"In this connection, reverend Sariputta, two monks are talking on further dhamma\ they ask one another questions; in answering one another's
questions
they respond and do not fall, and their talk on dhamma goes forward.
Abhidharmakosabhasyam-Vol-1-Vasubandhu-Poussin-Pruden-1991
Fa-pao is counted, together with P'u-kuang, as one of Hsuan-tsang's major disciples.
After Hsuan-tsang's death in 664, Fa-pao is recorded to have worked with I-ching from 700 to 703; under I-ching, Fa-pao served as the proof-reader (ch'eng-i) for some twenty works.
See Mochizuki, Bukkyo-daijiten, V.
4661.
P'u-kuang, also an early disciple of Hsuan-tsang, worked on the translation of the Abhidharmakofabhasyam, and in addition is reported to have worked with Hsuan-tsang on his translation of the Maha-Prajfidparamita Sutra in the period 656 to 663. His dates are also unknown. See Mochizuki, op. cit. y V. 4408.
6. I began my teaching of the Abhidharma--more specifically readings from the text of the Abhidharmakosabhdsyam--in the academic year 1970 - 1971 at Brown University, and I have continued this teaching at both the Nyingma Institute (Berkeley, California), and at the University of Oriental Studies (Los Angeles). When I first taught at the Nyingma Institute in the summer of 1971, I prepared a draft translation of my Introduction ("The Abhidharma: The Origins, Growth and Development of a Literary Tradition") for the benefit of the students, to serve as an introduction to the historical process that led to the growth of the Sanskrit tradition of Abhidharma literature. The first part of the essay is a free translation of the introductory seaion (pages 13 to 61) of Prof. Ken Sakurabe's outstanding Japanese translation of the first two chapters of the Abhidharmakosabhdsyam, his Kusharon no kenkyii ("A Study of the Abhi- dharmakosabhdsyam")t Kyoto, Hozokan, 1969 (first edition). The second part of this Introduc- tion is a translation of pages 110 to 114 of Prof. Ryujo Yamada's Bongo Butten no shobunken ("The Manuscript Sources of Sanskrit Buddhism", Kyoto, Heirakuji-shoten, 1959 [first edition]) which deals with the Sanskrit fragments of the Abhidharma literature. This part of the Introduction has also been augmented by the bibliographical material given in volume one of Prof. Akira Hirakawa's Kusharon-sakuin ("Index to the Abhidharmako/abhdsyam'\ Tokyo, Daizo -shuppan kabushiki-kaisha, 1973).
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? xxviii Translator's Preface
7. Kyokuga Saeki appears to have been the first to term his works the "kando" editions. His first Kando-bon was his edition of the Kusbaron, the Kando Abidatsuma Kusharon, published by the Hozokan, Kyoto, in 1869. He followed this by Kando editions of the Sankoku-buppo-denzu-engi (1888), and the Yuishiki-sanruikyo-sen'yp and theJo-Yuishikiron (both in 1890). Kando editions were continued after his death (cf. the lmmyo-sanjusanka-honsa-hdsange in 1895) by his disciples and students, Shundo Sugihara and Eto Senabe.
For the life of Kyokuga Saeki, see Mochizuki, op. cit. , 1. 624.
? The Abhidharma:
The Origins, Growth and
Development of a Literary Tradition
Leo M. Pruden
? xxx The Abhidharma
1. Origin and Growth of abhidharma.
JLoday the word abhidharma signifies the third of the Three Pitakas (Skt: Tripitaka) or collections of scriptures that go to make up the full Buddhist Canon. These three Pitakas, or collections, are: 1) the Sutras or Agamas, the words of the Buddha, directed to both laymen and clerics, dealing with a host of different topics: ethics, philosophical questions, legends and tales, etc. ; 2) the Vinaya, directed to the monks and nuns of the Buddhist Sangha, spelling out the prohibitions to be followed by the clerics and injunctions on the carrying out of various seasonal events, adjudicating disputes, the distribution of property, etc. ; and 3) the
1
Abhidharma Pitaka, a number of texts later in compilation than either the Sutra
Pitaka or the Vinaya Pitaka.
If the word abhidharma does not signify the Third Pitaka in its totality, then the
word signifies the contents of this Third Pitaka, its style of thinking and writing, and thus a certain type of commentarial literature, the Sastras or commentaries on the Sutras of the Buddha.
Since the Sutras and Vinaya, it is believed, took their essential form before the Third Pitaka was given its final form, the word abhidharma as used in the Sutras and in the Vinaya, was a word that did not signify the Third Pitaka. What then did the word abhidharma signify when it was first used in the Sutras and Vinaya, in the reputed words of the Buddha?
There are two meanings to the word abhidharma: 1) referring to the Dharma; and 2) the higher, or superior Dharma.
The first person interested in the etymology of the term abhi-dharma was N. W. Geiger, in his work, Pali Dhamma (1921), where he states, "abhidhamma originally mean the highest Dhamma; such is the interpretation of later commentators, that is, abhidhamma as uttaradhamma. " The earliest meaning of the word abhidhamma, he held, is "concerning the dhamma, or referring to the dhamma," In the Sutras, indeed,this word always appears in the locative case, as abhidhamme, ("with respect to Dhamma") and in this manner parallels the form abhivinaye ("concerningthe Vinaya').
This definition ("concerning the dhamma") was adopted by the Critical Pali Dictionary (1935,1st edition) where this form was termed (p. 350) a prepositional compound, and the word itself defined as: "as regards the dhamma. "
? 2. Abhidhamma as "higher dhamma".
The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary (1st edition 1921-1925, p. 65) gives the meaning of the word abhidhamma as: "the special Dhamma, i. e. , 1) the theory of the doctrine, the doctrine classified, the doctrine pure and simple (without any admixture of literary grace or of personalities, or of anecdotes, or of arguments ad personam. . . " This is a definition adopted by G. P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, and by Etienne Lamotte, in his Histoire de Bouddhisme indien, p. 1971.
Among the English translations from the Pali Sutras (Pali: sutta; in their collections known as the Nikdyas), C. A. F. Rhys-Davids gives "the advanced teaching of Doctrine" (Dialogues, III, 19. 246); F. L. Woodward gives "extra doctrine" (GradualSayings 1. 276) and "the further doctrine" (Gradual Sayings, V, p. 19, 139 ff); E. M. Hare gives "More-Dhamma" (ibid. 111. 85, IV. 267); and Lord Chalmers gives "quintessential Doctrine" (Further Dialogues 1. 155) and "higher branches of the Doctrine" (ibid. , 1. 133).
Kogen Mizuno gives, as a definition of abhidhamma in his Index to the Pali Canon (Part II, p. 34), the "superior dhamma", the "higher dhamma", and the "most distinguished dhamma".
E. J. Thomas, in his History of Buddhist Thought (p. 159,276) gives "special dhamma" and "further-dhamma" as translations for abhidhamma. T. W. Rhys- Davids defines abhi-dhamma and abhivinaya as "the higher subtleties of the Dhamma and Vinaya".
From the above then we can see that there are two schools of interpretation concerning the meaning of the word abhidhamma, a fact pointed out by I. B. Horner in her article "Abhidhamma Abhivinaya in the First Two Pitakas of the Pali Canon", in Indian Historical Quarterly XII. 3 (Sept. 1941), pp. 291-310. According to Horner, the meaning of the word abhidhamma, in the Pali Canon, "fluctuates" between these two definitions (the non-judgmental "concerning the dhamma", and the judgmental "higher, superior (hence, better) dhamma"), but that in point of fact, these two meanings of the word are not mutually exclusive.
According to Ken Sakurabe, Geiger's definition of abhidhamma ("concerning the dhamma") is correct, whereas the Pali Text Society and I. B. Horner rely overmuch on the traditional interpretations of later Singhalese commentators.
