Abhidhamma is considered as a very important teaching of the Buddha by Theravadins. Theravadins accept that the teaching of Abhidhamma was preached by the Buddha thoroughly and detail to the deities in the Deva world. Then He preached it briefly to Ven.Sariputta in the human abode. It is believed that the distribution of Abhidhamma in the human world was a great work of Ven.Sariputta, who delivered it in the middle way to his five hundred disciples.
From that time up to the first and the second councils, Abhidhamma was not developed as a separate section of the Pali canon. It is said that the term Abhidhamma occurs in the Suttapitaka but not in the sense of a separate Pitaka. This can be understood that Abhidhamma evolved from the early Buddhist discourses of the first and second councils through collection, classification, abstraction definition and analysis of the doctrine. It is worth noting that there are four steps for the evolution of Abhidhammā.
Firstly, the collection of the Buddha’s teachings was primarily done at the first Buddhist council. It took six months to collect and recite the Buddha’s teachings. Secondly, after collection, Theras, Elder Monks, classified them in order to preserve them. Without classification, it is hard to preserve them. It is very noteworthy that some scholars say there were five Nikayas at the first council while some say there were only four Nikayas and at the second council Khuddakanikaya was compiled. Thirdly, after the second council, many Buddhist schools started to interpret the Buddha’s teachings in various ways. Then there arose many problems regarding the philosophical aspects of Buddhism. Understanding the danger of misunderstanding and misinterpreting the Teachings of the Buddha, the leading disciples made an attempt to abstract the doctrinal aspects from the discourses and composed new Sutras called Dhammasutras. They included only the doctrines such as Four Noble Truth, Three Characteristics, Four Elements, Five Aggregates, Six Senses, Twelve Bases and Eighteen Elements.
And next, after abstraction of the doctrinal parts from the teachings, there arose an urgent need for the explanation and definition of those listed doctrines. There are terms that one cannot understand by interpreting them with the help of stories, similes and metaphors. In order to define and explain them, the Theras made a use of a highly technical or specific term of language. The Theras tried to define the terms by itself. For instance, phussatiti phasso, (it is called phassa because it contacts), vedayatiti vedana, (it is so-called vedana because it feels), ruppatiti rupam, (it is so-called Rupa because it changes) and so on. Thus they gave the original definition and extend supplementary explanations.
This new defined Dhammas were different styles from the other discourses. Therefore, by adding the prefix “Abhi” to the term “Dhamma” they were called “Abhidhamma’ which means higher or special teachings of the Buddha. By the time of the third Buddhist council, there were six books already under the name of Abhidhamma. They are Dhammasanganī, Vibhanga, Dhātukathā, Puggalapaññatti, Yamaka and Patthāna; the first five books generally deal with the analysis of phenomena and the last one with synthesis. These six books were the result of such four process of development of Abhidhamma. The main purpose of developing Abhidhamma Pitaka was to prohibit the misinterpretations of the Buddha’s teachings. At that time, there were so many misinterpretations.
Then, Ven Moggaliputta Tissa Thera composed Kathāvutthu (points of controversy), the seventh book to reject the wrong definition and misinterpretation. The ven, Moggaliputta thera together with other leading Elder Monks added the Kathāvutthu at the third council in the third century. It can be understood that Abhidhammā-Pitaka is completely the contribution of the Theras. The Commentary says that “Abhidhamme vācanāmaggo nāma sāriputtattherabhavo; venerable Sāriputta is responsible for the origin of Abhidhammā, which is one of the texts of Khunddakanikaya. Abhidhammā became prominent at the time of the third council. This is, in fact, the origin or evolution of Abhidhamma. Now, we can clearly understand that there are different approaches to the origin of Abhidhamma. Anyhow, if we want to make a progress not only in education but in society in this IT Age, it is better not to be so much orthodoxy nor heterodoxy. We should try to accept things as they really are.
In conclusion, what I want to talk is that Abhiddhamma is now internationally accepted and being taught as a gradual developed doctrine, Pitaka, through collection, classification, abstraction, definition and analysis of Dhammas which were scattered in the early Buddhism. This way of thinking or this theory or concept is widely well-known, accepted and taught in the academic level at International Universities even though we traditionally believe that it was just preached by the Buddha in celestial world (called Tavatimsa) and handed down byThera Sariputta to his disciples and so on.
(You are suggested to take a notice of this: this post is not for any argument or change but for a critical way of thinking and trying to approach to a well-known concept among the Buddhist scholars. This post is written from a critical point of view based on the lectures by Dr. Prof. Sumanapala, University of Kelaniya, 2010)
