도리천
남방불교의 전설에 따르면, 고타마 붓다의 어머니인 마야부인이 죽은 뒤 다시 태어난 곳이 바로 도리천이다. 고타마 붓다는 완전한 깨달음을 증득한 후 얼마 지나지 않은 때인 우기(雨期)에 도리천으로 올라가서 어머니 마야부인을 위하여 석 달 동안 설법하였고 또한 이 기간 동안 잠시 지상에 내려와서는 10대 제자 중 지혜 제일인 사리불에게 그 설법의 요약판을 설법하였다. 이렇게 우기의 석 달이 지난 후 승가시국(僧迦施國, )에 내려왔는데, 승가시국은 불교의 8대성지 가운데 하나이다. 도리천에서 마야부인에게 설법한 것이 아비달마 즉 논장의 전체 버전이고 사리불에게 설법한 것이 그 요약 버전이다. 사리불에게 아비달마의 전체 버전을 설하지 못한 것은 인간세계가 가진 한계 때문에 그 전체를 설하는 것이 불가능하였기 때문이다.{{sfn|星雲|loc="忉利天". 2013년 6월 16일에 확인}}{{sfn|Red Pine|2004|pp=11-13|ps= "Trayatrinsha is Sanskrit (Pali: Tavatimsa) for "thirty-three." According to Buddhist cosmology this was the name of the celestial residence of thirty-three devas, including Indra, their king, and another deva whose name was Santushita. Prior to being reborn at the summit of Mount Sumeru, Santushita was Maya, Shakyamuni's mother, who died a week after giving birth. According to both Pali and Sanskrit accounts (Atthasalini, Mahavastu III: 115), out of compassion for his former mother, the Buddha spent the entire rainy season at the summit of Mount Sumeru teaching Santushita the conceptual system known as the Abhidharma, which is often described as "the way things appear to the mind of a buddha." While he was on earth, the Buddha taught lessons suited to whatever audience he was addressing. But much like a doctor, his instructions were primarily intended to put an end to suffering. He never bothered trying to explain the system that formed the basis of his spiritual pharmacology, which was the Abhidharma. As later disciples and their disciples came to understand the Abhidharma, they claimed that it explained reality as a matrix (matrika) of dharmas, or fundamental entities of the mind, much like the table of atomic elements used in chemistry. From such a perspective, our familiar world of objects and persons was viewed as nothing but a conceptual construct fashioned out of dozens of these dharmas-seventy-five in the case of the Sarvastivadins. And to know things as they really are, a person needed to develop the ability to know the characteristics and connections among these entities. In his sermons, however, the Buddha nowhere advanced such a system, for it was simply too vast an enterprise to attempt on earth. Only on Mount Surneru could the Buddha explain the immense and intricate scheme of the Abhidharma. This is because only such a place was sufficiently removed from the coarser levels of the Realm of Desire. Thus, the Buddha taught the Abhidharma to Santushita at the summit of Mount Surneru. But every day, he reappeared briefly on earth and gave his disciple, Shariputra, a summary, for a summary was all that was possible to teach or to understand on the earthly plane far below Trayatrinsha Heaven. Shariputra had distinguished himself for his wisdom, and the Buddha chose him, and him alone, to receive such instruction. Finally, after three months, the monsoon season came to an end, and the Buddha descended to earth at Sankasya, an event depicted with great imagination in Buddhist art, and he resumed his teaching but never spoke of the Abhidharma again. Meanwhile, having heard the Buddha's complete exposition of the Abhidharma, Santushita advanced to the first stage of Buddhist attainment and became a srota-apanna, or one who "reaches the river," the river of impermanence. Among the Buddha's early followers, this was considered the first of three insights necessary for liberation. The other two concerned suffering and the absence of a self. While Santushita was cultivating this new awareness, far below at the earthly level of the Realm of Desire, Shariputra began compiling what he had learned into the first works on the Abhidharma. Early Buddhist schools attributed two such texts to this wisest of the Buddha's disciples: the Sangiti-paryaya and the Dhanna-skandha. The Sangitiparyaya is a commentary on the Sangiti Sutra, which is one of thirty sutras found in the Dhirgha Agama (cf. the Theravadin Digha Nikaya). This sutra was spoken in response to the disputes that arose upon the death of Mahavira, the founder of the Jain religion. To avoid similar doctrinal dissension, in this sutra Shariputra presents a list of basic concepts culled from the Buddha's sermons, and this list is approved by the Buddha as constituting the fundamentals of his teaching."}}