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The place of Abhidharma in Buddhism
“The three baskets” is the name given to the teaching of the Buddha, which is made up of the Sutrapitaka (Pali: Suttapitaka, English: the Discourse Basket), the Vinayapitaka (the Discipline Basket) and l'Abhidharmapitaka (the Basket of the Higher Knowledge of Phenomena).

These three baskets put the emphasis on the three trainings that lead towards Buddha, the enlightened state: ethics, stable meditation states and higher knowledge.

Literally, Abhidharma means “higher Dharma”, where “dharma” can mean both doctrine and phenomena. It is the third of the three baskets that were assembled by the disciples of the Buddha and makes up the training of higher knowledge.

The Abhidharma is a unique feature of Buddhism. By mapping out the training towards higher knowledge, it leads one to an understanding of both sutras and tantras.

According to tradition, Mahakasyapa, one of the close disciples of the Buddha, recited the Abhidharma during the first council in Rajgir. It actually is a systematization of the teaching of the Buddha. Free of all surrounding narration, it presents phenomena in a clear and detailed way.

The Abhidharma is an analysis of phenomena, i.e.:

• The Structures of the cosmos (for example the three realms: the desire realm made up of 6 levels of existence, the form realm and formless realm)

• The workings of mind and its knowing capacities (for example the law of karma, cause and effect...)

• The link between mind and its manifestation.

One can make a distinction between the Abhidharma Sutra (that come from the discourses of the Buddha), and the Abhidharma Shastra (commentaries on the sutras).

The Abhidharma has been the source of all Buddhist philosophies throughout all schools and periods.

The seven great treatises from the Abhidhammapitaka :

• The Dhammasangani, a catalogue of the phenomena that make up the universe;

• The Vibhanga, made up of 18 categorisations of phenomena, such as the skandhas, dhatus, ayatanas etc.;

• The Kathavatthu by Mogalliputta Tissa, authored during the reign of Emperor Ashoka to refute wrong views;

• The Puggalapannati, a “description of (human) character”;

• The Dhatukatha, a short catalogue;

• The Yamaka, the “Pairs”; 

• The Patthana that expounds the causal relationships between phenomena.

The Abhidharma is not a mere cosmological listing and cannot be reduced to a catalogue that describes the different types of consciousness and mental events.

The Abhidharmapitaka contains methods of investigation of mind and phenomena. The various reasonings are expounded in the first and last books, i.e. the Dhammasangani and Patthana.

We use the analytical method to break things up into the component parts of an apparent whole; then we use the synthetic or relational method to show that these component parts do not exist independently and separately but depend on other factors for their existence.

The goal of analysis is to uproot attachment to internal phenomena (the notion of a self, various mental events...) and external phenomena (things other than the self, the outer world); this is done by seeing that all phenomena are compounded.

To arrive at an understanding of ultimate reality, we need to couple the analytical approach with the synthetic approach: all phenomena by nature depend on each other and have no inherent existence. They appear out of the workings of cause and effect.

The Abhidharma leads to a higher knowledge of mind, which enables one to distinguish between wholesome and unwholesome states of mind. The definition of the Sanskrit words kusala/akusala literally is “what tends toward cure” (kusala, wholesome), and “what tends toward perpetuation of suffering” (akusala, unwholesome).

To know and control these various states of mind allows one to create causes of happiness, and reach the state of an Arhat. One also learns to recognize states of mind based on passion, aggression and ignorance as causes of suffering and alienation.

Part 2 : The Abhidharmakosha. >>>

To know more
about the Abhidharma in Pali click here Bibliography