Let us then take a look at the usage of the word abhidhamma as it is used in the Pali Canon of the Theravadins. Following are some examples of these two words, abhidhamma and abhivinaya, used together as a set phrase in the Canon:
1. Vinaya Pipaka, I, p. 64:
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aparehi pi bhikkhave pancah'angehi samannagatena bhikkhuna na upasampa- detabbam, na nissayo databbo, na samanero upattapetabbo: na patibalo hoti antevasim va saddhiviharirh va abhisamacarikaya sikkhaya sikkhapetum, adibrahmacariyikaya sikkhaya vinetum, abkidhamme vineturh, abhivinaya vinetum, uppannam ditthigatam dhammato vivecetum vivecapetum.
"And monks, if a monk is not possessed of five further qualities he should notordain. . . anoviceshouldnotattendhim:ifheisnotcompetenttomakea pupil or one who shares a cell train in the training regarding the fundamentals of conduct, to lead him in the training regarding the fundamentals of the Brahmafaring, to lead him in what pertains to dhamma, to lead him in what pertains to discipline, to discuss or get (another) to discuss, by means of dhamma, a false view that has arisen. . . " (translation by LB. Horner, SBB XIV, p. 84; see also Horner's discussion of abhidhamma, abhivinaya in SBB XIII, Introduction, p. x and following).
This same passage is translated by Rhys-Davids and Oldenburg, SBE, XIII, pp. 184-5):
"And also in other five cases, oh Bhikkhus, a Bhikku should not confer, etc. : when he is not able to train an antevasikaor a saddhiviharika in the precepts of proper conduct, to educate him in the elements of morality, to instruct him in what pertains to the Dhamma, to instruct him in what pertains to the Dhamma a false doctrine that might arise . . . "
In the above text the words are given in the locative case, which in Pali means "with reference to", "pertaining to". Here the word abhidhamma refers to the details of the dhamma (i. e. , Sutra) study, and to the details of Vinaya study. Horner, Rhys-Davids, and Oldenburg all agree in this interpretation.
2. Digha Nikdya, III, 267:
puna ca param avuso bhikkhu dhamma-kamo hoti piya-samudhaharo abhi- dhamme abhivinaye ulara-pamujjo. Yam p'avuso bhikkhu dhamma-kamo hoti . . . pe . . . ulara-pamujjo, ayam pi dhammo natha-karano.
"And furthermore,friends,he loves the doctrine, the utterance of it is dear to him, he finds exceeding joy in the advanced teaching of both Doctrine and Discipline:' (TW. and CAR Rhys-Davids, SBB, XC IV, p. 246; see also footnote 2, where Buddhaghosa's gloss on this passage is given).
In this above example (which is in Av 24, 90, 201, 339) the ideal monk is
? described. Horner feels that two dhammas are spoken of: 1) dhamma-kamo, and 2) abhidhamma and that abhidhamma is used to distinguish it from the first and lower type of dhamma. According to Sakurabe, this is a forced meaning, an interpretation not necessary for an understanding of the passage.
3. Majjhima Nikdya, I, p. 472:
arannaken'avuso bhikkhuna abhidhamme abhivinaya yogo karanlyo. Sant'avuso arahnakarh bhikkhum abhidhamme abhivinaye panham pucchi- taro. Sace avuso arannako bhikkhu abhidhamme abhivinaye panham puttho na sampayati tassa bhavanti vattaro:
. . . arannaken'avuso bhikkhuna ye te santa vimokha atikkamma rupe aruppa tattha yogo karanlyo . . . arannaken'avuso bhikkhuna uttarimanussdhamme yogo karanlyo.
"Your reverences, earnest study in Further-Dhamma, in Further- Discipline should be made by a monk who is forest-gone. Your reverences, there are those who will question a monk who is forest-gone on Further- Dhamma and Further-Discipline. If, your reverences, a monk who is forest- gone, on being asked a question on Further-Dhamma, on Further-Discipline, does not succeed in answering it, there will be those who speak about him and say . . .
"Your reverences, earnest study should be made by a monk who is forest- gone concerning those that are the peaceful deliverances and are incorporeal having transcended material shapes . . .
"Your reverences, earnest study in states of further-men would be made by a monk who is forest-gone . . . " (English translation by LB. Horner, Middle Length Sayings, II, p. 145).
Here Horner maintains that since the three accomplishments of the forest- dwelling monk are all put in the locative case {abhidhamme, abhivinaye, yogo . . . ) , abhidharma and abhivinaya refer to superior states of attainment. According to Sakurabe, however, this passage is like the Digha passage (no. 2 above). This occurrence of the terms abhidhamma-abhivinaya is the only place in the Sutras where abhidharma and abhivinaya are ranked together with supernormal states of attainment, but such an explanation as Horner's is not necessary for under- standing the sense of this passage.
3. Abhidhamma alone.
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There are, to be sure, a number of passages where the word abhidhamma occurs apart from the word abhivinaya.
1. Majjhima Nikdya, I, p. 214 gives:
idh'avuso sariputta dve bhikkhu abhidhammakatham kathenti, te anriaman- nam pafiham pucchanti, anfiamannassa panham puttha vissajjenti no ca samcadenti, dhammi ca nesam katha pavattanl hoti.
"In this connection, reverend Sariputta, two monks are talking on further dhamma', they ask one another questions; in answering one another's questions they respond and do not fall, and their talk on dhamma goes forward. "
2. Majjhima Nikdya, II, p. 239:
tasmatiha, bhikkhave, ye vo maya dhamma abhinna desota, seyyathldam: cattaro satipatthana, cattaro sammappadhana, cattaro iddhipada, panc'indri- yana, pance balani, satta bojjhanga, ariyo atthahgiko maggo,--tattha sabbeh'va samaggehi sammodamanehi avivadamanehi sikkhitabbam; tesah ca vo, bhikkhave, samagganam sammodamananam avivadamarianam sikkhatarh, siyamsu dve bhikkhu abhidhamme nanavada.
"Wherefore, monks, those things taught to you by me out of super- knowledge, that is to say the four applications of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases of psychic power, the five controlling faculties, the five powers, the seven links in awakening, the ariyan eightfold Way--all together, in harmony and without contention you should train yourselves in each and all of these. But when you, monks, all together, in harmony and without contention have trained yourselves in these, there might be two monks speaking differently about Further-Dhamma" (English translation by LB. Horner, Middle Length Sayings, III, p. 25. )
After the Buddha has taught, through his dhammd-abhinnd (his higher or superior knowledge of the dharma), the thirty-seven faaors of enlightenment, two monks are now depicted as having abhidhamme nanavada, "differing views on abhidhamma," and the other monks should try to settle the contentions of these two. The 37 dhammas so taught are by definition dhamma abhinna, or abhidhamma. Thus the two monks' contentions are regarding these itemized, 37 superior dharmas. This is the opinion of LB. Horner.
Sakurabe points out that the word dhamma is given in the plural whereas
? abhidhamma is given in the singular locative case, so this connection between dhammd-abhinnd and abhidhamma is unnatural. Geiger translates this passage as "zwei Bhikkhu, die uber den dhamma verschiedenes aussagen," and so translates abhidhamme as "concerning the teaching. "
4. Abhidhamma-kathd.
The phrase abhidhamma-kathd occurs some three times in the Pali Canon.
1. Majjhima Nikdya, I, p. 214:
idh'avuso sariputta dve bhikkhu abhidhammakatham kathenti, te annamannam panham pucchanti, annamannassa panham puttha vissajjenti no ca samsadenti, dharmmi ca nesam kathd pavattani hoti.
"In this connection, reverend Sariputta, two monks are talking on further dhamma\ they ask one another questions; in answering one another's questions they respond and do not fall, and their talk on dhamma goes forward. "
In this passage the phrase abhidhamma-kathd is followed by the words dhammi. . . kathd . . . So too the following passages from Majjhima Nikdya, I, p. 218:
sadhu sadhu sariputta, yatha tarn Moggallano va samma byakaramano byakareyya. Moggallano hi Sariputta dhammakathiko ti.
