15 Facts About Abhidhamma

Theravada Abhidhamma is a scholastic systematization of the Theravada school's understanding of the highest Buddhist teachings .

Primary source for the Abhidhamma is the Abhidhamma Pitaka, a set of seven texts which form the third "basket" of the Theravada Tipitaka .

Sri Lankan branch of the Theravada school later developed further Abhidhamma texts, including commentaries on the books of the Abhidhamma and special introductory manuals.

Abhidhamma's Visuddhimagga remains one of the most important Theravada texts.

Abhidhamma remains a living tradition in Theravada nations today and modern Abhidhamma works continue to be written in modern languages such as Burmese and Sinhala.

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Abhidhamma studies are particularly stressed in Myanmar, where it has been the primary subject of study since around the 17th century.

Books of the Abhidhamma Pitaka were translated into English in the 20th century and published by the Pali Text Society.

Pali Abhidhamma sought to avoid both absolute pluralism and monism can be seen in various commentarial statements that warn against a one-sided focus or grasping on the principle of plurality .

Similarly, Noa Ronkin argues that in Theravada Abhidhamma, "sabhava is predominantly used for the sake of determining the dhammas' individuality, not their existential status".

Paul Williams notes that the Abhidhamma remains focused on the practicalities of insight meditation and leaves ontology "relatively unexplored".

Theravada Abhidhamma holds that there is a total of 82 possible types of dhammas, 81 of these are conditioned, while one is unconditioned.

Therefore, Theravada Abhidhamma holds that there is only one singular nibbana, unlike in Vaibhasika or Mahayana Abhidharma, where there are different types of unconditioned elements and different forms of nibbana .

The Theravada Abhidhamma holds that the mind consciousness has a physical base, a view which is in disagreement with other Buddhist schools, but which finds support in the suttas, which state that consciousness and "name and form" are dependent on each other.

Abhidhamma sees cognition as a continuum of momentary mental events without any enduring substance or self behind the process.

Theravada Abhidhamma teaches that there are twenty four kinds of conditional relation.