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Early Buddhist Metaphysics The Making of a
Philosophical Tradition 1st Edition Noa Ronkin Digital
Instant Download
Author(s): Noa Ronkin
ISBN(s): 9780415345194, 0415345197
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 1.36 MB
Year: 2005
Language: english
 EARLY BUDDHIST METAPHYSICS

This book provides a philosophical account of the major doctrinal shift in the
history of early Theravada tradition in India: the transition from the earliest stratum
of Buddhist thought to the systematic and allegedly scholastic philosophy of the
Pali Abhidhamma movement. Conceptual investigation into the development of
Buddhist ideas is pursued, thus rendering the Buddha’s philosophical position
more explicit and showing how and why his successors changed it. Entwining
comparative philosophy and Buddhology, the author probes the Abhidhamma’s
shift from an epistemologically oriented conceptual scheme to a metaphysical
worldview that is based on the concept of dhamma. She does so in terms of the
Aristotelian tradition and vis-à-vis modern philosophy, exploiting Western philo-
sophical literature from Plato to contemporary texts in the fields of philosophy of
mind and cultural criticism. This book not only demonstrates that a philosophical
inquiry into the conceptual foundations of early Buddhism can enhance our
understanding of what philosophy and religion are qua thought and religion; it
also shows the value of fresh perspectives for traditional Buddhology.
Combining philosophically rigorous investigation and Buddhological research
criteria, Early Buddhist Metaphysics fills a significant gap in Buddhist scholar-
ship’s treatment of the conceptual development of the Abhidhamma.

Noa Ronkin received her PhD from the University of Oxford. She is currently
a lecturer in the Introduction to the Humanities Programme and a Research Fellow
at the Center for Buddhist Studies, Stanford University. Her research interests
include a range of issues associated with Indian Theravada Buddhist philosophy
and psychology, the Abhidhamma tradition and comparative Indian philosophy.
 ROUTLEDGECURZON CRITICAL STUDIES
IN BUDDHISM
General Editors:
Charles S. Prebish and Damien Keown

RoutledgeCurzon Critical Studies in Buddhism is a comprehensive study of the Buddhist

tradition. The series explores this complex and extensive tradition from a variety of per-
spectives, using a range of different methodologies.
The series is diverse in its focus, including historical studies, textual translations and
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gious practice as an expression of Buddhism’s integral religiosity. It also presents materials
on modern intellectual historical studies, including the role of Buddhist thought and schol-
arship in a contemporary, critical context and in the light of current social issues. The series
is expansive and imaginative in scope, spanning more than two and a half millennia of
Buddhist history. It is receptive to all research works that inform and advance our knowl-
edge and understanding of the Buddhist tradition.

A SURVEY OF VINAYA LITERATURE IMAGING WISDOM

Charles S. Prebish Jacob N. Kinnard

THE REFLEXIVE NATURE OF PAIN AND ITS ENDING

AWARENESS Carol S. Anderson
Paul Williams
EMPTINESS APPRAISED
ALTRUISM AND REALITY David F. Burton
Paul Williams
THE SOUND OF LIBERATING
BUDDHISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS TRUTH
Edited by Damien Keown, Edited by Sallie B. King
Charles Prebish, Wayne Husted and Paul O. Ingram

WOMEN IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE BUDDHIST THEOLOGY

BUDDHA Edited by Roger R. Jackson
Kathryn R. Blackstone and John J. Makransky

THE RESONANCE OF EMPTINESS THE GLORIOUS DEEDS OF PURNA

Gay Watson Joel Tatelman

AMERICAN BUDDHISM EARLY BUDDHISM – A NEW

Edited by Duncan Ryuken Williams and APPROACH
Christopher Queen Sue Hamilton
CONTEMPORARY BUDDHIST ETHICS ZEN WAR STORIES
Edited by Damien Keown Brian Victoria