"It is good, Sariputta, it is good. It is so that Moggallana, in answering you properly, should answer. For, Sariputta, Moggallana is a talker on dhamma" (LB. Horner, Middle Length Sayings, I, p. 270; see also her note on this passage. )
Here we see that anyone who gives a correct, clear account of dhamma is a dhamma-kathiko, a "speaker on dhamma. " But later commentators (namely, Buddhaghosa, in his A si. p. 29) terms a dhamma-kathiko to be an abhidhamma- bhikkhu, a monk who specializes in the study (and teaching) of the abhidhamma.
In another passage (Ariguttara, III, p. 392), a monk who can do abhidhamma- kathd well is to be respected and honored. According to Sakurabe, this refers to one who can preach correctly and well, and the term abhidhamma in this passage as yet has no specific sense of a superior doctrine, but rather just the superior talent of being able to present the dharma well.
In another passage (Anguttara, III, p. 107) an ignorant monk confuses
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abhidharma-talk, and becomes verbose and long-winded {vedaUa-katha) and, by doing so, pollutes the Dharma and the Vinaya.
5. Traditional Explanations of Abhidhamma.
In the Pali commentarial literature, the word abhidhamma clearly means "a special, superior dharma. " This is seen in some of the words and phrases used by the later Pali commentators in describing the abhidhamma.
In commentaries on the Sutras, the abhidharma is termed uttara-dhamma, "the highest dharma," and abhi-visittha dhamma, "the very distinguished dhamma. "
In commentaries on the Abhidhamma, the words dhamma-atireka (unique dhamma) and abhamma-visesa (distinguished) are used. Abhidhamma is called in the plural vuddhimanto dhamma (the expanded, augmented dhammas), salak- khana-dhamma (unique dharmas), pujita dhamma (dharmas to be honored, worshipped), parichinna dharma (special dharmas), and adhika dhamma (ex- cellent dharmas). Such traditional Pali commentators have influenced the Western translators of the Suttas to see in the word abhidhamma more than it probably originally intended (as Rhys-Davids, Woodward, Hare, Chalmers, et al. )
This understanding was roughly the same in the case of the Sanskrit tradition of Northern Buddhism. In the Chinese translation of the Majjhima Nikaya, (termed the Madhyama Agama in Sanskrit and traditionally held, in Far Eastern Buddhism, to be a Sarvastivadin compilation), we see such phrases as "He discusses the very deep abhidharma," or "He speaks the very profound abhi- dharma . . . " (T 1, p. 450a, p. 634c, p. 688c, and p. 727b which corresponds to Majjhima, I, p. 214). The translation of the phrase abhidharma-katham kathenti ("he speaks abhidharma-talk," as above Majjhima, I, p. 214) is, in the Chinese translation, prefaced by the word "deep" or"profound" (Skt. gambhiram), added by the translator, based on his idea of the Abhidharma as a unique and superior teaching.
6. Abhidhamma in the Mahavibhdsa
The major Sarvastivadin compendium of thought, the Mahavibhdsa (The Great Commentary) gives a full list of synonyms and definitions of the word abhidharma (T. 27, p. 4) recognized by various Sarvastivadin masters, as well as
by masters of various other traditions (the Mahisasakas, the Dharmottaras, the Grammarians, etc. ), which reflea by and large the prevailing traditional definition
? of abhidharma as "a superior teaching"; but in the Mahdvibhdsd's list of definitions, covering some 20 pages in its Chinese translation, the definition "concerning the dharma" appears a large number of times also.
The Abhidharmakoiabhdsyam reflects this approach when, in its analysis of the word abhidharma, it says that abhi means abhimukha, "facing," "with reference to," "in the direction of," "taking something as the object of study or analysis. "
7. The Abhidhamma Pitaka.
From whence then did the third collection of writings, the Third Pitaka, the Abhidhamma Pitaka, arise?
There are two major scholarly opinions concerning how the Abhidhamma Pitaka came into existence.
The first opinion was initially propounded by Taiken Kimura in his book Abidatsuma-ron no kenkyu (A Study of the Abhidharma Sdstras, now vol. VI of the Kimura Taiken Zenshii. ) According to Kimura, abhidharma signified "con- cerning the dharma," and soon referred to discussions centered on the dharmas, their various classifications, itemizations, etc. This discussion was termed abhi- dhamma-kathd (kathd = discussion, debate), and such discussions came to be
collected together to form the Abhidhamma Pitaka. This view is the generally accepted view among Japanese scholars. (For this view in recent Japanese publications, see Bukkyogaku-jiten, edited by Taya, Ocho, and Funabashi, 1955 edition, under the entry abidatsuma, p. 6; and the article "Bukkyo tetsugaku no saisho no tenkai" by Tetsuro Watsuji, in the Wdtsuji Tetsuro Zenshii, vol. 5, p. 311, 344).
The second view was introduced by Geiger (in his Pali Dhamma, p. 118 ff. ) and has been adopted by most Europeans (as A. Bareau, Dhammasangini, traduction annotee, 1951, p. 8 ff. ; Etienne Lamotte, Histoire, p. 197; E. Frauwallner, WZKSO (1964), p. 59; see also Pali Text Society, Pali-English Dictionary, under mdtikd). This opinion holds that the earliest form of what we now call the Abhidhamma Pitaka is seen in what is termed in Pali the mdtikd (Skt: mdtfkd). In the Pali Canon there very frequently occurs (some 18 times) the set phrase: dhammadharo vinayadharo mdtikddharo ("holding, grasping," i. e. "study and recitation of Dhamma, of Vinaya, of Mdtika'). Here there are three distina objeas of study, the Dhamma (the Sutras), the Vinaya, and the Mdtikds, or "summaries".
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8. The Matika.
The word matika is used in a variety of contexts. It is used to signify: 1. commentarial literature on the sutras {Pat. 1. 1); 2. the books that go to make up the Abhidhamma Pitaka (Asl. , p. 3); and 3. commentaries not included within the Abhidhamma Pitaka (Vism. p. 536, 546,626, etc).
Generally then, the meaning of matika is: a list of items or words that serve as the object of debate or discussion, the technical terms of the commentarial literature.
Within the Vinaya Pitaka, the word matika is used in the order: Vibhanga, Khanddhaka, Parivara, and Matika, so that here the word means the Patimokkha list of rules, that is, the essential items or rules of the Vinaya, devoid of illustration and elaboration.
So matika with reference to the Suttas and Vinaya has points of similarity:the usage in both contexts signifies a bare, skeletal itemization of words or terms apart from their explanations or elaborations.
In the commentarial literature, then, matika signifies an (earlier) bare-bones list of dharmas, which underwent later elaboration, and the eventual codification of this elaboration developed into the various books of the Pali Abhidhamma Pitaka. In the Vinaya, then, the matika referred to the Pratimokkha list of rules, which matika then led to the elaboration of these rules, the circumstances surrounding their promulgation by the Buddha, the exceptions to the rules, their penalties, etc.
The earliest meaning of the word matika, then, was merely a list. It was only later that the word matika came to mean the Patimokkha rules themselves (the present-day meaning of the word), a change in meaning from "a list" to "the List," a change likewise seen in its further meaning as a list of technical terms, of dharmas, used in abhidharma discussions.
Thus the word matika, as used in Vinaya Pitaka, means a list of essential items (here the Vinaya rules) within the Vinaya Pitaka, when the word is used in the Suttas, it refers to a list of items (a list of dharmas) within the Suttas.
Within the Suttas, the word matika occurs, according to Sakurabe, in only those passages in a later stratum of the Canon, texts which themselves are already close to being abhidharmic texts. Likewise this is the case with the Vinaya Pitaka. the word occurs in its later passages, or in passages that have already assumed a commentarial status. So the list: dhamma-vtnaya-matika could conceivably be translated "the teaching, its monastic rules, and the itemized lists of their contents or essentials. "
? One Japanese scholar even goes to far as to say that the phrase bahussuto dgatdgamo dhammadharo vinayadharo mdtikddharo be interpreted by dgata- dgamo equalling dhamma dharo, and vinaya equalling mdtikd (Egaku Mayeda, in his Gensbi Bukkyo Seiten no Seiritsu-shi kenkyil, p. 194), that is, "the learned dgata-dgamo (understander of the tradition) who is a dhamma-dharo, (and the
learned) upholder of the Vinaya who is an upholder of mdtikd. "
9. Mdtikd and Abhidharma.
There are several passages in the scriptures that do show that the term mdtrkd was seen as synonymous with the word abhidharma.
