A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s4.1

v2.c19.s4.1

As the word Abhidhamma means "higher religion," or the "higher subtleties of religion,"¹ it used sometimes to be translated by "metaphysics." In reality, however, Abhidhamma has nothing to do with metaphysics, and as to philosophy, it has no more and no less connection with it than the Dhamma as taught in the Suttapiṭaka. Indeed, the only difference between the books of the Abhidhammapiṭaka and those of the Suttapiṭaka is that the former are more circumstantial, drier, more learned, in a word, more scholastic. Both treat of the same subject. We shall look in vain for originality and profundity in the Abhidhamma books. Definitions and classifications are their strong point. The definitions, however, valuable as they are for the dictionary and the knowledge of Buddhist terminology, are disappointing in that they only turn on an endless series of synonyms. The classifications, too, however estimable for the attempt at creating a psychological basis of ethics which they contain, are rarely penetrating analyses of psychical processes; much more frequently they are mere enumerations, unduly protracted, or arbitrarily created or banal categories. As a rule, all this yields nothing but dogmatism, hardly ever is there a trace of any research which could be called scientific. The form of these works is mostly that of questions and answers, after the style of a catechism.