INNOVATIVE BUDDHIST WOMEN THE BUDDHIST UNCONSCIOUS

Edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo William S. Waldron

TEACHING BUDDHISM IN THE WEST

Edited by V.S. Hori, R.P. Hayes INDIAN BUDDHIST THEORIES OF
and J.M. Shields PERSONS
James Duerlinger
EMPTY VISION
David L. McMahan ACTION DHARMA
Edited by Christopher Queen,
SELF, REALITY AND REASON IN Charles Prebish and Damien Keown
TIBETAN PHILOSOPHY
Thupten Jinpa TIBETAN AND ZEN BUDDHISM IN
BRITAIN
IN DEFENSE OF DHARMA David N. Kay
Tessa J. Bartholomeusz
THE CONCEPT OF THE BUDDHA
BUDDHIST PHENOMENOLOGY
Guang Xing
Dan Lusthaus

RELIGIOUS MOTIVATION AND THE THE PHILOSOPHY OF DESIRE

ORIGINS OF BUDDHISM IN THE BUDDHIST PALI CANON
Torkel Brekke David Webster

DEVELOPMENTS IN AUSTRALIAN THE NOTION OF DITTHI IN

BUDDHISM THERAVADA BUDDHISM
Michelle Spuler Paul Fuller
The following titles are published in association with the Oxford Centre for Buddhist
Studies

The Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies conducts and promotes rigorous teaching and
research into all forms of the Buddhist tradition.

EARLY BUDDHIST METAPHYSICS

Noa Ronkin
 EARLY BUDDHIST
METAPHYSICS
The making of a philosophical tradition

Noa Ronkin
 First published 2005
by RoutledgeCurzon
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon,
Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by RoutledgeCurzon
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

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collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”

RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

© 2005 Noa Ronkin

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or

reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
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 CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations xi

Introduction: situating Theravadin doctrinal

thought – towards a comparative Buddhist
philosophy 1
Buddhist thought in the philosophical arena 1
Scholasticism and the Abhidhamma from the
perspective of the comparative philosophy
of religion 7
Method and scope 9
The doctrinal transition from the Buddha’s teaching
to the Abhidhamma: preliminary remarks 14
An outline of the chapters 15

1 The further teaching: Abhidhamma thought in context 19

1.1 The origin of the ancient Buddhist schools and the
advent of the Abhidhamma 19
1.2 Abhidhamma literary style and genre 26

2 What the Buddha taught and Abhidhamma thought:

from Dhamma to dhammas 34
2.1 The development of the dhamma theory 34
2.2 On dhammas, atoms, substances and the doctrine of
momentariness 50
2.3 Buddhist thought in the mirror of process
metaphysics 66

vii
 CONTENTS

3 The development of the concept of sabhava and

Buddhist doctrinal thought 86
3.1 The concept of sabhava in the para-canonical texts 87
3.2 Buddhist doctrinal thought in the Atthakatha 108

4 Individuals: revisiting the Abhidhamma dhamma theory 132

4.1 The problem of individuation 133
4.2 The intension of individuality 137
4.3 The canonical dhamma analysis as a categorial
theory of individuals 154
4.4 The principle of individuality 167

5 Causation as the handmaid of metaphysics: from the

paticcasamuppada to the Patthana 193
5.1 Dependent co-arising and the early Buddhist notion
of causation: a reassessment 194
5.2 The Abhidhamma theory of causal conditioning 210

Concluding reflections 244

Bibliography 254
Index 269

viii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is a revised version of my doctoral dissertation, ‘A Metaphysics of

