Abhidhamma Abhivinaya--in the first two of the Pali Canon
I.B.Horner
The Indian Historical Quarterly
Vol.17:3
Sep.1941
P.291-310
P.291
In the first two Pi.takas of the Pali Canon the
word abhidhamma occurs now and again. Although not
prominent, on the occasions when it appears it is
usually in some noteworthy context. Like many
another Pali word it is a word with a history, but a
"history of which we know very little."(1) It is the
word which at some date, probably between the First
Council and Buddhaghosa's time, had attained a
sufficient degree of importance to give thd name to
the third, the Abhidhamma Pi.taka. It did not
however spring into existence when the need was felt
to draw up a third Pi.taka, for it had existed and
been used before this event. That the term
abhidhamma when found in the first two Pi.takas
cannot be taken to refer to the third Pi.taka,
admittedly later, or at least not to it in its
finished closed form, unless the term when it occurs
can be regarded as a later interpolation, has I
think, been amply demonstrated by Oldenberg(2) and
Max Mller.(3)
These authorities say nothing to rule out the
possibility, which must ever be borne in mind, that
the first and second Pi.takas, on the occasions when
they mention abhidhamma, may be paving the way,
however slightly, for the later emergence of the
third Pi.taka, For as Oldenberg and Max Mller
recognise, the stuff of it, the material out of
which it grew and on which it was based was in
existence before the Pi.taka itself. The question
is, did the Abhidhamma Pi.taka develop in part from
anything meant by abhidhamma in the Vinaya and Sutta
Pi.takas? Can we hope to find in their references to
the term any substance out of which the last Pi.taka
was
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1. Mrs.Rhys Davids,Manual of Buddhism,London, 1932,
p.27.
2. VinayaPi.taka.m vol. i. 1879, Intr. p. xff.
3. Dhammapada (S.B.E.X) 1st edn. 1881(2nd edn.1898,
1924), Intr.xl ff.
P.292
elaborated? Does any significance which they ascribe
to abhidamma lead on by a natural process to its
meaning and range as title of the third Pi.taka? The
task of answering questions such as these is all the
harder since the meaning or meanings of abhidhamma
in the Vinaya and Suttas is vague and doubtful and
cannot be precisely determined.
There is no doubt that the word, especially per-
haps as title of the third Pi.taka, has some
historical connection with quite a different term,
namely maatikaa. This latter word, which also has a
history, came to mean " openings ", and so "
headings, lists, summaries." E.J. Thomas says that
it is " a term now applied to the lists of subjects
discussed in the class of Abhidhamma, but also used
as a synonym of Abhidhamma", (4) while Mrs. Rhys
Davids remarks that " at the beginning of the Third
Pi.taka one comes upon a first section called
Maatikaa (consisting of a dual list of subjects: so
many coming under "Abhidhamma", so many under
"Suttanta"). And it is presumably out of these
maatikaas of the former kind that the
Abhidhamma-Pi.taka was in part developed.(5) They
were, as E.M.Hare says, " the proto-abhidhamma." (6)
Passages in the Vinaya, (7) noticed by Mrs. Rhys
Davids, and also in the Sutta Pi.taka,(8) refer to
vinaya, dhamma and maatikaa. The word maatikaa was
evidently dropped at some time in favour of the word
Abhidhamma as the name of the third Pi.taka, even as
the word dhamma gave way to the word Sutta as the
name of the second Pi.taka. It must be supposed that
the maatikaa, headings, notes as it were, not
written, but memorised and mentally referred to by a
teacher when speaking on certain subjects or aspects
of certain subjects, were expanded and elaborated
into material that, because it was so much fuller
and more discursive than the mere lists, was worthy
of arrangement as a third Pi.taka.The maatikaa
themselves remain in the Abhidhamma " books ", wher
they form tables of contents.
So much then may be accepted as historically
sound: that some Vinaya and Sutta references to
maatikaa are in fact references to the type of
material that was later incorporated into the
Abhidhamma Pi.taka; and that references in these
same passage to vinaya and dhamma are in fact
references to the
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4. Hist, Bud. Thought, p. 266.
5. Manual of Buddhism, p.27.
6. G.S. iii. 134, n. 2.
7. Vin. i. 119, 337, ii.8.
8. M. i. 223, A. i. 117, ii. 147, iii. 179 361, D.
ii. 125, all stock formula. See E.J.Thomas, Hist
Bud.Thought, p. 266, n.1 (where for A^ng. ii, 167
read 147, and for Diigha ii, 123 read 125).
P.293
type of material that was incorporated into the
Vinaya and Sutta(nta) Pi.takas respectively.
But I am not here concerned with questions of the
date, the development, the range (9) or the subject-
matter of the Abhidhamma Pi.taka. I want instead to
draw attention to those comparatively rare passages
in the Vinaya Pi.taka and the Sutta Pi.taka where
the term abhidhamma occurs. For an analysis of these
passages may reveal some part of the history of the
word, or of its position and significance in the
training, outlook and aspirations of Gotama's early
followers.
"Significance" cannot be appreciated unless the
meaning be understood. This will to a large extent
depend upon the meaning or meanings ascribed to the
great word dhamma; but an investigation of this term
would be far too lengthy and it has been undertaken
by others.(10) Let us here see dhamma as doctrine,
as what had been and was being taught to the
disciples both by the lord and by his fellow
workers, religious views, precepts and sayings
which, before being codified into an external body
of teaching, were as yet appealing direct to the
conscience, dhamma, in man, and to the deity, aatman
and dhamma, which in the sixth century B.C. in India
was held to be immanent in him. Let us see dhamma as
religion, perhaps as philosophy, as that which was
man's guide and stay, his urge to lead the good
life, brahmacariya, his conscience.
