Abhidharma

Part of a series on
Early Buddhism
Buddhism
Scriptures Early Buddhist Texts (EBT) Tripiṭaka Nikayas Āgamas Gandhāran EBTs Prātimokṣa Abhidharma Jatakas Avadanas Mahāvastu Śālistamba Sūtra Tibetan EBTs in the Kangyur
Early sangha Gautama Buddha Sāriputta Mahāmoggallāna Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī Mahakasyapa Ānanda Upāli Mahākātyāyana Devadatta Anāthapiṇḍika
Pre-sectarian Buddhism Kingdom of Magadha Ashoka Moggaliputtatissa Buddhist councils
Early Buddhist schools Pre-sectarian Buddhism Mahāsāṃghika Ekavyāvahārika Lokottaravāda Gokulika Bahuśrutīya Prajñaptivāda Caitika (Haimavata) Sthaviras Pudgalavada Vātsīputrīya Saṃmitīya Sarvāstivāda (Haimavata) (Kāśyapīya) (Mahīśāsaka) (Dharmaguptaka) Sautrāntika Mulasarvastivada Vaibhāṣika Vibhajyavāda Tambapaṇṇiya Theravāda (Kāśyapīya) (Mahīśāsaka) (Dharmaguptaka)
v t e

The Abhidharma are a collection of Buddhist texts dating from the 3rd century BCE onwards, which contain detailed scholastic presentations of doctrinal material appearing in the canonical Buddhist scriptures and commentaries. It also refers to the scholastic method itself, as well as the field of knowledge that this method is said to study.

Bhikkhu Bodhi calls it "an abstract and highly technical systemization of the [Buddhist] doctrine," which is "simultaneously a philosophy, a psychology and an ethics, all integrated into the framework of a program for liberation."^[1] According to Peter Harvey, the Abhidharma method seeks "to avoid the inexactitudes of colloquial conventional language, as is sometimes found in the Suttas, and state everything in psycho-philosophically exact language." In this sense, it is an attempt to best express the Buddhist view of "ultimate reality" (paramārtha-satya).^[2]

There are different types of Abhidharma literature. The early canonical Abhidharma works, such as the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, are not philosophical treatises but mainly summaries and expositions of early Buddhist doctrinal lists with their accompanying explanations.^[3][4] These texts developed out of early Buddhist lists or matrices (mātṛkās) of key teachings.

Later post-canonical Abhidharma works were written as either large treatises (śāstra), as commentaries (aṭṭhakathā), or as smaller introductory manuals. They are more developed philosophical works which include many innovations and doctrines not found in the canonical Abhidharma.^[5] Abhidharma remains an important field of scholarship among the Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna schools of Buddhism.