Abhidhammattha-sangaha

The Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha (The Compendium of Things contained in the Abhidhamma) is a Pali Buddhist instructional manual or compendium of the Abhidhamma of the Theravāda tradition. It was written by the Sri Lankan monk Ācariya Anuruddha some time between the 8th century and the 12th century. According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, the Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha is one of the most important texts in the Theravāda Abhidhamma tradition and it provides such a "masterly summary" of the Abhidhamma that "has become the standard primer for Abhidhamma studies throughout the Theravāda Buddhist countries of South and Southeast Asia." As noted by Bhikkhu Bodhi, the growth of the Theravāda Abhidhamma into a complex and massive textual tradition, that included both the already large and difficult Abhidhamma Pitaka and numerous commentaries by exegetes like Buddhaghosa (which fills more than 40 volumes in the PTS latin script edition), made it difficult to study for novices. Thus, there arose a need for concise summaries for teaching novices. While there were various texts written for this purpose, the fifty page saṅgaha became the most popular such text because of "its remarkable balance between concision and comprehensiveness." Ācariya Anuruddha did not introduce any new content or doctrines into the Theravāda Abhidhamma in this text, the work is a compendium or textbook of doctrine. His sources include the Abhidhamma Pitaka and the Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosa. However, his organization and systematization of Abhidhamma content is unique and innovative. According to Jeffrey Wayne Bass, Anuruddha organized the text with an emphasis on the domain of experience (avacara) in which a given type of consciousness may be encountered. He presents the Abhidharma content into a stratified schema which mirrors Buddhist meditative development (from ordinary mind states to higher states of jhana). Thus, it is also a text which can be seen as a guide to meditative attainment.