Experience: from the Buddha’s Teaching to the Abhidhamma’ that was submitted
to the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford in spring 2003. I
would like to take this opportunity to thank those who have helped me bring the
dissertation to fruition and complete its preparation for publication. My foremost
gratitude and respect are extended to Richard Gombrich, who supervised my
D.Phil. and has been an invaluable source of insight and encouragement. He has
cultivated my interest in the study of Buddhism, while nurturing my enthusiasm
for philosophy in general and comparative philosophy in particular. I am privi-
leged to have been guided by him. I am also grateful to Lance Cousins, who elab-
orated on the Abhidhamma intricacies, made shrewd observations and invaluable
suggestions, and offered useful references. To Paul Williams and Jonardon
Ganeri, the examiners of the original thesis, I am indebted for their instructive
advice and comments. Thanks are also due to Sue Hamilton, Natalia Isayeva,
Ornan Rotem and Helen Steward for their formative remarks on sections of the
thesis. Whatever omissions or errors that remain in this work are entirely my own.
The University of Oxford and Wolfson College provided an unparalleled intel-
lectual and cultural environment for studying Pali Buddhism. The University’s
generous Graduate Studentship provided the primary financial support for my
research. Additional financial assistance was extended by grants of the Overseas
Research Students Awards Scheme and of the Spalding Trust.
The book was prepared for publication after I had become affiliated as a Visiting
Research Fellow at the Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies. I am grateful to the
people at the Center for making the completion of this work possible, and would like
to express my gratitude especially to Carl Bielefeldt for his kindness and support.
Special thanks are due to Shlomo Biderman, my teacher and kalyaja-mitta,
who has given me the benefit of his sensitive understanding of philosophy, both
Indian and Western, and who first opened my eyes to many timeless questions and
sparked my enthusiasm for comparative Indian philosophy.
My mother, who always supports me with understanding and selflessness, has
my love and deepest gratitude.

ix
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Finally, I wish to thank my dear Boaz for his companionship and for being an
everlasting source of livelihood and wit. These, as well as his critical reading and
finely honed sense of style, helped improve this book throughout.

Noa Ronkin
Stanford, March 2004

x
 ABBREVIATIONS

PALI AND SANSKRIT TEXTS

For full citation of the editions used, see Bibliography. The Pali texts, unless
otherwise stated, refer to PTS editions.

A Akguttara-nikaya
Abhidh-av Abhidhammavatara
Abhidh-av-t Abhidhammavatara-puraja-abhinava-tika-2
(⫽ Abhidhammattha-vikasini)
Abhidh-av-pt Abhidhammavatara-puraja-abhinava-tika-1
AKB Abhidharmakofabhasya
Abhidh-s Abhidhammatthasakgaha
Abhidh-s-mht Abhidhammatthavibhavinitika
(Abhidhammatthasakgaha commentary)
It Itivuttaka
It-a Itivuttakatthakatha (Itivuttaka commentary)
Ud Udana
Ud-a Udanatthakatha (Udana commentary)
Kv Kathavatthu
Kv-a Pañcappakarajatthakatha (Kathavatthu commentary)
Kv-mt Kathavatthu-mulatika (Kathavatthu sub-commentary)
CU Chandogya Upanisad
Tikap Tikapatthana
D Digha-nikaya
DP Candramati’s Dafapadarthafastra
Dip Dipavaµsa
Dhatuk Dhatukatha
Dhp Dhammapada
Dhp-a Dhammapadatthakatha (Dhammapada commentary)
Dhs Dhammasakgaji

xi
 ABBREVIATIONS

Dhs-a Atthasalini (Dhammasakgaji commentary)

