54 CHAPTER THREEinstitutional matters, including instructions on how the Sangha is to be gov-
erned. The Sutra Vibhanga contains the rules of the Pratimok~a (in Pali, Pati-
mokkha-Codes of Discipline), which were to be recited in assemblies of
monks and nuns on the Po~adha (in Pali, Uposatha-Observance Day), the last
day of each lunar half-month. The Sutra Vibhanga also provides background
material on each rule, together with a detailed analysis of the factors deter-
mining whether an action that might come under the purview of the rule
would in fact count as an offense. In the Pali recension, the five factors used in
the analysis are perception, object, intention, effort, and result. The text thus
encourages the individual monastics to take a persistently mindful and analyti-
cal attitude toward all of their actions, which indicates that the observance of
the disciplinary code was meant not only as an external exercise for harmony
within the community, but also as an integral part of training the mind in the
skills needed for meditation.3.1.3 Abhidharma
The term Abhidharma means· "higher Dharma," the essence of the teachings in
the Sutras. Most traditional sources claim that Ananda recited Abhidharma
texts together with the Sutras at the First Council, but as we have already
noted, modern analysis shows that although the lists upon which these texts
were based may have dated from the Buddha's time, the actual texts we now
have were undoubtedly composed much later. By the time of the first split in
the community, one hundred years after the Buddha's Parinirvfu:ta, substantial
Abhidharma traditions already existed. Again, only the Pali Canon contains a
complete Abhidharma (in Pali, Abhidhamma) Pitaka in an Indic language. Its
current form can be dated no earlier than the Third Council (approximately
250 B.C.E.). It consists of seven scholastic works, among them the Dham-
masangil:ti (Enumeration ofDharmas), which analyzes mental and physical dhar-
mas (types of events), including the Wings to Awakening; the Vibhanga
(Analysis), which discusses the skandhas, dependent co-arising, the fetters, and
meditation; the Kathavatthu (Subjects of Discussion), a polemical treatise dis-
cussing theses in dispute among the early schools; and the most massive of all,
the Patthana (Conditional Relations), which explores the almost infinite per-
'mutations of the 24 basic types of causal relationships operating among dhar-
mas on the ultimate level of experience. Other segments of the Abhidhamma
Pipka list the elements of experience, classify personality types in terms of
passion, aversion, and delusion, and provide precise definitions of terms that
would tend to crop up in sectarian debates.
In addition to the Theravadins, many other Buddhist sects also developed
Abhidharma literatures, although only two others survive in their entirety in
Chinese translations: the Dharmaguptaka and Sarvastivada Abhidharmas,
which originally existed in Sanskrit. The Sarvastivada Abhidharma has seven
texts that quite often differ from those of the Theravada. These cover analyses
of psychological events-karma in particular; polemics on time; lists of prac-
tices leading to Buddhahood; and cosmology.