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.

Aug 16, 2010 · Unlike the earlier Buddhist discourses that are colloquial in nature, the Abhidharma method presents the Buddha’s teachings in technical terms that are carefully defined to ensure analytical exactitude.

The Abhidharma (Pali: Abhidhamma) philosophy developed after the Buddha passed away, in an attempt to organize and systematize the teachings of the Buddha. As one contemporary scholar explains:

The Abhidhamma Piṭaka (English: Basket of Higher Doctrine; Vietnamese: Tạng Vi diệu Pháp) is the third of the three divisions of the Pali Tripitaka, the definitive canonical collection of scripture of Theravada Buddhism.

In nine short chapters occupying about fifty pages in print, the author provides a masterly summary of that abstruse body of Buddhist doctrine called the Abhidhamma.

Through the Buddhist teachings we learn that what we take for “self”, for “our mind” and for “our body”, consists of changing phenomena. That part of the Buddhist teachings which is the “Abhidhamma” enumerates and classifies all phenomena of our life: mental phenomena or n ̄ama and physical phenomena or r ̄upa.

Oct 29, 2024 · Abhidhamma is the Grand Unified Theory of the Buddha. I introduced it in the post “ Grand Unified Theory of Dhamma.” In this Abhidhamma section, I will try to provide further details. My goal is to describe it in an easy-to-grasp, straightforward manner.

The Abhidhamma is essentially an attempt to systematize the Buddha’s teachings about the dynamics of moment-to-moment experience as it unfolds in the stream of consciousness. The following pages offer a brief outline of some of the main components of the system.

The Theravada Abhidhamma tradition, also known as the Abhidhamma Method, refers to a scholastic systematization of the Theravāda school's understanding of the highest Buddhist teachings (Abhidhamma).

Whereas the Sutta and Vinaya Pitakas lay out the practical aspects of the Buddhist path to Awakening, the Abhidhamma Pitaka provides a theoretical framework to explain the causal underpinnings of that very path.