Dhs-anut Dhammasakgaji-anutika (Dhammasajgaji sub-commentary)
Dhs-mt Dhammasakgaji-mulatika (Dhammasakgaji sub-commentary)
Nidd I Mahaniddesa
Nidd II Cu¬aniddesa
Nidd-a I Mahaniddesa commentary (= Saddhammapajjotika)
Nidd-a II Cu¬aniddesa commentary (= Saddhammapajjotika)
Nett Nettippakaraja
Nett-a Nettippakaraja commentary
Patis Patisambhidamagga
Patis-a Saddhammappakasini (Patisambhidamagga commentary)
Patth-a Patthana commentary
PDS Prafastapada’s Padarthadharmasaµgraha
Pet Petakopadesa
Ps Papañcasudani (Majjhima-nikaya commentary)
BU Brhadarajyaka Upanisad
Bv Buddhavaµsa
Bv-a Buddhavaµsa commentary
M Majjhima-nikaya
Mil Milindapañha
MuU Mujdaka Upanisad
Moh Mohavicchedani (Abhidhammamatikatthavajjana)
Mp Manorathapuraji (Akguttara-nikaya commentary)
MB Patañjali’s Mahabhasya
Mhv Mahavaµsa
Yam-mt Yamaka sub-commentary
RV ¸g Veda
Vin Vinaya-pitaka
Vibh Vibhakga
Vibh-a Sammohavinodani (Vibhakga commentary)
Vibh-mt Vibhakga-mulatika (Vibhakga sub-commentary)
Vism Visuddhimagga (Harvard Oriental Series)
Vism-mht Visuddhimagga-mahatika (Visuddhimagga commentary)
VS Kajada’s Vaifesikasutras
S Saµyutta-nikaya
SU Fvetafvatara Upanisad
Sn Suttanipata
Sp Samantapasadika (Vinaya commentary)
Spk Saratthappakasini (Saµyutta-nikaya commentary)
Spk-pt Saµyutta-nikaya sub-commentary
Sv Sumakgalavilasini (Digha-nikaya commentary)
Sv-pt Digha-nikaya sub-commentary (⫽ Linatthapakasini)

xii
 ABBREVIATIONS

DICTIONARIES AND OTHER STANDARD WORKS

OF REFERENCE

Be CSCD Burmese Chattha Sakgayana edition, CSCD

BHSD F. Edgerton (1953) Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary,
New Haven: Yale University Press
CPD V. Trenckner et al. (1924–) A Critical Pali Dictionary,
Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Letters and Science
NPED Margaret Cone (2001) A Dictionary of Pali, Part I, A–Kh
(‘New Pali–English Dictionary’), Oxford: PTS
CSCD Chattha Sakgayana CD-ROM of the Pali Canon and
Commentaries, version 3, 1999, Igatpuri: Vipassana Research
Institute
MW Monier Monier-Williams (1899) A Sanskrit–English Dictionary,
Oxford: Clarendon Press
PED T.W. Rhys Davids and W. Stede (1921–5) Pali–English Dictionary,
London: PTS
PTC F.L. Woodward et al. (1952–) Pali Tipitakaµ Concordance:
being a concordance in Pali to the Three Baskets of Buddhist
scriptures in the Indian order of letters, London: PTS
PTS Pali Text Society

xiii
 INTRODUCTION
Situating Theravadin doctrinal thought – towards
a comparative Buddhist philosophy

BUDDHIST THOUGHT IN THE

PHILOSOPHICAL ARENA

The Buddha’s teaching, the Dhamma, is presented in the Sutta-pitaka of the Pali
Canon as a path to the solution of the fundamental problem of human existence,
namely, dukkha, customarily translated as ‘suffering’ or ‘unsatisfactoriness’. In the
Nikayas the processes that bring about the cessation of dukkha are conceived of
primarily in terms of spiritual practice and development – such as bhavana (liter-
ally ‘bringing into being’, rendered as ‘development’), brahmacariya (‘the holy
life’), magga (path) or patipada (way) – thus reflecting an interest in the workings
and salvific capability of one’s bodily, speech and mental acts. Although the
Buddha’s message does contain doctrinal concepts and theoretical statements on
the nature of dukkha, its cause, its cessation and the way to its cessation, these
statements function as guidelines for comprehending Buddhist thought and do not
amount to a systematic theory. The attempt to ground the Buddha’s scattered teach-
ings in an inclusive theory was introduced later on with the advance of the subse-
quent Abhidharma/Abhidhamma tradition: a doctrinal movement in Buddhist
thought and exegesis that gradually developed during the first centuries after the
Buddha’s mahaparinibbana in tandem with distinctive theoretical and practical
interests, resulting in an independent branch of inquiry and literary genre, as
documented in the third basket of the Pali Canon, the Abhidhamma-pitaka.
While the Nikayas present the Buddha’s teachings as addressed to specific
audiences at specific times and locations, the Abhidhamma seeks to describe the
structure underlying the Buddha’s Dhamma fully, in ultimate terms that apply in all
circumstances. In this sense it marks the attempt to establish Buddhist thought as a
comprehensive philosophy. Since the Buddha’s teaching is primarily concerned
with lived, sentient experience, the Abhidhamma’s philosophical rendering of the
Dhamma attempts to provide a systematic and comprehensive account of the
constitution of that experience. It does so by explicating the nature of all types of
physical and mental events that make up one’s conscious world, as well as that
of their relationships and interrelationships of causal conditioning. Physical and
mental events, the ultimate terms used by the Abhidhamma in its philosophical

