Abhidharma do not form a systematic philosophy and it is mostly devoted to classifying and analysing material contained in the Buddha's discourses (sūtras) using a special analytical framework and technical terminology. The fundamental doctrines discussed are those already presented in other parts of the canon, which are therefore taken for granted. According to legend the Abhidharma was first preached by the Buddha to his mother during a visit to her in heaven after her death. The legend also says that after his enlightenment (bodhi) the Buddha spent a week revolving the complex doctrines of the Abhidharma in all their details in his mind.

Abhidharma-kośa Śāstra. A systematic Sarvāstivāda Buddhist treatise composed by (or attributed to) Vasubandhu in the period before he embraced Mahāyāna Buddhism. The work comprises two parts: verse (Abh.k. kārikā) and prose commentary (Abh.k. bhāṣya). As an encyclopaedia of Abhidharma, the work became absolutely central to the tradition of study within Buddhism in subsequent cents.