A short introduction to the Abhidhamma

Buddho (buddho.nl/en) edited by Pat Macpherson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Those who like it can study the Abhidharma (Pali Abhidhamma) as a helpful addition to meditation. The prefix abhi means "higher" or "transcending." As used here the word dhamma has the meaning of "truth" or "teaching."

So together the approximate meaning is the "Higher Teaching." American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi writes in his translation of the Abhidhammattha Sangaha (a summary of the Abhidhamma written by Ven. Anuruddha around the 11th-12th century AD):

 

In the sutras the Buddha regularly makes use of conventional language (vohara-vacana) and accepts conventional truth (sammuti-sacca), truth expressed in terms of entities that do not possess ontological ultimacy but can still be legitimately referred to them. Thus in the sutras the Buddha speaks of “I” and “you,” of “man” and “woman,” of living beings, persons, and even self as though they were concrete realities.

 

The Abhidhamma method of exposition, however, rigorously restricts itself to terms that are valid from the standpoint of ultimate truth (paramattha-sacca): dhammas ["things"], their characteristics, their functions, and their relations. So in the Abhidhamma all concepts, which are still accepted in the [conventional] sutras for easier communication, are not used anymore.

 

Thus in the Abhidhamma all such conceptual entities provisionally accepted in the sutras for purposes of meaningful communication are resolved into their ontological ultimates, into bare mental and material phenomena that are

• impermanent [radically shifting and unstable at every moment],
• conditioned [dependent on supporting conditions for their existence], and
• dependently arisen [coming into existence based on conditions], empty of any abiding self or substance [impersonal].

The Abhidhamma "transcends" the conventional character of the sutras. Take a car as an example. Is it still a car if you loosen every screw and put every part on the ground separately?

 

In the ultimate sense, a car is not a reality. We call the conglomerate of material phenomena assembled in a specific form with specific properties "car." It is an agreement, a convention [a conventional truth].

 

The Abhidhamma would not speak of "car," but of these smallest phenomena and their mutual relations and properties.

 

In the first book of the Abhidhamma (the Dhammasaṅgāni) all the smallest building blocks are listed, and thus the smallest components of reality are represented. This is the analysis.

 

In the last book (the Pattahāna) the conditional relationships, the connections between these building blocks, can be found. This is the synthesis.

 

These two aspects together, the analysis and the synthesis, reflect the uniqueness of the teaching of the Buddha. Namely, everything is transient and without self, but that it is still worthwhile to develop morality, concentration, and wisdom. More