A. In one text preserved in Chinese translation (T. 24, p. 408b), vol. 40 of the Ksudrakavastu of the Mula-Sarvastivadin Vinaya, it states that after the First Council had finished reciting the Sutras and the Vinaya, Katyayana said, "Persons of later generations will be of little wisdom and of dull faculties; their understanding will be based on the text [of scriptures], and they will not penetrate to its deeper meaning. Now I shall myself recite the Mdtrka, in order that the meanings of the Sutras and the Vinaya will not be lost. " He then recited the 37 components of enlightenment (the bodhyangas, see above, Majj. II. 239), and he then said "Know therefore, this is the Sutra, this is the Vinaya, this is the Abhidharma. " Here then Mdtrkd means the itemized dharmas in the Sutras and the Vinaya,and the identification is made between it and the Abhidharma.
B. The identification is also made in the Kathdvatthu, reputedly the latest work in the Pali Abhidhamma Pitaka, where in the "Journal of the Pali Text Society," 1898, p. 7, Geiger regards this identification as being the original word of the Buddha.
C. This identification is also made in the Asoka-avaddna, the biography of the Emperor Asbka; see its Chinese translation, the O-yii-wang ch'uan, T. 50, p. 113c. D. In the Yogacara's huge encyclopaedic work, the Yogdcarabhumi, vol. 81 (T
30, p. 753b), one of the twelve classes of literature into which all Buddhist literature is divided is upadesa, discussions or debates wherein all the dharmas are correctly analyzed. Here upadesa is otherwise termed mdtrkd or abhidharma. Further, this mdtrkd is an exhaustive and thorough-going analysis (of the dharmas).
From the above, then, we can see that the Mdtikds (or Mdtrkds) performed an important function in the development of the corpus of Buddhist literature, as admitted in traditional Buddhist literature itself.
By itemizing the component parts of the Dharma and the Vinaya, the
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Mdtrkd did play an important part in the later elaboration which is Abhidharma literature. However, the Abhidharmikas worked on these lists, minutely analyzed the items on these lists, and then proceeded to give long, exhaustive treatises on each item. So the Mdtrkd represents but one aspect of the whole picture of the growth of the Abhidharma.
If the Abhidhamma was merely speaking on the dhamma as some scholars maintain, and if the Mdtikd served as the nucleus of later Abhidhamma elaborations, why, when the literature was codified into a Pitaka, was it named the Abhidhamma Pitaka, and not the Mdtikd Pitaka? It appears then that the Mdtikds did not directly develop into the Abhidharma literature as we now have it.
As Kimura has shown, in the earliest Buddhist Sangha, abhidhamma-katha-- discussion on the dharma--had a direa relationship with the later development of the commentarial literature on the Dhamma, the Abhidhamma commentaries. In the process, there were two tendencies; one: to summarize and to itemize, and two: to analyze and elaborate. This latter tendency came to predominate, and the name for this--abhidhamma--came to be attached permanendy to this new corpus of literature.
10. Abhidharma in the Agamas: the Religion of the Agamas.
There are abhidharmic tendencies in the extant sutras, in Pali as well as in those preserved in Chinese translation. Let us say a few words first, however, about the religion of the early Buddhist canon, the religion of the Agamas.
According to de La Vallee Poussin, all the teachings of the Buddha were not publically given out. Instead, much of the philosophy and the more subtle forms of the teaching were embodied in texts which were reserved for the study of monks in their monasteries; and the Agamas (or Nikdyas), the earliest form of the Buddhist sermons which have been preserved for us, are such philosophical texts as were transmitted from one generation of monks to those of a subsequent generation. Such texts are then the "clericalized" texts, and in these texts we see only a small bit of the popular side of early Buddhism.
Such is the case, to be sure, in any religion, and this is especially so in the case of Indian religions. Any Indian religion has two sides to it: a clerical, well worked- over doctrine, and a popular aspect of the religion, which includes many elements brought over in the mind of the new converts to the religion. But the important point to remember is that the extant literature of any religion is the technical literature used in the monasteries. The real face of early Buddhism in all of its aspects cannot be gotten at only through its literature, but must also be obtained
? through archaeology, art and chronology (Le dogme et la philosophie du Bouddhisme, 1930, Chap. VII). Such a mass Buddhism was the Buddhism that preceeded the canon, "precanonical Buddhism" {Bouddhisme precanonique). Its contents were not only a darsana--a systematic school of Indian philosophy, a consistent world-view--but a faith concerned with spirits and the release of these spirits from the round of birth and death, having, according to scholars, little in common with the doctrines of anitya, andtman, and duhkha so often stressed in the Agamas (see de La Vallee Poussin's Nirvana, 1925, p. 85, 115, 131). The spread of Buddhism was dependent upon its moral teaching, the personality of its founder, its wisdom embodied in memorable sentences and couplets (the Dhammapada or Uddnavarga), coupled with popular animal tales (the Jdtakas) (see The Way to Nirvana, 1917, Chap. V). Buddhism was also closely related to ancient Indian nature worship, the worship of certain trees, and the veneration of snakes.
Buddhism also came to be changed, especially on its popular level, by virtue of the influence of non-Buddhist religions, through the conversion to Buddhism of many non-Buddhists who brought their own ideas into the company of older believers. Popular Buddhist religion absorbed much of the pan-Indian pantheon of deities. However formal and set its doctrines might have been, most of the believers of Buddhism were but "demi-civilize" or semi-civilized (Bouddhisme, 1909, p. 349 ff. ). Such is also the view of A. B. Keith (Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon, 1923) and C. A. F. Rhys-Davids (Sakya or Buddhist Origins, 1931, p. 431 ff. ).
11. The Agamas and the Nikdyas.
This above view was strongly opposed by Stcherbatsky (The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana, 1927). De La Vallee Poussin would appear to oppose the popular elements of early Buddhism to the scholarly works of later Buddhism: such would imply that there is something essentially different between early Buddhism and Abhidharma Buddhism. Stcherbatsky held that the Buddha was a produa of the philosophical environment of his time, and that he obviously had a well-defined philosophy with its attendant metaphysic.
But even if the set passages and formulas were removed from the Aamas, de La Vallee Poussin and Rhys-Davids cannot say that Buddhism is merely a faith concerned with spirits and immortality. So-called popular Buddhism and "pure" clerical Buddhism cannot be so clearly distinguished one from the other. Yet the Agamas do not give a clear picture of early Buddhism, especially in its popular
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aspects: the Agamas are the traditions (dgama) of a scholarly elite, as de La Vallee Poussin maintains.
The Agamas, literally the "transmitted" (doctrines) were in a sense also Nikdyas (compilations): the transmitted doctrines were collected together, formal- ized, and their vocabulary became technical terms; these terms came to be analyzed through vibhangas (long, explanatory definitions) and niruktas (ety- mologies); these same terms were also organized on the basis of numerical categories or on the basis of similarities (samyukta) into mdtrkds. So the tendencies that led ultimately to a systematic Abhidharma literature led in this same process to the systematization of the Agamas (the traditions) into Nikdyas (formal literary compilations).
In summary, the Agamas are doctrinal compilations from an early stage of Buddhism, and their recensions (Nikdyas) are in a sense Abhidharmic compila- tions and, being largely abhidharmic in tendency, they led ultimately to the growth of the Abhidharma as a separate literary genre.
12. Abhidharmic Tendencies in Extant Agamas: Numerical Categories, Samyuktas, and Vibhangas,
Abhidharmic tendencies, tendencies that led eventually to the growth of a separate literature, can be seen early in some scriptures. The use of numerical categories is one such tendency.
