Vedic Literature | Buddhism | Abhidharma Philosophy
The beginnings of Abhidharma are found in certain fundamental listings of dharmas made by the Buddha, which were considered to be definitive and indisputable. The most important of these early listings was that of the thirty-seven limbs of enlightenment. The Buddha raised them to a status superior to other teachings in the Paasaadikasuttaanta. He called them, as recorded in the Dighanikaaya, 'the truths which when I had perceived, I made known to you, and which, when ye have come together and have associated yourselves, ye are to rehearse, all of you, and not quarrel over, comparing meaning with meaning and phrase with phrase'.
Here, it is not a particular sutra that is said to be supreme; rather, it is the sum total of all the teachings, as systematized into such a classification as the seven limbs of enlightenment. This list is the focus of a large number of sutras in the Digha and Majjhima Nikaayas, and constitutes one of the final teachings given by the Buddha prior to his parinirvana. Tabulation of seven categories of factors as a definitive listing of the path-related factors acceptable to all Buddhists is common to many sutras in all the five nikaayas. It marks the first stage in the development of the Abhidharma.
The next stage is found in a whole series of sutras classified as vibhanga, a term meaning distribution, division or expansion, which ultimately came to be used to designate a commentary of exegesis. The second book of the Pali Abhidhammapitaka, for example, is called Vibhanga. It serves as a virtual supplement to the listings of the elements of existence that appear in the preceding Dhammasangani. These two functions of collection and expansion characterize the vibhanga sutras, which constitute the second stage in the development of the Abhidharma.
Several other sutras in the nikaayas exhibit a similar tendency toward collection and classification of dharma lists, at times even elaborating on the advanced teachings of the Buddha. A number of sutras in the Samyuttanikaaya, for example, give long discourses on the formulae repeated throughout the nikaayas.
The numerical order of the Anguttaranikaaya is itself quite similar to the sequential lists found in many Abhidharma sects. A number of these sutras are not the direct words of the Buddha himself, but elaborations made by his main disciples such as Sariputra or Mahaakaccaayana, to a bare outline of doctrine (uddesa) made by the Buddha.
The factors that are discussed in these various expositions can be classified under such ubiquitous technical terms as skandha, dhatu, aayatana, indriya, satya, prateetyasamutpaada, karma, klesa, maarga, the four and five dhyaanas, the six abhijnaas, the eight vimoksas, the thirty-seven bodhipaaksika dharmas, etc. The collective name for all these dharmas is 'abhidharma', in that it 'exceeds and is distinguished from the Dhamma (the Suttas)'. The contents of all the principal works on Abhidharma do not, in essence, stray from these major topics.
The Sangeeti and Dasuttara suttaantas, scriptures propounded by the Buddha's chief disciple Sariputta, mark the beginning of Abhidharma literature proper. The Sangeetisuttanta begins with brief historical introduction outlining the reason for the recital of the Doctrine. Sariputta notes that, after the death of Nigantha Naataputta, the leader of the Jaina community, discord over the true nature of his teachings divided his followers into several contending factions. In order to prevent such an occurrence after the passing of the Buddha, Sariputta hastened to draw up a voluminous outline of the doctrine, covering 903 individual factors in 227 classes, presented sequentially as ones, dyads, triads, etc., up to decads.
The Dasuttarasuttanta follows a similar pattern, also presenting groups of from one to ten factors. The format of these two scriptures can be readily compared to the matrices of the Abhidhamma. T.W. Rhys Davids notes the abhidharma character of these two sutras thus. 'All that we know is that each of them forms a sort of thematic index to the doctrines scattered through the Four Nikaayas…. In the two features they have in common, of catechism as a monologue by the catechumen, and of the absence of narrative, this further interest attaches to these last suttantas, that they become practically Abhidhamma rather than Suttapitaka.'
The above observation is confirmed by the fact that a Sangeetiparyaaya is included among the seven Abhidharma works of the Sarvaastivaada School. Further, the Chinese recension of this text is attributed to Sariputra, and contains the same historical introduction that opens the Sangeetisuttanta. All this confirms that it was such summaries of the doctrine that eventually came to be called Abhidharma.