In the Theravada tradition, it is mostly
said that the
Buddha stayed in the field of the
thirty-three marvelous creatures to teach his
mother, the doctrine
of Abhidhamma for the time period of
about three months. Then he move down towards the lake
Anottata; where he himself taught the same
doctrine to his most well-known follower
Sariputta in the form of mnemonic poetries, who
in turn taught the same again to the
five hundred well-known priests known as
the arahatas. Thus, Abhidhamma by way of the
verbal
tradition of communication beginning with the Buddha was passed
on and on to Sariputta and in the same way through
Bhaddaji, Sobhita, Piyajali, Piyapala, Piyadassi,
Kosiyaputta, Siggava, Sandeha, Moggalliputta,
Sudatta, Dhammiya, Dasaka, Sonaka and Revata;
and then again through Mahinda, Ittiya, Sambala,
Pandita, and Bhaddanama, it then reached to Sri Lanka.
Interestingly, this tradition is still going on
or carried in
Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand; though
it has finished and also completely vanished in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and
Cambodia.
The Meaning of Abhidhamma: The Buddhist rules are classified into three;
and the common and popular description for each
of these classifications is Pitaka. These pitakas were first
collected in
the first Buddhist committee, which was held in
Rajgir after the Parinibbana of the Buddha during the
domination of Ajatasattu , the king
of the Magadha Janapada. The first
of these body is called the Vinaya Pitaka;
and the other two are called the Sutta-Pitaka
and the Abhidhamma-Pitaka. The Vinaya Pitaka,
deals with the Buddhist codes and manner and
may be considered as the body of the Discipline.
It supposedly records the performance made by
the thera Upali in the committee. The latter two
pitakas, collectively called the ‘Dhamma’
are the collection of the performance given by
Ananda in the same committee. The performance of the above mentioned two priests, as
a fact, are the answers by way of the
explanations and illumination to the questions
put forward by the President of the committee - Mahathera
Maha Kassapa.
Reasonably, Abhidhamma may be considered as
the compound of abhi
and dhamma. However, in this situation it is
understood as “
giving importance to that which contains the
superior or
specialized-teachings of the Buddha” when we
look into the observations of the best known
Pali psychiatrist Buddhaghosa. The expert
challenger
reads the term ‘Abhidhamma’ as the most advanced or
specialized belief to differentiate it from the
standard
of the Sutta-Pitaka, which is not so much
properly organized;
and also which occupy the common and predictable
necessities and approach. It is remarkable that every
term of Abhidhamma has a specific idea or
well-defined meaning for the advanced priests or
learners.
The Buddha addressing Abhidhamma in the Tavatimsa:
Buddha descending from Tavatimsa to teach
Abhidhamma to Sariputta, the Thai version of
this:
The explanation of Abhidhamma given above is
moreover supported by the definition of
‘Abhidharma’ made by Vasubandhu in his Sanskrit
article - the Abhidharmakosa. There he insist
that “Abhidharma is the approximate wisdom and its
helpers. Moreover, whatever is involved
to achieve that; or the amount which is an aid
to that” is Abhidharma. Asanga’s
explanation of Abhidharma also enlarges to the
understanding of the above meaning.
Prefixing
abhi in four ways with the dhamma, he clarify
that:
The dhamma which is Nibbana-encountering;
The dhamma which is well-organized;
The dhamma which is refutative of the
converse
views ;
The dhamma which is advanced.
In the Chinese records, the term Abhidharma is
considered as ta fa (great dhamma
because of the greatness of the knowledge to the
realization of Four Noble Truths etc.); wu-pi-fa
(superior dhamma because of the eight forms of
intelligence); sheng-fa (excellent dhamma as
it is wisdom-realizing); tuei-fa (facing dhamma)
and hsiang-fa (scheduled dhamma as the
cause-effect theory that continues from cause to
effect).
The modern well-known scholars: W.Geiger, T.W. and
C.A.F.Rhys David's, Oldenburg, I.B.Horner,
E.J.Thomas, Kogen Mizuno, Ken Sakurabe, Taiken
Kimura and Bhikkhus Jagdish Kashyap have made
some serious studies to understand the meaning
of this same term. Still, none of the modern
linguist's reading of the term gives any fresh
light to the conception of the original
meaning of the term because the study of
Abhidhamma is not a unfruitful linguistic exercise.
It may be repeated that every term of
Abhidhamma is given a definite idea;
and is often taken by way of its characteristic,
function, expression and immediate cause. So, the linguistic
explanation of the term has often been
confusing; and its variation performance create
more and more difficulties to a reader somewhat to
develop his understanding. It is believed that
Abhidhamma is a way of life; and is meant for
the chosen few, particularly for the
scholars with
dedicated training. It
may be definitely pointed out that the study
demands no less seriousness than the study of
the Rig Veda or Quran. The scholars interested
in Abhidhamma may also turn to the living
Burmese traditions for its purest
conception; or the volumes of the
explanation on the standard Abhidhammic
literature.
The Seven Books of Abhidhamma are:
* Dhammasangani.
* Vibhanga.
* Dhatukatha.
* Puggalapannatti.
* Kathavatthu.
* Yamaka.
* Patthana.
The Sarvastivadin tradition of Buddhism,
however, does not accept the above text as the
original composition, because they have somewhat
similar texts on the Vinaya Pitaka and Sutta
Pitaka in coincidence with the Pali versions;
but are missing in the case of the Abhidhamma.
Yet, the Sarvastivadin have equal number of the
Abhidharmic texts:
* Sangitipariyayapada.
* Dharmaskandha.
* Dhatukaya-patha.
* Prajnaptipada.
* Vijnanapada.
* Prakaranapada.
* Jnanaprasthana.
Most of the scholars believe that the Tipitaka was
gathered in the third Buddhist committee. But
most of theses argues are unsupported when we look at the Mahavamsa, it is
clearly declared that even before
the gathering of the third Buddhist committee, one
thousand scholar priests
“well versed in the Tipitaka …” were chosen for the re-gathering of
the original and purest teachings of the Buddha
to remove the disturbance skulk therein in
the original body. The above statement
agree with the fact that the Tipitaka
definitely exist before the third Buddhist
committee, however, its form could have been
somewhat different from what was collected in the
third council; or what is hand over down to us by
the tradition in its recent form.
The Abhidhamma Pitaka, chiefly deals with the
philosophy and psychology of the Theravada
school of Buddhism. The “Theravada”, however,
put forward to that school of Buddhism which,
theoretically “hold to the most original and
purest form of the Buddhist teachings”,
encouraged by those theras who obtained
the learning directly through the Master.
Further, they used the bhasa Magadhika or the
mula bhasa to record
the original text or the pariyaya. The term pariyaya, however, when
shortened became ‘pari’ or ‘pali’; and in
course of time was applied to symbolize the
language of the entire scale of the norm; and
the exegeses and other compositions on those
texts having the same language.