The History of Buddhist Thought c20.21

c20.21

The Buddhist monasteries became places of education. What we actually know of them is the late reports of the Chinese pilgrims, but we can see in Abhidhamma a system of instruction which must have begun much earlier. Abhidhamma, “ special dhamma,” appears to have first meant a method of discussion and development of the principles of the Dhamma. Hence we find it recognized by different schools, but the works that have developed out of the study are sectarian and not common to all the schools. They all recognize a system of logical analysis, *paṭisambhidā* or *pratisamvit*.¹ This is divided into (1) analysis of the meaning (*attha*) of terms (or of things, for the terms define things), (2) analysis of *dhamma*, which the *Vibhanga* and Buddhaghosa explain as the knowledge of the causes of things, (3) analysis of grammar (*nirutti*), (4) analysis of *paṭibhāṇa*, the power of ready exposition.² These terms do not seem to have been always interpreted in the same way. According to the Chinese work *Tsa-tsi*,³ *attha* is the knowledge of proper and common characters, *dharma* the knowledge of synonyms.