Encyclopedia of Buddhism

3. Worlds (loka)


4. Action (karma)


5. Contaminants (anus ́aya)


6. Path of Religious Praxis and Religious Persons
   (ma
   rgapudgala)


7. Knowledge (jña
   na)


8. Meditative States (sama
   patti)


9. Person (pudgala)

The ninth chapter contains a refutation of the theory
of the existence of the person and may represent a sep-
arate treatise by Vasubandhu, appended to the re-
mainder of the Abhidharmakos ́a.The Abhidharmakos ́a
became the most influential early Indian Buddhist Ab-
hidharmatext within the later scholastic traditions of
Tibet and East Asia, where it served as a textbook
within monastic curricula and generated numerous
commentaries.

See also:Abhidharma; Dharma and Dharmas; Sar-
va
stiva
da and Mu
lasarva
stiva
da

Bibliography

La Vallée Poussin, Louis de, trans. L’Abhidharmakos ́a de Va-
subandhu,6 vols. Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1923–1931. English
trans. Leo M. Pruden, Abhidharmakos ́abha
syam,Vols. 1–4.
Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1988–1990.

COLLETTCOX

ABHI JÑA
(HIGHER KNOWLEDGES)

Abhijña
(Pa
li, abhiñña
; higher knowledge) refers to a
stereotyped set of typically six spiritual powers ascribed
to buddhas and their chief disciples. The first five are
mundane and attainable through the perfection of
concentration (sama
dhi) in meditative trance (dhya
na;
Pa
li, jha
na). As earthly attainments, they are deemed
available to non-Buddhist sages. In contrast, the sixth
higher knowledge is supramundane and exclusively
Buddhist, and attainable only through insight
(vipas ́yana
;Pa
li, vipassana
) into the Buddhist truths.

The five mundane abhijña
sinclude:

• The divine eye (divyacaksus; Pa
  li, dibbacakkhu), or
  the ability to see the demise and rebirth of beings
  according to their good and evil deeds;
  
  
  • The divine ear (divyas ́rota; Pa
    li, dibbasota), the
    ability to hear heavenly and earthly sounds far and
    near;
  
  
  • Knowledge of other minds (cetahparya
    yajña
    na;
    Pa
    li, cetopariyaña
    na), the ability to know the
    thoughts and mental states of others;
  
  
  • Recollection of previous habitations (pu
    rvani-
    va
    sa
    nusmrti; Pa
    li pubbeniva
    sa
    nusati), the ability to
    remember one’s former existences from one to
    thousands of rebirths, through the evolution and
    destruction of many world systems;
  
  
  • Various supernatural powers (rddhi; Pa
    li, iddhi),
    such as the ability to create mind-made bodies,
    project replicas of oneself, become invisible, pass
    through solid objects, move through the earth,
    walk on water, fly through the air, touch the sun
    and moon, and ascend to the highest heaven.
  
  
  
  

In the MAHA
PARINIRVA
NA-SU
TRA(Pa
li, Maha
parinib-

ba
na-sutta; Great Discourse on the Parinirva
na), the

Buddha tells his disciple A
NANDAthat one who per-

fects the four bases of supernatural power (rddhipa
da;

Pa
li, iddhipa
da) can live for an entire eon, or for the

remaining portion of an eon should he so desire.

The sixth and only supramundane abhijña
 is the

most important. Called “knowledge of the extinction

of the passions” (a
s ́ravaksaya; Pa
li, a
savakkhaya), it is

equivalent to arhatship. The passions extinguished

through this knowledge are sensuality (ka
ma), be-

coming (bhava), ignorance (avidya
; Pa
li, avijja
), and

views (drsti; Pa
li, ditthi).

Historically, the six abhijña
scan be seen as an elab-

oration of an earlier Buddhist paradigm of human per-

fection called the “three knowledges” (traividya; Pa
li,

tevijja
). Comprised of the recollection of former habi-

tations, the divine eye, and knowledge of the extinc-

tion of the passions, the three knowledges form the

content of the Buddha’s awakening in early canonical

depictions of his enlightenment experience.

Although mastery of the six abhijña
sis an attribute

of all perfect buddhas, the early Buddhist tradition was

ambivalent toward the display of supernatural powers

by members of the monastic order. In the Kevaddha-

sutta(Discourse to Kevaddha), the Buddha disparages

as vulgar those monks who would reveal such powers

to the laity, and in the VINAYAor monastic code, he

makes it an offense for them to do so. Despite these

strictures, wonder-working saints were lionized in the

literatures of all Buddhist schools, and they became

ABHI JNA
(HIGHERKNOWLEDGES)