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ABHIDHAMMA

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 62 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ABHIDHAMMA , the name of one of the three Pitakas,_ or baskets of tradition, into which the Buddhist scriptures (see See also:

BUDDHISM) are divided. It consists of seven See also:works: 1. Dhamma Sangani (enumeration of qualities). 2. Vibhanga (exposition). 3. Kathy Vatthu (bases of See also:opinion). 4. Puggala Pannatti (on individuals). 5. Dhatu Kathy (on relations of moral dispositions). 6.

Yamaka (the pairs, that is, of ethical states). 7. Patthana (See also:

evolution of ethical states). These have now been published by the See also:Pali See also:Text Society. The first has been translated into See also:English, and an abstract of the third has been published. The approximate date of these works is probably from about 400 B.C. to about 250 B.C., the first being the See also:oldest and the third the latest of the seven. Before the publication of the texts, when they were known only by hearsay, the See also:term Abhidlzamma was usually rendered "See also:Metaphysics." This is now seen to be 'quite erroneous. Dhamma means the See also:doctrine, and •Abhidlzamma has a relation to Dhamma similar to that of by-See also:law to law. It expands, classifies, tabulates, draws corollaries from the ethical doctrines laid down in the more popular See also:treatises. There is no metaphysics in it at all, only psychological See also:ethics of a peculiarly dry and scholastic See also:kind. And there is no originality in it; only endless permutations and combinations of doctrines already known and accepted. As in the course of centuries the doctrine itself, in certain See also:schools, varied, it was See also:felt necessary to rewrite these secondary works.

This was first done, so far as is at See also:

present known, by the Sarvastivadins (Realists), who in the See also:century before and after See also:Christ produced a fresh set of seven Abhidlamma books. These are lost See also:India, but still exist in See also:Chinese See also:translations. The translations have been analysed in a masterly way by See also:Professor Takakusu in the See also:article mentioned below. They See also:deal only with psychological ethics. In the course of further centuries these books in turn were superseded by new treatises; and in one school at least,: that of the Maha-yana (See also:great vehicle) there was eventually See also:developed a See also:system of metaphysics. But the word Abhidhamma then See also:fell out of use in that school, though it is stillused in the schools that continue to follow the See also:original seven books. See Buddhist See also:Psychology by See also:Caroline Rhys Davids (See also:London, 1900), a See also:translation of the Dhamma Sangani, with valuable introduction; "Schools of Buddhist Belief," by T. W. Rhys Davids, in See also:Journal of the Royal See also:Asiatic Society, 1892, contains an abstract of the Kathy Vatthu; "On the Abhidlamma books of the Sarvastivadins," by Prof. Takakusu, in Journal of the Pali Text Society, 1905. (T. W.

R.

End of Article: ABHIDHAMMA

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