Abhi-, prefixed to a noun, has in general an in-
tensive meaning such as super, higher, additional,
supplementary; and it can also mean "what pertains
to", "concerning." The Atthasaalinii, in discussing
the prefix abhi-takes it to show "growth, proper
attributes, reverence, differentiation and
surpassing worth" when prefixed to dhamma.(11) Thus
for the compound abhidhamma we get some such phrase
as " the higher doctrine", "additional to the
doctrine" or "what pertains to the doctrine". It is
possible that the cleavage beween these two
interpretations is not very great.
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9. See Max Mller, Dhammapada, 2nd edn., p. xvii;
Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures, 1881, p. 49f. Mrs.
Rhys Davids, Sakya, p. 401ff.; B.C. Law Hist. Paali
Lit.i, p.303ff.; E.J. Thomas,Hist.Bud. Thought, 274.
10. Mrs. Rhys Davids in several recent works, and
W.Geiger, Paali Dhamma, 1920.
11. Asl. 20.
12. Childers, Dictionary, 1879; Max Muller, Dhamm-
apada,2nd edn.,p.xvii. See also the reason given for
this translation by E. J. Thomas, Hist. Bud.Thought,
p. 285.
P.294
Pioneers in Pali studies thought of abhidhamma
as "metaphysics."(12) Sound reasons for rejecting
this translation were given by Rhys Davids in
1881.(13) The term had already been subjected to
rigorous prunning in 1879 by Oldenberg who, in a
note in the Introduction to his edition of the
Vinaya-Pi.taka, (14) points out the passage in
mahaavagga I. 36, 12 where it is required of a
teacher that he should be able to instruct his
pupil: abhidhamme vinetu.m abhivinaye vinetu.m.(15)
Oldenberg remarks, "this of course is only meant to
say that his instruction is to be in that which
pertains to the Dhamma and Vinaya." And this was the
rendering he put upon these phrases in translating
them in Vinaya Texts in 1881.(16)
Yet in spite of this possible, although less
pregnant rendering of abhi-, Rhys Davids in 1894, in
translating the Milindapa~nha, (17) reverted to the
earlier notion imputed to abhidhamma of " transcen-
dental doctrine," (18) metaphysics. He thus showed a
certain partiality for this rendering which I think
has influenced all subsequent translators. Yet while
pointing out that the pair abhidhamma abhivinaya is
" a phrase very instructive as to the correct
rendering of the much misunderstood word abhidhamma",
he translates it as "the higher subtleties of the
Dhamma and the Vinaya". It is very likely that the
"subtleties" pervading the seven "books" of the
Abhidhamma Pi.taka, psycho-logico-ethical ( Dhamma-
sa^nga.ni, Vibha^nga, Dhaatukathaa) , doctrinal
(Kathaavatthu),characterological (Puggalapa~n~natti),
eschatological (Yamaka) and those concerned with
logical relations (Pa.t.thaana), have also done
something to colour translators' views, especially
of those working after the complete publication by
the Pali Text Society of all the Abhidhamma "books",
as to a suitable rendering for abhidhamma when it
does not refer to the third Pi.taka. And in this
they may not be without justification, the more so
if, as does not however seem capable of
demonstration, abhidhamma could be established as a
connecting term between maatikaa and the Abhidhamma
Pi.taka, expanding the "headings" of the former into
the substance of the latter.
Later translators,Mrs. Rhys Davids, F.L.Woodward,
E.M.Hare,Chalmers for example, taking abhi-, not as
"what pertains to", but as
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13. Hibhert Lectures, 1881, p.49.
14. Vol. i, Intr. p. xii, n.2.
15. Quoted in Asl. 20.
16. For the division of this work of translating
the Vinaya into Vinaya Texts, see Book of the
Discipline, i, Editiorial Note, p. lxi.
17. Questions of King Milinda, 237,where see n.2.
18. Childers Dictionary
P.295
"higher", emphasise to a greater of less degree the
"subtlety" which they understand this prefix to
imply. The following instances may be adduced:
Mrs.Rhys Davids,Dialogues,iii.246, "the advanced
teaching of Doctrine."
F. L. Woodward, Gradual Sayings, i. 276 " extra
doctrine."
F. L. Woodward, Gradual Sayings v.19 (20,64),
139, 217 " further doctrine."
E.M.Hare,Woodward, Gradual Sayings iii. 85, iv.
267, "More-Dhamma."
Lord Chalmers, Further Dialogues,i.155, "quinte-
ssential Doctrine."
Lord Chalmers, Further Dialogues, i.333, "higher
branches of the Doctrine."
E.J.Thomas, History of Buddhist Thought, p. 159,
"special dhamma."
E.J.Thomas, History of Buddhist Thought, p. 276,
"further dhamma or special dhamma."
G.P.Malalasekera,Dictionary of Pali Proper Names
(art:Abhidhamma Pi.taka), "special dhamma (i.e
the doctrine pure and simple without admixture
of literary treatment and personalities,etc.)."
This "special dhamma," as Malalasekera implies,
refers to the mode of teaching found in the
Abhidhamma Pi.taka. This is by general, abstract
statements, nippariyaayena,(19) andis thus opposed
to the Suttanta method which is pariyaayena, that is
ad bominem, with picturesque, illustrative and
figurative language. This method is as vivid and
compelling as the Abhidhamma method is dry and
scholastic.