A. The Sangtti-suttanta (the "recited" sutra, Dtgha Nikdya no. 33, vol. Ill, pp. 207-271) lists a variety of items in a list from one to ten (one item, two items, three items . . . ) Dtgha Nikdya no. 34, the Dasuttara-suttanta, lists items in a list from one to ten, but now analyzes them according to various other categories, marking then a further development along abhidharmic lines.
P'u-kuang, also an early disciple of Hsuan-tsang, worked on the translation of the Abhidharmakofabhasyam, and in addition is reported to have worked with Hsuan-tsang on his translation of the Maha-Prajfidparamita Sutra in the period 656 to 663. His dates are also unknown. See Mochizuki, op. cit. y V. 4408.
6. I began my teaching of the Abhidharma--more specifically readings from the text of the Abhidharmakosabhdsyam--in the academic year 1970 - 1971 at Brown University, and I have continued this teaching at both the Nyingma Institute (Berkeley, California), and at the University of Oriental Studies (Los Angeles). When I first taught at the Nyingma Institute in the summer of 1971, I prepared a draft translation of my Introduction ("The Abhidharma: The Origins, Growth and Development of a Literary Tradition") for the benefit of the students, to serve as an introduction to the historical process that led to the growth of the Sanskrit tradition of Abhidharma literature. The first part of the essay is a free translation of the introductory seaion (pages 13 to 61) of Prof. Ken Sakurabe's outstanding Japanese translation of the first two chapters of the Abhidharmakosabhdsyam, his Kusharon no kenkyii ("A Study of the Abhi- dharmakosabhdsyam")t Kyoto, Hozokan, 1969 (first edition). The second part of this Introduc- tion is a translation of pages 110 to 114 of Prof. Ryujo Yamada's Bongo Butten no shobunken ("The Manuscript Sources of Sanskrit Buddhism", Kyoto, Heirakuji-shoten, 1959 [first edition]) which deals with the Sanskrit fragments of the Abhidharma literature. This part of the Introduction has also been augmented by the bibliographical material given in volume one of Prof. Akira Hirakawa's Kusharon-sakuin ("Index to the Abhidharmako/abhdsyam'\ Tokyo, Daizo -shuppan kabushiki-kaisha, 1973).
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7. Kyokuga Saeki appears to have been the first to term his works the "kando" editions. His first Kando-bon was his edition of the Kusbaron, the Kando Abidatsuma Kusharon, published by the Hozokan, Kyoto, in 1869. He followed this by Kando editions of the Sankoku-buppo-denzu-engi (1888), and the Yuishiki-sanruikyo-sen'yp and theJo-Yuishikiron (both in 1890). Kando editions were continued after his death (cf. the lmmyo-sanjusanka-honsa-hdsange in 1895) by his disciples and students, Shundo Sugihara and Eto Senabe.
For the life of Kyokuga Saeki, see Mochizuki, op. cit. , 1. 624.
? The Abhidharma:
The Origins, Growth and
Development of a Literary Tradition
Leo M. Pruden
? xxx The Abhidharma
1. Origin and Growth of abhidharma.
JLoday the word abhidharma signifies the third of the Three Pitakas (Skt: Tripitaka) or collections of scriptures that go to make up the full Buddhist Canon. These three Pitakas, or collections, are: 1) the Sutras or Agamas, the words of the Buddha, directed to both laymen and clerics, dealing with a host of different topics: ethics, philosophical questions, legends and tales, etc. ; 2) the Vinaya, directed to the monks and nuns of the Buddhist Sangha, spelling out the prohibitions to be followed by the clerics and injunctions on the carrying out of various seasonal events, adjudicating disputes, the distribution of property, etc. ; and 3) the
1
Abhidharma Pitaka, a number of texts later in compilation than either the Sutra
Pitaka or the Vinaya Pitaka.
If the word abhidharma does not signify the Third Pitaka in its totality, then the
word signifies the contents of this Third Pitaka, its style of thinking and writing, and thus a certain type of commentarial literature, the Sastras or commentaries on the Sutras of the Buddha.
Since the Sutras and Vinaya, it is believed, took their essential form before the Third Pitaka was given its final form, the word abhidharma as used in the Sutras and in the Vinaya, was a word that did not signify the Third Pitaka. What then did the word abhidharma signify when it was first used in the Sutras and Vinaya, in the reputed words of the Buddha?
There are two meanings to the word abhidharma: 1) referring to the Dharma; and 2) the higher, or superior Dharma.
The first person interested in the etymology of the term abhi-dharma was N. W. Geiger, in his work, Pali Dhamma (1921), where he states, "abhidhamma originally mean the highest Dhamma; such is the interpretation of later commentators, that is, abhidhamma as uttaradhamma. " The earliest meaning of the word abhidhamma, he held, is "concerning the dhamma, or referring to the dhamma," In the Sutras, indeed,this word always appears in the locative case, as abhidhamme, ("with respect to Dhamma") and in this manner parallels the form abhivinaye ("concerningthe Vinaya').
This definition ("concerning the dhamma") was adopted by the Critical Pali Dictionary (1935,1st edition) where this form was termed (p. 350) a prepositional compound, and the word itself defined as: "as regards the dhamma. "
? 2. Abhidhamma as "higher dhamma".
The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary (1st edition 1921-1925, p. 65) gives the meaning of the word abhidhamma as: "the special Dhamma, i. e. , 1) the theory of the doctrine, the doctrine classified, the doctrine pure and simple (without any admixture of literary grace or of personalities, or of anecdotes, or of arguments ad personam. . . " This is a definition adopted by G. P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, and by Etienne Lamotte, in his Histoire de Bouddhisme indien, p. 1971.
Among the English translations from the Pali Sutras (Pali: sutta; in their collections known as the Nikdyas), C. A. F. Rhys-Davids gives "the advanced teaching of Doctrine" (Dialogues, III, 19. 246); F. L. Woodward gives "extra doctrine" (GradualSayings 1. 276) and "the further doctrine" (Gradual Sayings, V, p. 19, 139 ff); E. M. Hare gives "More-Dhamma" (ibid. 111. 85, IV. 267); and Lord Chalmers gives "quintessential Doctrine" (Further Dialogues 1. 155) and "higher branches of the Doctrine" (ibid. , 1. 133).
Kogen Mizuno gives, as a definition of abhidhamma in his Index to the Pali Canon (Part II, p. 34), the "superior dhamma", the "higher dhamma", and the "most distinguished dhamma".
E. J. Thomas, in his History of Buddhist Thought (p. 159,276) gives "special dhamma" and "further-dhamma" as translations for abhidhamma. T. W. Rhys- Davids defines abhi-dhamma and abhivinaya as "the higher subtleties of the Dhamma and Vinaya".
From the above then we can see that there are two schools of interpretation concerning the meaning of the word abhidhamma, a fact pointed out by I. B. Horner in her article "Abhidhamma Abhivinaya in the First Two Pitakas of the Pali Canon", in Indian Historical Quarterly XII. 3 (Sept. 1941), pp. 291-310. According to Horner, the meaning of the word abhidhamma, in the Pali Canon, "fluctuates" between these two definitions (the non-judgmental "concerning the dhamma", and the judgmental "higher, superior (hence, better) dhamma"), but that in point of fact, these two meanings of the word are not mutually exclusive.
According to Ken Sakurabe, Geiger's definition of abhidhamma ("concerning the dhamma") is correct, whereas the Pali Text Society and I. B. Horner rely overmuch on the traditional interpretations of later Singhalese commentators.
Let us then take a look at the usage of the word abhidhamma as it is used in the Pali Canon of the Theravadins. Following are some examples of these two words, abhidhamma and abhivinaya, used together as a set phrase in the Canon:
1. Vinaya Pipaka, I, p. 64:
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aparehi pi bhikkhave pancah'angehi samannagatena bhikkhuna na upasampa- detabbam, na nissayo databbo, na samanero upattapetabbo: na patibalo hoti antevasim va saddhiviharirh va abhisamacarikaya sikkhaya sikkhapetum, adibrahmacariyikaya sikkhaya vinetum, abkidhamme vineturh, abhivinaya vinetum, uppannam ditthigatam dhammato vivecetum vivecapetum.