1
 INTRODUCTION: THERAVA DIN DOCTRINAL THOUGHT

enterprise, are known as dharma/dhamma (hereafter dharmas/dhammas), and hence

the overarching inquiry involving both the analysis of all types of dhamma and their
synthesis into a unified structure by means of their manifold relationships is
referred to as the ‘dhamma theory’. But what exactly is a dhamma as opposed to
dhammas? How did the dhamma theory proceed from its Nikaya-based origins and
why? What role did early Buddhist tradition’s apprehension of the concept of
dhamma play in the formation of the Abhidhamma? What kind of a philosophical
system is it that founds itself upon the concept of dhamma, and what are the sote-
riological implications of this concept for the ensuing philosophical system? Is not
the Abhidhamma understanding of the concept of dhamma at odds with the
Buddha’s teaching? Yet might not it be misleading to qualify Abhidhamma thought
as ‘Buddhist ontology’? In this study I have undertaken to answer these questions.
The present monograph seeks to analyse and provide a philosophically
adequate account of the doctrinal transition from the earliest strata of Buddhist
thought to the Abhidhamma, thus rendering the Buddha’s philosophical position
more explicit and locating the Abhidhamma in relation to its origins. The under-
lying question taken up here is: ‘How does the Buddha’s experientially oriented
and pragmatic teaching become in the Abhidhamma a systematic philosophy?’
What I show is that this doctrinal transition results from early Buddhist tradition’s
shifting construal of conscious experience, and is best understood in terms of a
change in epistemological orientation and metaphysical outlook. Before we begin
reconstructing the making of early Buddhism as a philosophical tradition, though,
a preliminary terminological elucidation is necessary in order to locate the
subsequent discussion within the realm of philosophy.
First we must attend to the intricacy of the laden concepts of metaphysics and
ontology. What is distinctive of philosophical inquiry is the attempt to understand
the relation between human thought and the world. This project is constitutive of
metaphysics, which is, in its broadest interpretation, the attempt to arrive by
rational means at a comprehensive picture of the world. Metaphysics is the most
general and abstract part of philosophy, dealing with the features of reality, what
ultimately exists and what it is that distinguishes and makes that possible. Western
philosophy at its very beginnings with the Pre-Socratics was metaphysical in its
nature, but it was Plato’s theory of Forms (or Ideas) that clarified the distinction
of metaphysics from physics. The term ‘metaphysics’ originated as a title refer-
ring to some of Aristotle’s treatises which followed his works on physics in the
catalogue of their edition produced by Andronicus of Rhodes in the second half
of the first century BCE. These treatises are heterogeneous: they are concerned
with being, both as such and in respect of various categories of it (foremost of
which is substance), as well as with other matters coterminous with later meta-
physical theories. The general picture of the world which forms the content of
a metaphysical system, though, ought to be distinguished from the detailed
account of what there is in that world. In contemporary philosophy metaphysics
customarily concerns the study of being qua being, being in itself, prior to and
regardless of the extension or categories of being and the reality of the world. As

2
 INTRODUCTION: THERAVADIN DOCTRINAL THOUGHT

Umberto Eco observes,

[W]hether what we call the outside World, or the Universe, is or is not,

or whether it is the effect of a malign spirit, does not in any way affect
the primary evidence that there is “something” somewhere (even if it
were no more than a res cogitans that realized it was cogitating).1