In addition, two of the above translators, no
doubt realisting the shifting and elusive nature of
the word abhidhamma, have in their translations also
kept the word in Pali(20) with capital A, as though
it stood, if not for the third Pi.taka in its
completed state, then for it in some embryonic
state. And it is very possible that these two
careful scholars and excellent translators did mean
abhidhamma, in these contexts where they leave it
untranslated, to have such a reference. It is true
that Oldenberg and Max Mller, by basing their
arguments on the Vinaya accounts, have established
that the Abhidhamma as a Pi.taka was not known by
the time of the first Council. But yet, since a
third Pi.taka was at some time found worthy to
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19. Asl. 317, Vism. 473, 499.
20. Chalmers, Fur. Dial., ii 137; E.M. Hare, G.S.,
iii 280. Neither annotates the word
P.296
take its place beside the other two Pi.takas, not
only must the material of which it came to be
composed have had some existence prior to the
compilation of this Pi.taka itself, but it must have
been of such a date or nature as to fit suitably
into neither the Vinaya Pi.taka nor the Sutta
Pi.taka.
I would also point out that the compilation of
the third Pi.taka was probably not begun until the
other two were closed, and was perhaps only begun
when need was felt to clear up and, by catechetical
methods, to pronounce upon some outstanding and
still debatable points. In this case, the meaning,
whatever it is, of abhidhamma in its occurrences in
the two older Pi.takas, will not necessarily have
developed into whatever is the meaning of Abhidhamma
as the name of the third Pi.taka. Who can say, for
example, whether the monks who were talking
abhidhamma talk (G.S. iii. 280) or those who were
holding divergent views upon abhidhamma (Fur. dial.
ii. 137) were dealing with a type of subject that
was later collected into the third Pi.taka, or
whether they were concerned with the doctrine pure
and simple as this had been transmitted to them, and
unembellished by additional material calling for
specially erudite mastery and learning?
The Commentaries cannot yield one reliable,
stable meaning for abhidhamma. When they interpret
the term, which is not always, as often as not some
common factor, providing a sure clue to any growing
or grown agreement, as to a definite meaning, is
lacking. VA. 990 calls it "analysisinto name and
form," naamaruupapariccheda,(21) which indeed has
quite a taste of the third Pi.taka about it. AA.iii.
271 says that it is " the best (or highest)
doctrine,uttamadhamma; MA.iv.29, "very distinguished
doctrine", abhivisittha dhamma. MA.III 185 takes the
term to stand for the Pi.taka of that name, adding
that it cannot exist without the Dhamma-hadayavibh-
a^nga(22) together with the Duka and Tika
(-ppatthaanas, here called maatikaa). DA. 1047 and
the Commentary on A.v.24 are perhaps the most
interesting. They are identical. They regard as
fourfold: dhamma abhidhamma vinaya abhivinaya, and
give two explanatons for each word, thus: dhamma is
the SuttaPi.taka, abhidhamma the seven pakara.naani,
literary compositions (into which the Abhidhamma
Pi.taka was eventually arranged), vinaya the two
Vigha^ngas, and abhivinaya the Khandhakas and
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21. Also the name of an Abhidhamma Pi.taka treatise,
published in J.P.T.S. 1914
22. Last portion of the Vibha^nga.
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the Parivaara. The three Pi.takas are thus accounted
for, with the Vinaya divided under two headings.
Alternatively, these Commentaries call dhamma the
SuttaPi.taka and the AbhidhammaPi.taka, abhidhamma
the fruits and the ways, maggaphalaani; vinaya the
whole of the VinayaPi.taka, and abhivinaya the task
of allaying the corruptions, kilesavpasamakara.na.
In this last interpretation of abhivinaya,and it
is the only one of its kind, presumably inner mental
discipline is set in antithesis to the external
control of the outward behaviour of monks as
promulgated in the Paatimokkha rules. As such, it
was further, higher, extra. Likewise would
abhivinaya have this meaning if taken to stand for
"the whole of the Vinaya Pi.taka." For then it would
surely imply a wide knowledge,a deep understanding
and a full mastery of Vibha^ngas, Khandhakas and
perhaps of the later Parivaara.It would doubtless
include a knowledge of the history of the rules, the
ability to answer questions such as were put at the
first Council: where, because of what, in regard to
whom and so on, were the various rules
promulgated(? ), their reasons and explanations,
their exceptions, the agreements and discrepancies
of various comparable rules, their groupings, their
cross-references from Vibha^ngas to Khandhakas and
vice versa, and so forth along many lines of study.
But no Pi.takan passage throws any light on what
was meant by abhivinaya. A Parivaara passage (23)
says that vinaya is a designation or description,
pa~n~natti, and abhivinaya an analysis or
classification, vibhatti. But this is as near as we
get. And this is in a compilation that is
admittredly later than the rest of the Vinaya
Pi.taka. While this passage is I think the only
Pi.takan reference to abhivinaya in separation from
abhidhamma, in those other cases where the two are
associated, it is safe to assume that the abhi- will
have the same connotation; so that if we say "the
higher doctrine" we must say "the higher
discipline," and if "what pertains to the doctrine"
then "what pertains to the discipline."
While I think it very likely that there are not
more than ten references to the word abhidhamma in
the first two Pi.takas (not counting parallel
passages, of which there may be five or six), in
four of these the word is closely associated with
abhivinaya. Thus although abhidhamma is found
standing unaccompanied by abhivinaya, with the
exception of the late passage just referred to
abhivinaya is not found dissociated from abhi-
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23 Vin. v.2.
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dhamma. This relatively infrequent pair of terms no
doubt derives from a more frequent, probably
comprehensive and undoubtedly great pair, dhamma
vinaya. In this, dhamma usually precedes vinaya, as
is also always the case in the derivative pair.