"And monks, if a monk is not possessed of five further qualities he should notordain. . . anoviceshouldnotattendhim:ifheisnotcompetenttomakea pupil or one who shares a cell train in the training regarding the fundamentals of conduct, to lead him in the training regarding the fundamentals of the Brahmafaring, to lead him in what pertains to dhamma, to lead him in what pertains to discipline, to discuss or get (another) to discuss, by means of dhamma, a false view that has arisen. . . " (translation by LB. Horner, SBB XIV, p. 84; see also Horner's discussion of abhidhamma, abhivinaya in SBB XIII, Introduction, p. x and following).
This same passage is translated by Rhys-Davids and Oldenburg, SBE, XIII, pp. 184-5):
"And also in other five cases, oh Bhikkhus, a Bhikku should not confer, etc. : when he is not able to train an antevasikaor a saddhiviharika in the precepts of proper conduct, to educate him in the elements of morality, to instruct him in what pertains to the Dhamma, to instruct him in what pertains to the Dhamma a false doctrine that might arise . . . "
In the above text the words are given in the locative case, which in Pali means "with reference to", "pertaining to". Here the word abhidhamma refers to the details of the dhamma (i. e. , Sutra) study, and to the details of Vinaya study. Horner, Rhys-Davids, and Oldenburg all agree in this interpretation.
2. Digha Nikdya, III, 267:
puna ca param avuso bhikkhu dhamma-kamo hoti piya-samudhaharo abhi- dhamme abhivinaye ulara-pamujjo. Yam p'avuso bhikkhu dhamma-kamo hoti . . . pe . . . ulara-pamujjo, ayam pi dhammo natha-karano.
"And furthermore,friends,he loves the doctrine, the utterance of it is dear to him, he finds exceeding joy in the advanced teaching of both Doctrine and Discipline:' (TW. and CAR Rhys-Davids, SBB, XC IV, p. 246; see also footnote 2, where Buddhaghosa's gloss on this passage is given).
In this above example (which is in Av 24, 90, 201, 339) the ideal monk is
? described. Horner feels that two dhammas are spoken of: 1) dhamma-kamo, and 2) abhidhamma and that abhidhamma is used to distinguish it from the first and lower type of dhamma. According to Sakurabe, this is a forced meaning, an interpretation not necessary for an understanding of the passage.
3. Majjhima Nikdya, I, p. 472:
arannaken'avuso bhikkhuna abhidhamme abhivinaya yogo karanlyo. Sant'avuso arahnakarh bhikkhum abhidhamme abhivinaye panham pucchi- taro. Sace avuso arannako bhikkhu abhidhamme abhivinaye panham puttho na sampayati tassa bhavanti vattaro:
. . . arannaken'avuso bhikkhuna ye te santa vimokha atikkamma rupe aruppa tattha yogo karanlyo . . . arannaken'avuso bhikkhuna uttarimanussdhamme yogo karanlyo.
"Your reverences, earnest study in Further-Dhamma, in Further- Discipline should be made by a monk who is forest-gone. Your reverences, there are those who will question a monk who is forest-gone on Further- Dhamma and Further-Discipline. If, your reverences, a monk who is forest- gone, on being asked a question on Further-Dhamma, on Further-Discipline, does not succeed in answering it, there will be those who speak about him and say . . .
"Your reverences, earnest study should be made by a monk who is forest- gone concerning those that are the peaceful deliverances and are incorporeal having transcended material shapes . . .
"Your reverences, earnest study in states of further-men would be made by a monk who is forest-gone . . . " (English translation by LB. Horner, Middle Length Sayings, II, p. 145).
Here Horner maintains that since the three accomplishments of the forest- dwelling monk are all put in the locative case {abhidhamme, abhivinaye, yogo . . . ) , abhidharma and abhivinaya refer to superior states of attainment. According to Sakurabe, however, this passage is like the Digha passage (no. 2 above). This occurrence of the terms abhidhamma-abhivinaya is the only place in the Sutras where abhidharma and abhivinaya are ranked together with supernormal states of attainment, but such an explanation as Horner's is not necessary for under- standing the sense of this passage.
3. Abhidhamma alone.
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There are, to be sure, a number of passages where the word abhidhamma occurs apart from the word abhivinaya.
1. Majjhima Nikdya, I, p. 214 gives:
idh'avuso sariputta dve bhikkhu abhidhammakatham kathenti, te anriaman- nam pafiham pucchanti, anfiamannassa panham puttha vissajjenti no ca samcadenti, dhammi ca nesam katha pavattanl hoti.
"In this connection, reverend Sariputta, two monks are talking on further dhamma', they ask one another questions; in answering one another's questions they respond and do not fall, and their talk on dhamma goes forward. "
2. Majjhima Nikdya, II, p. 239:
tasmatiha, bhikkhave, ye vo maya dhamma abhinna desota, seyyathldam: cattaro satipatthana, cattaro sammappadhana, cattaro iddhipada, panc'indri- yana, pance balani, satta bojjhanga, ariyo atthahgiko maggo,--tattha sabbeh'va samaggehi sammodamanehi avivadamanehi sikkhitabbam; tesah ca vo, bhikkhave, samagganam sammodamananam avivadamarianam sikkhatarh, siyamsu dve bhikkhu abhidhamme nanavada.
"Wherefore, monks, those things taught to you by me out of super- knowledge, that is to say the four applications of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases of psychic power, the five controlling faculties, the five powers, the seven links in awakening, the ariyan eightfold Way--all together, in harmony and without contention you should train yourselves in each and all of these. But when you, monks, all together, in harmony and without contention have trained yourselves in these, there might be two monks speaking differently about Further-Dhamma" (English translation by LB. Horner, Middle Length Sayings, III, p. 25. )
After the Buddha has taught, through his dhammd-abhinnd (his higher or superior knowledge of the dharma), the thirty-seven faaors of enlightenment, two monks are now depicted as having abhidhamme nanavada, "differing views on abhidhamma," and the other monks should try to settle the contentions of these two. The 37 dhammas so taught are by definition dhamma abhinna, or abhidhamma. Thus the two monks' contentions are regarding these itemized, 37 superior dharmas. This is the opinion of LB. Horner.
Sakurabe points out that the word dhamma is given in the plural whereas
? abhidhamma is given in the singular locative case, so this connection between dhammd-abhinnd and abhidhamma is unnatural. Geiger translates this passage as "zwei Bhikkhu, die uber den dhamma verschiedenes aussagen," and so translates abhidhamme as "concerning the teaching. "
4. Abhidhamma-kathd.
The phrase abhidhamma-kathd occurs some three times in the Pali Canon.
1. Majjhima Nikdya, I, p. 214:
idh'avuso sariputta dve bhikkhu abhidhammakatham kathenti, te annamannam panham pucchanti, annamannassa panham puttha vissajjenti no ca samsadenti, dharmmi ca nesam kathd pavattani hoti.
"In this connection, reverend Sariputta, two monks are talking on further dhamma\ they ask one another questions; in answering one another's questions they respond and do not fall, and their talk on dhamma goes forward. "
In this passage the phrase abhidhamma-kathd is followed by the words dhammi. . . kathd . . . So too the following passages from Majjhima Nikdya, I, p. 218:
sadhu sadhu sariputta, yatha tarn Moggallano va samma byakaramano byakareyya. Moggallano hi Sariputta dhammakathiko ti.
"It is good, Sariputta, it is good. It is so that Moggallana, in answering you properly, should answer. For, Sariputta, Moggallana is a talker on dhamma" (LB. Horner, Middle Length Sayings, I, p. 270; see also her note on this passage. )
Here we see that anyone who gives a correct, clear account of dhamma is a dhamma-kathiko, a "speaker on dhamma. " But later commentators (namely, Buddhaghosa, in his A si. p. 29) terms a dhamma-kathiko to be an abhidhamma- bhikkhu, a monk who specializes in the study (and teaching) of the abhidhamma.
