Abhidharma the core of Mahâyâna and Hînayâna?
Oct 10, 2009 05:38 AM
by Morten Nymann Olesen
Dear friends
My views are:
HPB wrote:
"Tripitaka (Sk.). Lit., "the three baskets"; the name of the Buddhist canon. It is composed of three divisions : (1) the doctrine; (2) the rules and laws for the priesthood and ascetics; (3) the philosophical dissertations and metaphysics: to wit, the Abhidharma, defined by Buddhaghosa as that law (dharma) which goes beyond (abhi) the law. The Abhidharma contains the most profoundly metaphysical and philosophical teachings, and is the store-house whence the Mahâyâna and Hînayâna Schools got their fundamental doctrines. There is a fourth division-the Samyakta Pitaka. But as it is a later addition by the Chinese Buddhists, it is not accepted by the Southern Church of Siam and Ceylon."
(The Theosophical Glossary, 1892, published posthumously by GRS Mead)
http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/ATUVWXYZ.htm#t
It seems that this Abhidharma teaching must have a very strong esoteric core and flavour attached to it since the fundemental Buddhistic doctrines was based on it. That is what HPB says, and scholars think different even today.
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Abhidharma
"In the West, the Abhidhamma has generally been considered the core of what is referred to as 'Buddhist Psychology'."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhidharma
The third category, the Abhidhamma Pitaka (literally "beyond the dhamma", "higher dhamma" or "special dhamma", Sanskrit: Abhidharma Pitaka), is a collection of texts which give a systematic philosophical description of the nature of mind, matter and time. There are seven books in the Abhidhamma Pitaka.
M. Sufilight
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