Let us now look at those four occasions when the
derivative pair appears in the Vinaya and Sutta
Pi.takas. In the Mahaavagga of the Vinaya (24) the
ability to teach abhidhamma and abhivinaya to a
pupil is brought forward as two out of a group of
five qualities, among a long list of other groups,
each of five qualities, the possession of which
marks a monk as one able to ordain, to give guidance
and to be waited upon by a novice. Although these
groups are not exactly stereotyped, the whole
passage could only have come to fruition in its
present stylistic form at a comparatively late stage
in the growth of the canon. Yet Oldenberg is
probably right in seeing here in abhi- "what
pertains to", rather than the "higher". For a monk
would hardly instruct a pupil in " higher doctrine
and discipline", but he should be able to teach him
what pertains to doctrine and discipline.
In the Sangiiti Suttanta,(25) among the ten qua-
lities that "make for warding" is that conveyed by
the sentence: "a monk strives after doctrine,
dhammakaama, he is pleasant to converse with, he
rejoices exceedingly, u.laarapaamujja, in abhidhamma
abhivinaya." This whole passage on "living warded"
also appears at A^ng. v.23 f. while A^ng. v. 25
states that a monk who lives so warded may be
considered by the elders, by those of middle
standing and by the novices as fit for
encouragement. The same quality, of striving after
doctrine, etc., also occurs among those ten
qualities endowed with which an elder is said to
live happily or comfortably, phaasuviharati,(26) and
again it is given as one of the ten traditional
marks of a believer,(27) and yet again as one of the
ten conditions to be remembered as conducing to
concord and harmony.(28) This passage then,
recurring six times in identical terms, and always
in a set of ten items,(29) may be said to have
attained the status of a formula. In an oral and
then literary method which came to rely so greatly
as did Pali on the use of formulae for learning and
teaching, it is worth noticing that abhidhamma
abhivinaya were not left out. I have quoted their
formulae. In it they are associated with
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24. Vin. i. 64; cf. i, 68 and above, p. 294.
25. D. iii. 267.
26. A. v. 201.
27. A. v. 339.
28. a. v. 89ff.
29. The ten items, of which this is one,are not on
all the occasions when they occur quite the same as
one another.
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dhamma as dhammakaama; and in it they are qualified
by a very strong expression, u.laara-paamujja, "an
exceeding delight in."
Now I do not think that this expression would
have been used unless abhidhamma abhivinaya had been
intended to stand for something more than dhamma and
vinaya, perhaps in the sense of some more than
usually complete grasp and mastery of them due to
further study and reflection, and resulting in a
specially scrupulous observance of the matters
inculcated by them. A monk becomes one who is fond
of doctrine, strives after it, and he is also one
who rejoices exceedingly in what concerns it and
what concerns discipline. And this may no doubt be
in regard to their higher and more controversial
reaches, or to his power to grasp the various parts
of either in relation to its whole, or to their
subjective demands on him to put forth greater
energy in acting with conscience and discipline as
his guides.
With this use of abhi- as standing for"something
more" in the sense suggested, one might compare the
prefix abhi- in the triad abhisiila abhicitta
adhipa~n~naa. The descriptions of these conditions
given at A^ng. i. 235 to my mind make it quite clear
that abhi- here points to "the higher morality, the
higher thought, the higher wisdom," and should
therefore not be translated by "as to" morality,
etc., as in other contexts might be allowable. A
Vinaya passage(30) also lends weight to this view, a
I have elsewhere attempted to show.(31) So too does
the Commentary on this A^nguttara passage
itself.(32) It puts forward no hint of abhi- here
standing for "as to," and although not explicitly
equating abhi- with ati-, "superior," the meaning is
shown to be tantamount to this. For the Commentary
explains: "siila is called the five precepts ( of
morality, siila), deriving from that abhisiila means
the ten precepts, and deriving from that it means
the four precepts of purity. Also all morality that
is worldly is siila, what is other-worldly is
abhisiila. But thought (citta) is thought about the
realm of sense desires, deriving from that, if it is
about the realm of form it is called abhicitta, then
deriving from that, if it is about the realm of
formlessness it is called abhicitta. The same holds
good of wisdom." Here then is a clear issue, the
A^nguttara Commentary saying in no uncertain terms
that abhi- is here taken as meaning "higher,
superior."
The pair of terms,abhidhamma abhivinaya, appears
again in a passage at A^ng. i.288f. = A^ng.iv.397ff.
This sets out to determine how a young
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30. Vin. iii.234
31. B.D. ii. 94, n.3.
32. AA. ii. 345-6.
P.300
man may be gifted with speed, beauty and good
proportions. The criterion of speed is said to be
knowledge of the four truths of ill; that of good
proportions the ability to get as alms the four
requisites of a monk's life: robe, food, lodgings
and medicine. The four truths of ill and alms came
to play such important rles in their own ways and
spheres that they can hardly fail to throw a
reflected glory on the criterion of beauty: the
young man's ability not to falter but to solve
questions(33) put to him on abhidhamma abhivinaya.
For it cannot be conceded that this concept ever
attained such eminence as to stand beside the truths
and the alms on its own merits and without borrowing
something of their own significance from them. The
passage is stylised and comparatively late, and its
internal evidence provides no clue to the meaning
that abhidhamma and abhivinaya may bear here.
Mrs.Rhys Davids has shown in several of her more
recent books that the teaching on the four noble
truths, as this has been handed down,(34) did not
belong to the original or even to the earliest
Sakya, but was a doctrine that by laying an
increased insistence on ill, became rooted as the
monastic vogue grew in stature and strength. As such
it was however of undoubted potency and importance.