In another passage (Ariguttara, III, p. 392), a monk who can do abhidhamma- kathd well is to be respected and honored. According to Sakurabe, this refers to one who can preach correctly and well, and the term abhidhamma in this passage as yet has no specific sense of a superior doctrine, but rather just the superior talent of being able to present the dharma well.
In another passage (Anguttara, III, p. 107) an ignorant monk confuses
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abhidharma-talk, and becomes verbose and long-winded {vedaUa-katha) and, by doing so, pollutes the Dharma and the Vinaya.
5. Traditional Explanations of Abhidhamma.
In the Pali commentarial literature, the word abhidhamma clearly means "a special, superior dharma. " This is seen in some of the words and phrases used by the later Pali commentators in describing the abhidhamma.
In commentaries on the Sutras, the abhidharma is termed uttara-dhamma, "the highest dharma," and abhi-visittha dhamma, "the very distinguished dhamma. "
In commentaries on the Abhidhamma, the words dhamma-atireka (unique dhamma) and abhamma-visesa (distinguished) are used. Abhidhamma is called in the plural vuddhimanto dhamma (the expanded, augmented dhammas), salak- khana-dhamma (unique dharmas), pujita dhamma (dharmas to be honored, worshipped), parichinna dharma (special dharmas), and adhika dhamma (ex- cellent dharmas). Such traditional Pali commentators have influenced the Western translators of the Suttas to see in the word abhidhamma more than it probably originally intended (as Rhys-Davids, Woodward, Hare, Chalmers, et al. )
This understanding was roughly the same in the case of the Sanskrit tradition of Northern Buddhism. In the Chinese translation of the Majjhima Nikaya, (termed the Madhyama Agama in Sanskrit and traditionally held, in Far Eastern Buddhism, to be a Sarvastivadin compilation), we see such phrases as "He discusses the very deep abhidharma," or "He speaks the very profound abhi- dharma . . . " (T 1, p. 450a, p. 634c, p. 688c, and p. 727b which corresponds to Majjhima, I, p. 214). The translation of the phrase abhidharma-katham kathenti ("he speaks abhidharma-talk," as above Majjhima, I, p. 214) is, in the Chinese translation, prefaced by the word "deep" or"profound" (Skt. gambhiram), added by the translator, based on his idea of the Abhidharma as a unique and superior teaching.
6. Abhidhamma in the Mahavibhdsa
The major Sarvastivadin compendium of thought, the Mahavibhdsa (The Great Commentary) gives a full list of synonyms and definitions of the word abhidharma (T. 27, p. 4) recognized by various Sarvastivadin masters, as well as
by masters of various other traditions (the Mahisasakas, the Dharmottaras, the Grammarians, etc. ), which reflea by and large the prevailing traditional definition
? of abhidharma as "a superior teaching"; but in the Mahdvibhdsd's list of definitions, covering some 20 pages in its Chinese translation, the definition "concerning the dharma" appears a large number of times also.
The Abhidharmakoiabhdsyam reflects this approach when, in its analysis of the word abhidharma, it says that abhi means abhimukha, "facing," "with reference to," "in the direction of," "taking something as the object of study or analysis. "
7. The Abhidhamma Pitaka.
From whence then did the third collection of writings, the Third Pitaka, the Abhidhamma Pitaka, arise?
There are two major scholarly opinions concerning how the Abhidhamma Pitaka came into existence.
The first opinion was initially propounded by Taiken Kimura in his book Abidatsuma-ron no kenkyu (A Study of the Abhidharma Sdstras, now vol. VI of the Kimura Taiken Zenshii. ) According to Kimura, abhidharma signified "con- cerning the dharma," and soon referred to discussions centered on the dharmas, their various classifications, itemizations, etc. This discussion was termed abhi- dhamma-kathd (kathd = discussion, debate), and such discussions came to be
collected together to form the Abhidhamma Pitaka. This view is the generally accepted view among Japanese scholars. (For this view in recent Japanese publications, see Bukkyogaku-jiten, edited by Taya, Ocho, and Funabashi, 1955 edition, under the entry abidatsuma, p. 6; and the article "Bukkyo tetsugaku no saisho no tenkai" by Tetsuro Watsuji, in the Wdtsuji Tetsuro Zenshii, vol. 5, p. 311, 344).
The second view was introduced by Geiger (in his Pali Dhamma, p. 118 ff. ) and has been adopted by most Europeans (as A. Bareau, Dhammasangini, traduction annotee, 1951, p. 8 ff. ; Etienne Lamotte, Histoire, p. 197; E. Frauwallner, WZKSO (1964), p. 59; see also Pali Text Society, Pali-English Dictionary, under mdtikd). This opinion holds that the earliest form of what we now call the Abhidhamma Pitaka is seen in what is termed in Pali the mdtikd (Skt: mdtfkd). In the Pali Canon there very frequently occurs (some 18 times) the set phrase: dhammadharo vinayadharo mdtikddharo ("holding, grasping," i. e. "study and recitation of Dhamma, of Vinaya, of Mdtika'). Here there are three distina objeas of study, the Dhamma (the Sutras), the Vinaya, and the Mdtikds, or "summaries".
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8. The Matika.
The word matika is used in a variety of contexts. It is used to signify: 1. commentarial literature on the sutras {Pat. 1. 1); 2. the books that go to make up the Abhidhamma Pitaka (Asl. , p. 3); and 3. commentaries not included within the Abhidhamma Pitaka (Vism. p. 536, 546,626, etc).
Generally then, the meaning of matika is: a list of items or words that serve as the object of debate or discussion, the technical terms of the commentarial literature.
Within the Vinaya Pitaka, the word matika is used in the order: Vibhanga, Khanddhaka, Parivara, and Matika, so that here the word means the Patimokkha list of rules, that is, the essential items or rules of the Vinaya, devoid of illustration and elaboration.
So matika with reference to the Suttas and Vinaya has points of similarity:the usage in both contexts signifies a bare, skeletal itemization of words or terms apart from their explanations or elaborations.
In the commentarial literature, then, matika signifies an (earlier) bare-bones list of dharmas, which underwent later elaboration, and the eventual codification of this elaboration developed into the various books of the Pali Abhidhamma Pitaka. In the Vinaya, then, the matika referred to the Pratimokkha list of rules, which matika then led to the elaboration of these rules, the circumstances surrounding their promulgation by the Buddha, the exceptions to the rules, their penalties, etc.
The earliest meaning of the word matika, then, was merely a list. It was only later that the word matika came to mean the Patimokkha rules themselves (the present-day meaning of the word), a change in meaning from "a list" to "the List," a change likewise seen in its further meaning as a list of technical terms, of dharmas, used in abhidharma discussions.
Thus the word matika, as used in Vinaya Pitaka, means a list of essential items (here the Vinaya rules) within the Vinaya Pitaka, when the word is used in the Suttas, it refers to a list of items (a list of dharmas) within the Suttas.
Within the Suttas, the word matika occurs, according to Sakurabe, in only those passages in a later stratum of the Canon, texts which themselves are already close to being abhidharmic texts. Likewise this is the case with the Vinaya Pitaka. the word occurs in its later passages, or in passages that have already assumed a commentarial status. So the list: dhamma-vtnaya-matika could conceivably be translated "the teaching, its monastic rules, and the itemized lists of their contents or essentials. "
? One Japanese scholar even goes to far as to say that the phrase bahussuto dgatdgamo dhammadharo vinayadharo mdtikddharo be interpreted by dgata- dgamo equalling dhamma dharo, and vinaya equalling mdtikd (Egaku Mayeda, in his Gensbi Bukkyo Seiten no Seiritsu-shi kenkyil, p. 194), that is, "the learned dgata-dgamo (understander of the tradition) who is a dhamma-dharo, (and the
learned) upholder of the Vinaya who is an upholder of mdtikd. "
9. Mdtikd and Abhidharma.
There are several passages in the scriptures that do show that the term mdtrkd was seen as synonymous with the word abhidharma.
