dhammā

masculine & rarely neuter constitution etc.

A. Definitions by Commentators

Bdhgh gives a fourfold meaning of the word dhamma (at DN-a.i.99; Dhp-a.i.22), viz. 1 guṇe (saddo), applied to good conduct 2 desanāyaṃ, to preaching & moral instruction 3 pariyattiyaṃ, to the 9 fold collection of the Buddh Scriptures (see navanga); 4 nissatte (-nijjīvate), to cosmic (non-animistic) law
■ No. 1 is referred to freq in explains of the term, e.g. dhammiko ti ñāyena samena pavattatī ti DN-a.i.249; dhamman ti kāraṇaṃ ñāyaṃ Pv-a.211; as paṭipatti-dhamma at Vv-a.84; No. 3 e.g. also at Pv-a.2. Another and more adequate fourfold definition by Bdhgh is given in Dhs-a.38, viz. 1 pariyatti or doctrine as formulated, 2 hetu, or condition causal antecedent, 3 guṇa, or moral quality or action 4 nissatta-nijīvatā, or “the phenomenal” as opposed to “the substantial,” “the noumenal,” “animistic entity.” Here (2) is illustrated by hetumhi ñāṇaṃ dhammapaṭisambhidā: “analytic knowledge in dhamma’s means insight into condition, causal antecedent Vb.293, and see Niyama (dhamma˚). Since, in the former fourfold definition (2) and (3) really constitute but one main implication considered under the two aspects of Doctrine as taught and Doctrine as formulated we may interpret Dhamma by the fourfold connotation: doctrine, right or righteousness, condition, phenomenon.
■ For other exegetic definitions see the Com^s & the Niddesa, e.g. Mnd.94; for modern explanations & analyses see e.g. Rhys Davids, Buddh. India pp. 292–⁠4; Mrs. Rh. Davids, Buddhism (1912) pp. 32 sq. 107 sq., 235 sq.; Dhs. trsl. xxxiii. sq.; and most recently the exhaustive monograph by M. & W. Geiger, Pāli Dhamma. Abhandlungen der Bayer. Akademie xxxi.1; München 1920; which reached the editors too late to be made use of for the Dictionary.

B. Applications and Meaning

1. Psychologically: “mentality” as the constitutive element of cognition & of its substratum, the world of phenomena. It is that which is presented as “object” to the imagination & as such has an effect of its own; a presentation; (Vorstellung), or idea, idea, or purely mental phenomenon as distinguished from a psycho-physical phenomenon or sensation (re-action of sense-organ to sensestimulus). The mind deals with ideas as the eye deals with forms: it is the abstraction formed by mano, or mind proper, from the objects of sense presented by the sense-organ when reacting to external objects Thus cakkhu “faculty of sight” corresponds to rūpa “relation of form” & mano “faculty of thought (citta & ceto its organ or instrument or localisation corresponds to dhamma “mentalized” object or “idea” (Mrs. Rh. D. “mental object in general,” also “state of mind”)-
   1. subjective: mental attitude thought, idea, philosophy, truth, & its recognition (anubodhi) by the Buddha, i.e. the Dhamma or worldwisdom = philosophy of the Buddha as contained expounded in the Dialogues of the 5 Nikāyas (see below C.)
      ■ Note. The idea of dhamma as the interpreted Order of the World is carried further in the poetical quasi-personification of the Dh. with the phrase “dhammaja dh-nimmita dh-dāyāda” (born of the Norm, created by the Norm, heir of the