Metaphysics thus aims at the intension of being per se, the question ‘What is the
nature of being?’ which may be designated ‘the definition question’.2
Being per se, however, is unthinkable unless it is organized within a system of
entities: entities are the way in which being is revealed to us. The science of actual
being, being as embodied in entities, is the subject matter of ontology. Ontology,
understood as a branch of metaphysics, captures the question of the extension of
being, or ‘the population question’, that is, ‘What are the beings?’, or ‘What does
exist?’3 In a derivative, additional sense, ‘ontology’ is used to refer to the set of
things the existence of which is acknowledged by a particular theory or system of
thought. It is in this sense that one speaks of a metaphysical system as having a
particular ontology, such as an ontology of material substances or of events.
Metaphysical problems go beyond the realm of ontology; they concern our con-
strual of encountered phenomena and features of our life other than the question
of what there is. For instance, questions of how mind and mental phenomena are
possible in a world of matter, of how values and norms can agree with scientific
facts, as well as issues regarding space and time, change and identity through
time, God, the nature of personal identity or immortality.
While it is not uncommon for Western philosophical systems to begin with
metaphysical presuppositions and secondarily to generate epistemological
criteria by which to verify the particular ontology resultant from those presup-
positions, it is occasionally possible to find the reversed situation, wherein the
solutions a certain system offers to the abovementioned metaphysical questions
derive from epistemological assumptions regarding what is comprehensible or
knowable, and the ways in which this is so. Here one must first make such deci-
sions as to which primitive notions the philosophical system will build upon,
whether the things spoken of within the system will be restricted in certain ways,
or what the limitations of its referential terms are. Metaphysical worldviews and
specific ontologies have indeed resulted from epistemological constraints. For
instance, it might be argued that Descartes’s metaphysics is founded on episte-
mological grounds, for his dualism of mind and body as discrete substances is
based on the claim that we have a clearer and more distinct idea of our minds
than of our bodies. It is Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, though, which exem-
plarily illustrates the idea of a metaphysics as subject to epistemological
constraints, for its primary concern is with the possibility of metaphysics under-
stood as philosophical knowledge that transcends the bounds of sense experience.
Rejecting what he considered the speculative metaphysics handed down by the
Rationalists, yet being concerned, as the Empiricists had been, with the boundaries

3
 INTRODUCTION: THERAVA DIN DOCTRINAL THOUGHT

of human understanding, Kant’s transcendental idealism, unlike traditional

metaphysics, sidesteps the trap of using reason beyond its appropriate limits.4
His critique of the limitations of human understanding and of what is necessary
about it forms a watershed in the history of metaphysics, but is certainly reckoned
as metaphysics.
In the Indian arena philosophical systems ordinarily commence with episte-
mological rather than with metaphysical or ontological assumptions. A primary
concern of classical Indian philosophers is with the nature of right cognition
( prama/pramaja) and its means, and only once they have established the criteria
for means of valid knowledge do they make metaphysical, ontological or ethical
claims. Although the Indian concept of pramaja does not neatly overlap with the
Western epistemologists’ standard characterization of knowledge as justified true
belief, the study of the nature of pramaja, its scope, basis, reliability, etc., corre-
sponds for the most part to what is meant by ‘epistemology’ and may safely be
rendered ‘Indian epistemology’. Different schools hold conflicting views on the
nature of right cognition: the Naiyayikas, for instance, accept four pramajas,
namely, perception ( pratyaksa), inference (anumana), analogy (upamana) and
verbal testimony (fabda), whereas Buddhist epistemologists, having conceived of
pramaja as valid cognition itself rather than a means to it, recognize the validity
of perception and inference alone. Notwithstanding their different positions,
Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophers alike partake in the general apprehen-
sion of epistemology as setting off philosophizing. What does distinguish
Buddhist thought, however, is that, having recognized that lived experience is
unsatisfactory, it locates the cause of dukkha in our lack of insight into the
dynamics of cognition, and its prescribed soteriological solution is therefore to
gain insight into the conditions of our cognitive apparatus. For early Buddhism
epistemology is not only the foundation, but also the most urgent endeavour.5
A distinction should thus be drawn – especially when dealing with classical
Indian philosophy – between criteria normally used in confirming perceptual
claims that depend on the use of our sense faculties, by which what exists in some
sector of the world is ascertained (claims such as ‘x is to be found in the room’),
and those ontological criteria by which we claim to ascertain what there really is
in the world. Criteria of this second sort inevitably infect those of the first, but
they may be distinguished from whatever is admitted to be true by those criteria
of the first sort. Hence different ontologies, namely, different accounts of what
exists in actuality, may result from whatever is said to be true about things as
identified in a particular domain.6 This also means that it may be possible to
endorse an epistemology while remaining neutral on any particular metaphysical
position, or even while shunning ontology altogether. We will see in Chapter 2
that such is the case of the Buddha’s doctrinal and philosophical legacy.
The Buddha, as he is portrayed in the Nikayas, rejects purely theoretical questions
known as the undeclared or indeterminate (avyakata) questions – those that are
to be set aside on the grounds that they are not conducive to nibbana – and the
Dhamma is accordingly presented as a therapeutic way of life rather than a system