A. In one text preserved in Chinese translation (T. 24, p. 408b), vol. 40 of the Ksudrakavastu of the Mula-Sarvastivadin Vinaya, it states that after the First Council had finished reciting the Sutras and the Vinaya, Katyayana said, "Persons of later generations will be of little wisdom and of dull faculties; their understanding will be based on the text [of scriptures], and they will not penetrate to its deeper meaning. Now I shall myself recite the Mdtrka, in order that the meanings of the Sutras and the Vinaya will not be lost. " He then recited the 37 components of enlightenment (the bodhyangas, see above, Majj. II. 239), and he then said "Know therefore, this is the Sutra, this is the Vinaya, this is the Abhidharma. " Here then Mdtrkd means the itemized dharmas in the Sutras and the Vinaya,and the identification is made between it and the Abhidharma.
B. The identification is also made in the Kathdvatthu, reputedly the latest work in the Pali Abhidhamma Pitaka, where in the "Journal of the Pali Text Society," 1898, p. 7, Geiger regards this identification as being the original word of the Buddha.
C. This identification is also made in the Asoka-avaddna, the biography of the Emperor Asbka; see its Chinese translation, the O-yii-wang ch'uan, T. 50, p. 113c. D. In the Yogacara's huge encyclopaedic work, the Yogdcarabhumi, vol. 81 (T
30, p. 753b), one of the twelve classes of literature into which all Buddhist literature is divided is upadesa, discussions or debates wherein all the dharmas are correctly analyzed. Here upadesa is otherwise termed mdtrkd or abhidharma. Further, this mdtrkd is an exhaustive and thorough-going analysis (of the dharmas).
From the above, then, we can see that the Mdtikds (or Mdtrkds) performed an important function in the development of the corpus of Buddhist literature, as admitted in traditional Buddhist literature itself.
By itemizing the component parts of the Dharma and the Vinaya, the
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Mdtrkd did play an important part in the later elaboration which is Abhidharma literature. However, the Abhidharmikas worked on these lists, minutely analyzed the items on these lists, and then proceeded to give long, exhaustive treatises on each item. So the Mdtrkd represents but one aspect of the whole picture of the growth of the Abhidharma.
If the Abhidhamma was merely speaking on the dhamma as some scholars maintain, and if the Mdtikd served as the nucleus of later Abhidhamma elaborations, why, when the literature was codified into a Pitaka, was it named the Abhidhamma Pitaka, and not the Mdtikd Pitaka? It appears then that the Mdtikds did not directly develop into the Abhidharma literature as we now have it.
As Kimura has shown, in the earliest Buddhist Sangha, abhidhamma-katha-- discussion on the dharma--had a direa relationship with the later development of the commentarial literature on the Dhamma, the Abhidhamma commentaries. In the process, there were two tendencies; one: to summarize and to itemize, and two: to analyze and elaborate. This latter tendency came to predominate, and the name for this--abhidhamma--came to be attached permanendy to this new corpus of literature.
10. Abhidharma in the Agamas: the Religion of the Agamas.
There are abhidharmic tendencies in the extant sutras, in Pali as well as in those preserved in Chinese translation. Let us say a few words first, however, about the religion of the early Buddhist canon, the religion of the Agamas.
According to de La Vallee Poussin, all the teachings of the Buddha were not publically given out. Instead, much of the philosophy and the more subtle forms of the teaching were embodied in texts which were reserved for the study of monks in their monasteries; and the Agamas (or Nikdyas), the earliest form of the Buddhist sermons which have been preserved for us, are such philosophical texts as were transmitted from one generation of monks to those of a subsequent generation. Such texts are then the "clericalized" texts, and in these texts we see only a small bit of the popular side of early Buddhism.
Such is the case, to be sure, in any religion, and this is especially so in the case of Indian religions. Any Indian religion has two sides to it: a clerical, well worked- over doctrine, and a popular aspect of the religion, which includes many elements brought over in the mind of the new converts to the religion. But the important point to remember is that the extant literature of any religion is the technical literature used in the monasteries. The real face of early Buddhism in all of its aspects cannot be gotten at only through its literature, but must also be obtained
? through archaeology, art and chronology (Le dogme et la philosophie du Bouddhisme, 1930, Chap. VII). Such a mass Buddhism was the Buddhism that preceeded the canon, "precanonical Buddhism" {Bouddhisme precanonique). Its contents were not only a darsana--a systematic school of Indian philosophy, a consistent world-view--but a faith concerned with spirits and the release of these spirits from the round of birth and death, having, according to scholars, little in common with the doctrines of anitya, andtman, and duhkha so often stressed in the Agamas (see de La Vallee Poussin's Nirvana, 1925, p. 85, 115, 131). The spread of Buddhism was dependent upon its moral teaching, the personality of its founder, its wisdom embodied in memorable sentences and couplets (the Dhammapada or Uddnavarga), coupled with popular animal tales (the Jdtakas) (see The Way to Nirvana, 1917, Chap. V). Buddhism was also closely related to ancient Indian nature worship, the worship of certain trees, and the veneration of snakes.
Buddhism also came to be changed, especially on its popular level, by virtue of the influence of non-Buddhist religions, through the conversion to Buddhism of many non-Buddhists who brought their own ideas into the company of older believers. Popular Buddhist religion absorbed much of the pan-Indian pantheon of deities. However formal and set its doctrines might have been, most of the believers of Buddhism were but "demi-civilize" or semi-civilized (Bouddhisme, 1909, p. 349 ff. ). Such is also the view of A. B. Keith (Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon, 1923) and C. A. F. Rhys-Davids (Sakya or Buddhist Origins, 1931, p. 431 ff. ).
11. The Agamas and the Nikdyas.
This above view was strongly opposed by Stcherbatsky (The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana, 1927). De La Vallee Poussin would appear to oppose the popular elements of early Buddhism to the scholarly works of later Buddhism: such would imply that there is something essentially different between early Buddhism and Abhidharma Buddhism. Stcherbatsky held that the Buddha was a produa of the philosophical environment of his time, and that he obviously had a well-defined philosophy with its attendant metaphysic.
But even if the set passages and formulas were removed from the Aamas, de La Vallee Poussin and Rhys-Davids cannot say that Buddhism is merely a faith concerned with spirits and immortality. So-called popular Buddhism and "pure" clerical Buddhism cannot be so clearly distinguished one from the other. Yet the Agamas do not give a clear picture of early Buddhism, especially in its popular
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aspects: the Agamas are the traditions (dgama) of a scholarly elite, as de La Vallee Poussin maintains.
The Agamas, literally the "transmitted" (doctrines) were in a sense also Nikdyas (compilations): the transmitted doctrines were collected together, formal- ized, and their vocabulary became technical terms; these terms came to be analyzed through vibhangas (long, explanatory definitions) and niruktas (ety- mologies); these same terms were also organized on the basis of numerical categories or on the basis of similarities (samyukta) into mdtrkds. So the tendencies that led ultimately to a systematic Abhidharma literature led in this same process to the systematization of the Agamas (the traditions) into Nikdyas (formal literary compilations).
In summary, the Agamas are doctrinal compilations from an early stage of Buddhism, and their recensions (Nikdyas) are in a sense Abhidharmic compila- tions and, being largely abhidharmic in tendency, they led ultimately to the growth of the Abhidharma as a separate literary genre.
12. Abhidharmic Tendencies in Extant Agamas: Numerical Categories, Samyuktas, and Vibhangas,
Abhidharmic tendencies, tendencies that led eventually to the growth of a separate literature, can be seen early in some scriptures. The use of numerical categories is one such tendency.
A. The Sangtti-suttanta (the "recited" sutra, Dtgha Nikdya no. 33, vol. Ill, pp. 207-271) lists a variety of items in a list from one to ten (one item, two items, three items . . . ) Dtgha Nikdya no. 34, the Dasuttara-suttanta, lists items in a list from one to ten, but now analyzes them according to various other categories, marking then a further development along abhidharmic lines.