Again, alms-gathering and all that this implied for
monks and to a lesser degree fo donors, was far from
being a purely mundance practical business devoid of
inner meaning and feature. At the same time the four
types of alms that this passage has in mind, and
they are the ones which came to be generally used by
monks, are in the Vinaya called "extra allowances"
to those austere necessities originally prescribed
and doubtless exclusively used by Gotama's earliest
followers, a later they were the only ones used by
some of his more ascetic followers. In view of these
considerations, it is not here possible to see in
abhidhamma abhivinaya terminology dating from the
first inception of the Sakyan movement. Both must be
out-growths of and presuppose the existence of an
earlier doctrine and an earlier discipline, which
had however attained to sufficient degree of
coherency and form as to be capable of rational
study and application.
E.J. Thomas, referring to this passage, (35)says
"evidently an elaboration and analysis of the
doctrinal principles is intended, just as abhivinaya
would mean a casuistic discussion of the rules of
discipline." There is unluckily no "evidence" for
this remark, although its general sentiment
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33. These same words are used in connection with
abhidhammakathaa at M.i.214, see below, p.303, thus
so far as they go being stereotyped.
34. Gotama the Man, p.42ff.
35. Hist. Bud. Thought, p.276.
P.301
may be right. All such ascriptions of meaning to
abhidhamma in passages where the internal evidence
is of no avail are transcriptions to it of the
subject matter of the Abhidhamma Pi.taka, of the
treatment there accorded to this subject matter, and
of the method of approach that is used. There is no
Abhivinaya Pi.taka, so no analogous deduction could
hold good. I have outlined above the kind of thing I
think might have been meant by abhivinaya. I would
hesitate to subscribe to the view that it means a
"casuistic discussion of the rules of discipline."
Cases of conscience were not resolved by discussion,
but by an appeal to the rule that the offender had
infringed and to the legal examptions and exceptions
which always accompany the statement of the rule.
Moreover the Vinaya itself lays down no broad
principles of ethics which could be applied to
individual instances. The Vinaya is a mass of
particular rules made to fit particular cases of
unsuitable behaviour. Some of the moral grounds and
the ideal which inspired this system of practical
ethics are undoubtedly to be found in the Suttas.
But if anyone were to decide matters of conscience
or of behaviour not legislated for in the Vinaya, or
apply general principles to individual cases, I
should then say that, because he had to take this
stand on Sutta rather than on Vinaya material, he
was dealing with abhidhamma and not with abhivinaya.
The fourth occasion when the pair abhidhamma
abhivinaya occur is in the Gulissaani Sutta. (36)
This is a record of a talk ascribed to Saariputta
about a jungle monk. First, twelve ways are given in
which such monk should become, bhavitabha.m, one
endowed with certain qualities. For example, he
should know how to behave on his almsround, he
should become one who is composed, sedate, of
pleasant speech, amiable, energetic, vigilant and
mindful, he should become one to guard his faculties
and to possess wisdom and concentration. All such
conduct of body and mind, stated in an ascending
scale of values, is recognisable as deriving from
Vinaya and Suttapi.taka material. After this stress
on what a jungle monk should become (and even more
so one from a village, as Saariputta is recorded to
say), there follow three cases, interesting and
baffling, where endeavour is to be made, yogo
kara.niiyo, by him. There is first abhidhamma
abhivinaya. Endeavour is to be made in these. Next
it should be made in those formless freedoms which
transcend form, vimokhaa aaruppaa; and
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36. M. i. 469ff.
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thirdly it should be made in conditions of further-
men, uttarimanussa-dhammaa.(37)
This last was of such prime concern and
importance as to attract legislation in the
Paaraajika group of offences, those offences, and
there are no more than four of them, which entailed
the severest penalty, expulsion from the Order, to
which a monk could be subjected. While there is
reason to suppose that the teaching on
uttarimanussadhammaa was not a particularly late
comer into Sakyan thought, there is no reason to
suppose anything of the kind about the formless
freedoms. Had both these conceptions had either the
appearance of earliness or of lateness, it might
have been easier to assess the significance of
abhidhamma and abhivinaya in this passage.
Although neither the concept of freedom nor that of
states of furthermen was ever central in the Sakyan
teaching, both were of some consequence, the one
more in the Suttas and the other perhaps more in the
Vinaya. It can hardly be maintained that abhidhamma
abhivinaya are shedding lustre on these concepts
simply because they appear as the first member of
this triad. For in the preceding bhavitabha.m list
of desirable conduct and progress, less important
and more elementary things stand first and more
important, weightier things last. There is no reason
to suppose a reversal of this upwardmounting process
in the three cases where endeavour is to be
made.(38) On the other hand, any value that
abhidhamma abhivinaya may have acquired, and one
inclines to think that this will not have been
slight, will not have been by reason of their
grouping with freedom and states of furthermen, but
by reason of their derivation from dhamma and
vinaya.
This remained incalculably the superior, indeed
the greatest of all pairs, perhaps the greatest of
all concepts. But the jungle monk is not expected to
make endeavour in these themselves. Two aspects of
them, freedom and states of furthermen, have been
ruled out with their specific mention. Is the monk
then to make endeavour in any or all of those other
numerous, but here undetermined, aspects of doctrine
and discipline? This is surely too lop-sided to be
reasonable. The possibility then occurs : are abhid-
hamma abhivinaya meant to represent an endeavour to
gain leaning
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37. See B.D. i. Intr. xxiv f.
38. The Paaraajika concerned with states of futher-
men is the last of the Paaraajika rules. It is
possible that these are arranged in an ascending
scale of importance.
