[squeerisott]

I'm not entirely certain just how much the abhidhamma is used by those who frequent these boards, but since hearing that the abhidhamma is one of three baskets of teachings is commonplace, I thought it might be interesting to analyze the following comment, which comes at the end of an article by Bhante Sujato:

"I suggest that the abhidhamma is most profitably considered, not as a psychology or as a philosophy, but as a mystical cult. Its complexity arises, not from the inherent difficulty of the subject matter, but from the need to create an impression of unimpeachable authority. Its specialists, the abhidhammikas, are the High Priests of Buddhism. They play, aloof in their lofty Castle of Thought, the ultimate Glass Bead Game. Their role is not to realize the Dhamma, but to mediate between the devotees and the Plane of Ultimate Reality. The sabhāva of the abhidhamma is its soul, the moment its eternity. Its texts are magical incantations. Abhidhamma passages are, in fact, used virtually solely for this purpose in contemporary Thailand, recited at funeral rituals by monks who don’t know their meaning for laypeople who don’t care."

This is important because a great number of "Buddhist" ideas come from the abhidhamma and the commentarial tradition surrounding it: the doctrine of momentariness; the analysis of experience into fundamental things; the division between an ultimate truth and a conventional truth; and so on. Even an understanding of paticcasamuppada changes, when the commentarial tradition and the abhidhamma upon which it is based is set aside.

Perhaps no one is interested in the abhidhamma; if so, I recommend continuing to be disinterested therein! But it may well be that some of what we understand as "the Dhamma" could beneficially be challenged, if we but note which aspects have their roots in this late literature, and which have their roots in the Suttas.