the term "Abhi-dharma" are common. According to Analayo, the initial meaning of Abhidharma in the earliest texts (such as the Mahāgosiṅga-sutta and its parallels) was simply a discussion concerning the Dharma, or talking about the Dharma. In this sense, abhi has the meaning of "about" or "concerning," and can also been in the parallel term abhivinaya (which just means discussions about the vinaya). The other interpretation, where abhi is interpreted as meaning "higher" or "superior" and thus Abhidharma means "higher teaching", seems to have been a later development. Some in the West have considered the Abhidhamma to be the core of what is referred to as "Buddhism and psychology". Other writers on the topic such as Nyanaponika Thera and Dan Lusthaus describe Abhidhamma as a Buddhist phenomenology while Noa Ronkin and Kenneth Inada equate it with Process philosophy. Bhikkhu Bodhi writes that the system of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka is "simultaneously a philosophy, a psychology and an ethics, all integrated into the framework of a program for liberation." According to L. S. Cousins, the suttas deal with sequences and processes, while the Abhidhamma describes occasions and events. Origin and history Modern scholarship Modern scholars generally believe that the canonical Abhidharma texts emerged after the time of the Buddha, in around the 3rd century BCE. Therefore, the canonical Abhidharma works are generally claimed by scholars not to represent the words of the Buddha himself, but those of later Buddhists. Peter Skilling describes the Abhidharma literature as "the end-product of several centuries of intellectual endeavor." The various Vinaya accounts of the compilation of the Buddhist canon after the death of the Buddha offer various sometimes conflicting narratives regarding the canonical status of Abhidharma. While the Mahāsāṅghika Vinaya does not speak of an Abhidharma apart from the Sutra Pitaka and the Vinaya Pitaka, the Mahīśāsaka, Theravāda, Dharmaguptaka and Sarvāstivāda Vinayas all provide different accounts which mention that there was some kind of Abhidharma to be learned aside from the Sutras and Vinaya. According to Analayo, "the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya does not explicitly mention the Abhidharma, although it reports that on this occasion Mahākāśyapa recited the mātṛkā(s)." Analayo thinks that this reflects an early stage, when what later became Abhidharma was called the mātṛkās. The term appears in some sutras, such as the Mahāgopālaka-sutta (and its parallel) which says that a learned monk is one who knows the Dharma, Vinaya and the mātṛkās. The ancient core