Abhidhamma That is Not Abhidhamma

I found this book interesting. The author of the book is Venerable Bellanwila Dhammānanda Thero. The central idea that the Venerable Thero seeks to convey is as follows:

"This book presents another perspective, that most of scholars and Bikkus, who do not believe Abidhamma as Lord Buddha’s word may have overlooked. The Author believes that the problem does not lie within Abhidamma Pitaka but on the commentaries and various sub-commentaries and other compilations regarding Abhidamma.

As will be shown gradually through this book, those various interpretative texts on Abhidhamma introduced distorted ideas, which contributed to misunderstandings about Abhidhamma in society. These distortions led to the perception that Abhidhamma was excessively complex and distant from ordinary understanding."

Please let me know if this is helpful to you.
Abhidhamma that is not Abhidamma.pdf (694.4 KB)

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The use of the word Abhidhamma is, indeed, problematic. As Bhante @Sujato says in his Introduction to the Abhidhamma texts on Sutta Central:

The Books of the Theravāda Abhidhamma

For the most part, the long and complex texts of the Theravāda Abhidhamma are concerned with analyzing and classifying material, not with explaining it. Presumably they would have been taught by experienced teachers in monasteries, who would have drawn out, explained, and illustrated the abstruse texts. Eventually such explanations were codified and recorded in the Pali commentaries.

While they introduced a number of new terms and methods, the canonical Abhidhamma texts are doctrinally conservative. Many of the concepts familiar from later Abhidhamma are not found—ultimate vs. conventional truth, mind moments, kalāpas, the idea that each phenomena is defined by its sabhāva or “individual essence”. While some new terms are found, for the most part they seem to have been introduced in order to clarify and disambiguate the terminology, and weren’t intended to convey specific new concepts. That is not to say that there are no new ideas, just that they play a fairly minor role overall.
SuttaCentral

However, it is common to use the term Abhidhamma to mean “Canonical Abhidhamma texts plus later commentaries”.

Venerable Bellanwila Dhammānanda Thero seems to acknowledge this in his discussion:

The explanation regarding the concept of paramattha (ultimate
truth) and sammuti (conventional truth) in relation to atomonism
is presented here first. Note that this way of presenting dhamma is
commentarial one not from the Abhidamma doctrine.

I have not read the whole document, but it seems that he is making use of material beyond the canonical abhidhamma texts.

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