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Theravada Abhidharma

Abhidharma (Sanskrit; Pali Abhidhamma) is a category of Buddhist scriptures that attempts to use Buddhist teachings to create a systematic, abstract description of all worldly phenomena. The Abhidharma represents a generalization and reorganization of the doctrines presented piecemeal in the ne literal translation of the term Abhidharma is unclear. Two possibilities are most commonly given: 1) abhi- higher or special + dharma- teaching, philosophy, thus making Abhidharma the 'higher teachings', or 2) abhi - about + dharma of the teaching, translating it instead as 'about the teaching' or even 'meta-teaching'.

Scholars generally believe that the Abhidharma emerged after the time of the Buddha, as the growth of monastic centers and support for the Buddhist sangha provided the resources and expertise necesary to systematically analyize the early teachings. However, some scholars believe that rather than being wholly created by later thinkers, the Abhidharma represents an expansion of an early set of mnemonic lists atury BCE to the 5th Century CE. The 7th Century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang reportedly collected Abhidharma texts from seven different traditions. In the modern era, only the Abhidharmas of the Sarvastivadins and the Theravadins has survived intact, each consisting of seven books. The Theravada Abhidharma, the Abhidhamma Pitaka (discussed below), is preserved in Pali, while the Sarvastivadin Abhidharma is preserved only in Chinese- the (likely Sanskrit) original texts having been lost. A small number of other Abhidharma texts of unknown origin are preserved in translation in er represented the first, original teachings of the Buddha. According to myth, shortly after his awakening the Buddha spent several days in meditation, during which he formulated the Abhidharma. Late, he traveled to the heavenly realm and taught the Abhidharma to the divine beings that dwelled there, including his deceased mother Mahamaya. The contents of the teachings given in the heavenly realm were related to the monk Shariputra, who passed them on after the Buddha's death. The Abhidharma thus represents a pure and undiluted form of the teaching that was felt to be too difficult for most practitioners of the Buddha's time to grasp. Instead, the Buddha taught by the method related in the various sutras, giving appropriate, immediately applicable teachings as each situation arose, rather than attempting to set forth the Abhidharma in their complexity and completion.

Theravada Abhidharma
The Abhidhamma Pitaka is the third pitaka, or basket, of the Tipitaka (Pali; Sanskrit: Tripitaka), the canon of the Theravada school of Buddhism. It consists of seven sections as follow:Dhamma Sangani ('Enumeration of Factors') - Describes the fundamental phenomena or dhamma which constitute human experience. Vibhanga ('Analysis') - An exposition of the analysis in the Dhamma Sangani in the form of a catechism. Katha Vatthu ('Points of Controversy') - A collection of orthodox answers to questions about monastic practice, compiled by Moggaliputta Tissa after the Buddhist Council sponsored by King Ashoka) - A repetition of much of the contents of the Vibhanga, Dhatu Katha, and Katha Vatthu. Patthana ('Foundational Conditions' or 'Relations') - The laws of interaction by which the dhamma described in the Dhamma Sangani operate hese have all been published in romanized Pali by the Pali Text Society, and have been translated into English as well. Scholars date these works from about 400 BC to about 250 BCAbhidhamma texts. The best known such texts are the Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosa andPali canon found the Abhidhamma Pitaka to be the least interesting of the three sections of the Tipitaka, and as a result this important aspect of Buddhist philosophy was little studied in the West until the later half of the 20th Century. Caroline Rhys Davids, a Pali scholar and the wife of Pali Text Society founder T.W. Rhys Davids, famously described the ten chapters of the Yamaka as "ten valleys of dry bones". Interest in the Abhidhamma has grown in the West as better scholarship on Buddhist philosophy has gradually revealed more information about its origins and sighin the Theravada tradition, the prominance of the Abhidhamma has varied considerably from country to country, with mainland Southeast Asia placing the least emphasis on the study of the Abhidhamma and Sri Lanka the most.

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