P.303
and mastert in matters affectubg the here and now,
while the freedoms and states of furthermen
represent a field for endeavour that is to be made
in other-worldly aspirations? If so, one may
conclude tentaively that the purpose of these three
concepts is to cover endeavour in the two spheres of
worldly and other-worldly matters. And this would be
no straining of the early Buddhist outlook and
teaching. In this I think uttarimanussa-dhammaa will
certainly not have been absent, and vimokkhaa,
although probably in its older form of vimutti, a
term taken over from earlier and contemporary
teachings, will also have had a part ot play. If the
whole passage shows signs of later reduction, this
does not prevent it from drawing upon some older
traditions.
We come now to three separate occasions,recorded
in the Majjhima and A^nguttara, of the term
abhidhammakathaa, talk on abhidhamma. At M. i.214,
quoted at Asl. 28-29, Moggallaana is reputed to give
as his answer to the question of what would illumine
the Gosinga Wood, the view that if two monks are
talking abhidhamma talk and ask each other questions
which they solve without being floored, then their
dhamma talk, dhammi kathaa, becomes lovely. It thus
seems that the power to converse on abhidhamma
improves talk on doctrine, and that this is the
important thing. The Atthasaalinii appears to
support this view when it says: "Tradition has it
that just the monks who know abhidhamma
(abhidhammi-kabhikkhuu) are called talkers on
doctrine; the rest, though talking doctrine, are not
talkers on doctrine(dhammakathikaa).(39)
Mrs. Rhys Davids sees in this talk the meaning
of "higher dharma."(40) She naturally rejects as
unlikely the possibility that Moggallaana "meant
anything like the dreary catechisms of the
Abhidhamma books." Pointing out that "higher dharma,
abhidhamma, we do not associate with Moggallaana
(41)....(and that) we must be here up against an
older use of the term", that is older than the
Abhidhamma as a Pi.taka, she concludes that we have
Moggallaana "saying what we might call a talk about
conscience, or about God." Indeed it may well be
that when specific points of doctrine, now found in
the Sutta Pi.taka, had been thrashed out and
clarified by some abhidhamma process, by analysis
for example of their more detailed intentions and
relation, or by assembling the synonyms, then from
that larger
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39. Asl. 29.
40. Manual of Buddhism, p.213.
41. But see DA.379.
P.304
knowledge of dhamma, that reserve of knowledge,
would that same dhamma gain in clarity of
expression.
Turning now to A^ng.iii,392, an episode is given
where "several elders" were talking abhidhamma talk.
It is recorded that a monk, Cittahatthisaariputta,
(42) interupted so much that Ko.t.thita asked him to
wait until the talk was over. But Citta's friends
stood up for him, rebuked Ko.t.thita for his
censure, and declared that Citta was wise and able
to talk abhidhamma talk to the elders. This context
suggests that the talk was on something specially
difficult or weighty.
Now Mahaako.t.thita, although outliving him, was
one of Gotama's earliest disciples.(43) This would
quite rule out the possibility that the talk would
have been "regarding the Abhidhamma",as Malalasekera
affirms.(41) Yet Mahaako.t.thita is called in the
Etad Aggas "chief of the disciples who are masters
of logical analysis", and it was he who, in the
Mahaavedalla-sutta,(45)catechised Saariputta, not it
may be remarked as master to pupil, but as two
mature minds exchanging views. Such records must
tend to raise the question whether we have here in
Ko.t.thita a monk who was expert in the logic and
catechetical method which afterwards came to form
part of the Abhidhamma material and process, but
which were in his time in all likelihood no more
than the bare framework on which the third Pi.taka
later came to be erected. It is tempting to see some
such connection between Ko.t.thita, at least present
on one occasion when there was abhi-dhamma talk or,
according to the Digha Commentary being one of the
two interlocutors on this occasion, and the
ascription to him of such special branches of
learning: logic and catechism, as form part of the
stuff out of which the Abhidhamma Pi.taka was
composed.
On the third occasion when the term abhidhammak-
athaa occurs, two points should be noticed: first,
that it is unique to find abhidhamma in
juxtaposition with vedalla, a catechism on fragments
or miscellaneous disconnected subjects; and
secondly, that it is here also federated with the
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42. Mentioned at D.i.190,199ff. as a friend of the
wanderer Po.t.thapaada. See Dial. i. 256, n.i.At DA.
379 it is said that the talk was held between
Moggallalana and ko.t.thita.
43. Mrs. Rhys davids, Gotama the Man, pp. iii,114.
44. D.P.P.N. under "Citta called Hatthirohaputta"
and under "Cittahatthi-saariputta Sutta."
45. Maj. Sutta XLIII.
P.305
pair dhamma vinaya, doctrine and discipline. There
is one other example of this latter association, to
which we will turn next. Here we are concerned with
A^ng. iii. 107, where it is stated that one of the
five dangers in the way of monks who are untrained
in body, morals, mind and wisdom is that when they
are talking abhidhamma talk and vedalla talk,
entering on a "dark doctrine," (46) they will not be
awake (to the meaning, na bujjhissanti). The passage
ends as do those for the four other "dangers", by
saying, "thus from corrupt doctrine comes corrupt
discipline, from corrupt discipline comes corrupt
doctrine." This is the leading concern: to keep
doctrine and discipline pure, and not to confuse
them by ignorant talk on abhidhamma and vedalla. Yet
it is hereby tacitly admitted that talk on
abhidhamma can affect one's views of dhamma.
Even if it be conceded that the vedalla method
of procedure is of some antiquity, it cannot be
deduced that abhidhamma, when so closely associated
with it, is also a word belonging to some early
date. For it must be remembered that any such
proximity of terms may all too easily be due to
later interpolation and thus can afford no safe
guide.
