What do you think?
Rate this book
Guide Through the Abhidhamma Pitaka: A Synopsis of the Philosophical Collection of the Theravada Buddhist Canon
An outline or synposis of the seven books of the advanced analytical collection of the Pali Canon, the Abhidhamma Pitaka. Each of the books of this collection is introduced by the renowned German scholar-monk Nyanatiloka Mahathera. The principal aim of this book is the clarify the structure of the Abhidhamma works, most of which are quite large and complex, and thus aid the study of them.
- GenresBuddhism
252 pages, Paperback
Published November 30, 2009
1 person is currently reading
19 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 22, 2020
This is an authoritative summary of the contents of the so-called Abhidamma Pitaka or "basket" of the philosophical and psychological teachings of the Buddha. Some of it makes for dry, formulaic going, but it appears that those sections were never intended to be read as sequential text, but rather consulted as a reference source, or perhaps studied for memorization.
Nyanatiloka Mahathera was a German-born musician and composer who traveled to Burma in 1903 to become ordained as a Buddhist monk at age 25. He became a noted scholar of the Buddhist teachings and a translator of them into German and English. Unlike many other European writers on the Buddhist teachings, Mahathera's work was written from the "inside"--from the perspective of an ordained and practicing monk, and his account of the dharma is scrupulously orthodox and correct. His summary of the Buddha's doctrine of dependent origination, given in an appendix near the end of this book, is probably still one of the best accounts of it available in English.
But this book is mostly heavy going. If you're reading it, it's because you have a serious interest in discovering exactly what the content of the Abhidhamma Pitaka is. For the serious student of dharma, or, to use the appropriate Pali term, dhamma, this book serves those needs very well.
Nyanatiloka Mahathera was a German-born musician and composer who traveled to Burma in 1903 to become ordained as a Buddhist monk at age 25. He became a noted scholar of the Buddhist teachings and a translator of them into German and English. Unlike many other European writers on the Buddhist teachings, Mahathera's work was written from the "inside"--from the perspective of an ordained and practicing monk, and his account of the dharma is scrupulously orthodox and correct. His summary of the Buddha's doctrine of dependent origination, given in an appendix near the end of this book, is probably still one of the best accounts of it available in English.
But this book is mostly heavy going. If you're reading it, it's because you have a serious interest in discovering exactly what the content of the Abhidhamma Pitaka is. For the serious student of dharma, or, to use the appropriate Pali term, dhamma, this book serves those needs very well.
Displaying 1 of 1 review