Abhidharma

Abhidharma is a corpus of Buddhist scholastic literature that offers a systematic analysis of phenomena (dharmas) and mental states. It aims to explain how experiences arise from conditions and why beings undergo cyclic existence, by listing, classifying, and detailing the constituents of experience. The term is usually translated as 'higher Dharma' and functions as a complement to the discourses (suttas) by providing a formal analytic framework for practice and insight.

Abhidharma texts were produced by several Indian Buddhist schools. In the Theravada tradition, the Abhidhamma Pitaka of the Pali Canon comprises Dhammasangani, Vibhanga, Dhatuvibhanga, and Patthana, presenting a thorough inventory of dhammas and their causal relations. In other schools, notably the Sarvastivada and later Mahayana streams, influential works such as Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosha and Asanga's Abhidharmasamuccaya offered concise, systematic treatments of dharmas, mental factors, and categories of experience, often with sophisticated theories of reality and consciousness, including the three natures in some texts.

Core topics include the enumeration of conscious and bodily phenomena, the analysis of mental factors (cetasikas), the aggregates and sense bases, and the causal patterns that condition experience. Abhidharma employs a phenomenological method, focusing on discrete, definable constituents and their interrelations, to illuminate the mechanisms of perception, error, and liberation. Across schools, Abhidharma shaped Buddhist philosophical debate, influenced meditative theory, and remained a standard frame of reference for doctrinal analysis until later reformulations in Mahayana and Vajrayana.