The other passage where abhidhamma is associated
with dhamma and vinaya is in the Kintisutta, Maj.
ii. 239. This is perhaps the most illuminating
extant Pi.takan reference to abhidhamma. The lord is
recorded to tell his disciples that they should
train in the "profound-knowledge-things" (or states,
conditions), dhammaa abhi~n~naa, taught by him. It
is most interesting to find these dhamma abhi~n~naa
apparently having here nothing to do with(47) the
five abbi~n~naa of a psychic nature, with the
knowledge of the destruction of the aasavaa added as
a sixth, which became collected and codified into a
formula, the chalabhi~n~na, and which took complete
precedence over every other possible meaning or
association of abhi~n~naa. For the lord, so it is
said, here explained the dhammaa abhi~n~naa by the
things helpful to enlightenment, the bodhipakkhikad-
hammaa. He is not shown as using this generic term,
which naturally came later into being than either
its thirty-seven component parts or the seven
categories under which these were classified. But he
names each f these categories. When the monks have
trained in these things, the lord is reputed
immediately to go on to say, there may be two monks
holding different views on abhidhamma. Those
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46. ka.nhadhamma, cf. Dhp. 87, A.v. 253.
47. Unless we except iddhi which occurs both in the
list of chalabhi~n~na and of bodhipakkhikadhammaa
P.306
who had trained in the bodhipakkhikadhammaa were to
summon these in turn and get each to recognise his
error. When the error is recognised as an error,
then yo dhammo yo vinayo so bhaasitabbo, that which
is doctrine, that which is discipline, can shine
forth.
Again this stands out as the major point.Further
it seems as if doctrine and discipline can only
shine forth after divergent views on abhidhamma have
been composed, and as if this is a task to be done
by monks who have trained in the things helpful to
enlightenment, here called also profound-knowledge-
things. This is what the context seems trying to
say. It strongly suggests that abhidhamma implies
the higher reaches of the training: those things
helpful to enlightenment, and which at the end of
his ministry the dying Gotama is found recommending
to his disciples. To clear up misconceptions
regarding these things is to throw light on doctrine
and discipline, and even on doctrine in all its
fulness, dhammassa (c) nudhamma, a point made in
the last paragraph of the Kintisutta.
It may be noted that the Vibha^nga, one of the
Abhidhamma "books", has a long analysis of the
bodhipakkhikadhammaa,thus supporting the kintisutta's
evidence that these formed part of the subject matter
of abhidhamma.
We have now noticed two cases where abhidhamma
stands in some relation to vinaya, anticipating in
name if in nothing more the first and the third
Pi.takas. Now in Vin. iv, there are two occasions
where abhidhamma and vinaya are again associated. On
both of these the word dhamma is absent, whereas in
the passages we have just noted it had been present.
But on both of these Vinaya occasions there is
present, not only the word vinaya, but also
suttanta, the word which gave its name to the second
Pi.taka. These passages are at Vin. iv. 144 (Monks'
Paacittiya lxxii) and Vin. iv. 344 (Nuns' Paacittiya
XCV). Both are cited by the Atthasaalinii to show
that abhidhamma is the lord's word.(48)
In the former,these three terms,vinaya,suttanta,
abhidhamma, are also associated with gaathaa, songs,
poems, metric verses. This quartet is unique in Pali
canonical literature. A monk may say to another:
"Master suttantas or verses (both plural) or
abhidhamma (singular) and afterwards you will mater
discipline." The very presence of the word "verses"
is enough to preclude the word abhidhamma from
standing for the literary
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48. Asl. 28.
P.307
exegesis of that name, Indeed no reference to the
three Pi.takas as such would have combined a
reference to part of the material, verses, which one
of them eventually came to include.
The reference to gaathaa no doubt points to a
time subsequent to the composition of at any rate
some of these. But again we are in ignorance of much
of the history of Pali Buddhist verse-making. Yet
the evidence which has been adduced from its
study,(49) and it is by no means negligible, shows
it must have taken a long time for say the
Dhammapada, Suttainpaata, and the Verses of the
Elders and the Women Elders to reach their final
form. So that Oldenberg may be substantially right
when he says that gaathaas are "here meant to
represent the different texts comprised in the
Khuddakanikaaya."(50) Only we must qualify this view
by saying : "texts which came at some later date to
be copmrised in the Kluddakanikaaya at its final
revision." For with verses being made since very
early days, there is no reason to infer that the
"verses" or songs mentioned at Vin. iv. 144 are
meant to refer to any completed collection or
collections of verses. It is therefore not possible
to conclude that the presence of this word suggests
such a late date for this passage as to justify
seeing here in abhidhamma the title of the third
Pi.taka, in spite of its proximity to words which
were used as titles for the two earlier Pi.takas.
Moreover this Paacittiya purports to refer to
the time when Upaali, the great Vinaya expert, was
alive. But since he could not have long survived the
First Council, in the Vinaya accounts of which there
is no mention of the Abhidhamma, this as a Pi.taka
could not well have been compiled and completed
until after his death.
The triad found in Nuns' Paacittiya xcv,suttanta
vinaya abhidhamma, stands as a perfect triad without
the addition of any fourth member. This is, so far
as I know, with the exception of a line of verse in
the admittedly later Parivaara, (51) unique in Pali
canonical literature. A nun, according to this
Paacittiya, having obtained a monk's permission to
ask him about suttanta, commits an effence of
expiation if she asks him instead about vinaya or
abhidhamma; and it is the same with the two
variations on this theme. Oldenberg states that this
is "the only passage in the Vinaya
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49. See Introduction by Max Mller, Dhammapada
(S.B.E.X);Chalmers, Buddha's Teachings(Suttanipaata,
H.O.S. 37); Mrs. Rhys Davids, Dhammapada (S.B.B.
vii.), and her Poems by Monk and Nun, Review of
Religion, January, 1940.