4
 INTRODUCTION: THERAVADIN DOCTRINAL THOUGHT

in the traditional sense.7 The Buddha’s interest is in gaining insight into the
conditions of sentient experience in saµsara, namely, in experience as lived, not in
its foundation in reality, and he suspends all views regarding the nature of such real-
ity, of the person and his or her relation to the environment, and of the ontological
status of the encountered world. His teaching is therefore portrayed as pragmatic,
empirically focused, concerning itself with the cessation of dukkha and to that end
emphasizing issues of cognition, psychology, epistemology and soteriology – char-
acteristics that show family resemblance to some of the motifs of Western phenom-
enology. Two other ‘phenomenological features’ could be added to the above list: the
first is the Buddha’s challenge of the representationalist model of knowledge and of
the innocent correspondence of thought, word and world; the second is his empha-
sis on the intentional structure of consciousness. This emphasis is already present in
the earliest stratum of Buddhist epistemology in the taxonomies of the twelve
ayatanas and the eighteen dhatus, and is retained in the Abhidhamma analysis of
citta.8 In accordance with all these motifs, various scholars have offered a phenom-
enological reading of Buddhist thought, claiming that the Abhidhamma in particular
is a ‘phenomenological psychology’ dealing with conscious reality or the world
as given in experience; a ‘metapsychology’ of which the primary objects of
investigation are the various concepts and categories of consciousness.9
This is not the proper venue for addressing the question as to what order of
phenomenology Buddhism is, if any, though one should note that this characteri-
zation raises a potential for ambiguity in the distinction between phenomenolog-
ical attention to the constituents of experience qua the contents that present
themselves in consciousness (suspending the question of the existence of the
intentional object) and introspective attention to the flow of experience itself, that
is, to its status as a process or a sequence of events, etc.10 Moreover, before we
can sweepingly endow Buddhism as a whole with a phenomenological orienta-
tion, we must be clear about what a dhamma is, but this is one of the most
complex and disputable issues in Buddhist thought. As we shall see in Chapter 2,
along with its doctrinal development Buddhist tradition itself was shifting its con-
strual of the concept of dhamma, so that for the Abhidhammikas this concept
meant something quite different from what it had originally signified for the
Buddha’s immediate community. What I do wish to stress here – and is decisively
part of early Buddhist self-portrayal – is, first, that the Buddha’s teaching founds
itself upon the observation that there is something fundamentally wrong with the
human condition as lived, and, second, that it comprises an account of how con-
scious experience arises and of how the dissatisfaction involved in this experience
can be removed. In the sense of its concern with one’s lived experience rather than
with the foundation of this experience in reality the Buddha’s teaching may
broadly be qualified as phenomenological.
The first centuries after the Buddha’s parinibbana, however, witnessed the rise
of the Abhidhamma that, subject to the contemporary doctrinal and social condi-
tions, undertook to supplement the principles scattered throughout the Buddha’s
discourses with a comprehensive, unified theory. But it is the Abhidhamma’s very

5
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