Abhidharma

The Abhidharma (lit. "about the dharma") refers to a class of Buddhist texts, the first of which date from the 3rd century BCE. Abhidharma texts contain detailed scholastic presentations of Buddhist doctrine, including doctrines that appear in canonical Buddhist scriptures and commentaries. "Abhidharma" also refers to the scholastic method itself, and the knowledge (prajña) that this method is said to study and cultivate.

Bhikkhu Bodhi calls Abhidharma "an abstract and highly technical systemization of the [Buddhist] doctrine," which is "simultaneously a philosophy, a psychology and an ethics, all integrated into the framework of a program for liberation." According to Peter Harvey, the Abhidharma method seeks "to avoid the inexactitudes of colloquial conventional language, as is sometimes found in the Suttas, and state everything in psycho-philosophically exact language." In this sense, it is an attempt to best express the Buddhist view of "ultimate reality" (paramārtha-satya).

There are different types of Abhidharma literature. The early canonical Abhidharma works, such as the Pali Abhidhamma Piṭaka, are not philosophical treatises but mainly summaries and expositions of early Buddhist doctrinal lists with their accompanying explanations. These texts developed out of early Buddhist lists or matrices (mātṛkās) of key teachings.

Later post-canonical Abhidharma works were written as either large treatises (śāstra), as commentaries (aṭṭhakathā), or as smaller introductory manuals. There were numerous schools of Abhidharma in India, such as the Theravada, and the Vaibhāṣika. They are more developed philosophical works which include many innovations and doctrines not found in the canonical Abhidharma. Abhidharma remains an important field of scholarship among the Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna schools of Buddhism.