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50. VinayaPi.taka.m, vol. i. Intr. p. xii, n. 2.
51. Vin. v. 86.
P.308
which really presupposes the existence of an
Abhidhamma Pi.taka, (52) and that "we can
unhesitatingly assume" these words to be an
interpolation. Which exact "words" he means is not
quite clear, since he only italicises abhidhamma.
But he probably means no more than abhidhamma vaa.
Although I think that Oldenberg is very likely
indeed to be right, and there is no internal
evidence to suggest that he is wrong, or indeed to
suggest anything helpful at all, I cannot feel
myself so entirely convinced as he appears to be
that the Abhidhamma Pi.taka was in existence by the
time that this passage was formulated. The main
reason why I think he may be right is that here we
have a triad, unadulterated and unique in the canon,
which supplies the names of what, at some time, came
to be constituted as the three Pi.takas. Where
abhidhamma is combined with abhivinaya we can be far
less certain of its having this reference, indeed
fairly certain that it has not. But where as in this
Paacittiya, abhidhamma is so closely associated with
vinaya and with suttanta, but with nothing else,
then an assumption such as Oldenberg's gains in
plausibility.
On the other hand, although it is true that in
the Nuns' Paacittiya group, Paac. xcv is the last
but one of the rules there formulated, we should not
be too much swayed by this consideration. For the
position of a rule in the class in which it is
placed is no sure guide to its comparative date. For
example, in the Monks' Paacittiya group, some of the
rules towards the end have a much earlier ring than
some of those which precede them and which assume
the existence of certain constitutional develop-
ments, such as could only have arisen when the Order
had attained some degree of long-standing. In a
word, it may be s aid that the rules are not now
arranged in the order in which the were promulgated,
and they thus yield no reliable evidence for the
history of their formulation.
Again, it cannot be too often emphasised, as Max
Mller wrote several years age, (53) that the
"three subjects of Dhamma (sutta) , Vinaya and
Abhidhamma treated in these baskets" (of the Suttas,
of Vinaya and of Abhidhamma) "existed and were
taught long before the three baskets were definitely
arranged." Bearing this in mind, it may be suggested
that at the time when this Paacittiya was formulated
the whole teaching had done no more than reach a
stage when it was capable of division into these
three
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52. VinayaPi.taka.m, vol. i. Intr. p. xii. n.2.
53. Dhammapada (S.B.E. X) 2nd edn., Intr. p.xli.
P.309
baskets, but that the final division and arrangement
had not as yet been made.
We therefore find ourselves in great uncertainty
as to what in any of the Pi.takan passages that we
have noticed is the meaning and intention of the
word abhidhamma. This word, held as it is, not to
refer to the Pi.taka of that name, and with the one
possible exception this seems the only tenable
hypothesis, commands no unanimity of interpretation
in the Commentaries. I think we may agree that the
word, if not as puzzling to the commentators as to
ourselves, had for them a fluctuating meaning, and
was thus able to be explained in one way in one
passage and in another way in another passage.
We have now found records where Moggallaana,
Mahaako.t.thita, Cittahatthisaariputta and "several
elders" were concerned with abhidhamma talk,
abhidhammakathaa, and once (A^ng. iii. 107) the word
is put into the lord's mouth. Again, abhidhamma
itself is connected with Saariputta; on other
occasions the lord is made responsible for using
this word, while on still others it occurs in the
Vinaya apparatus. It is perhaps not insignificant
that the compound abhidhammakathaa is connected with
the names of some of Gotama's earliest disciples.
although Moggallaana is chiefly famed for his
psychic powers, and there is little reason to
suppose him to have had gifts of an abhidhamma
nature or we should have heard more about them,
there is doubtless some excuse for connecting the
term with Mahaako.t.thita, as explained above with
Saariputta on the grounds of his taking part with
Ko.t.thita in the catechetical discussion now
preserved in the Mahaavedallasutta, and with
Cittahatthisaariputta. Very little has survived
concerning this disciple. But he is shown in the
Po.t.thapaada Suttanta as sitting by while the
wanderer Po.t.thapaada and Gotama discuss aspects of
the self, attaa, then as asking a penetrating
question about the three modes of self, past,
present and future, and then as resolving this
question in a manner approved by Gotama.
Eschatological matters, such as are foreshadowed in
the Po.t.thapaada Suttanta, were later analysed in
some of the Abhidhamma "books."
On the other hand the linking to these names of
the term abhidhamma may have no foundation in fact,
but may be due to the desire of "editors", working
years later on the Sayings, to give the term the
value they felt was owing to it on account of a
growth in their day of a vogue for studying an
abhidhamma class of thought. Conversely, this class
of thought would
P.310
also gain in repute if it could be made to trace its
beginnings to some of the more eminent personalities
in the Order.
Of one thing we may be certain, and it is that
abhidhamma was never meant to oust dhamma from its
pre-eminent position. This remained immeasurably the
more central and the more potent word and concept of
the two. Abhidhamma is nowhere extolled as a prize
of learning bringing its own rewards, and only to be
mastered by the greatest intellects. Rather it
appears as accessory material to dhamma,supplementary
to it, illuminating it, it is true, but not
necessary for those who will become, if they are
willing to train, highest in the immortal because
they live having dhamma as light, dhamma as
refuge.(54)
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54. D.ii.101