Imagine stumbling upon two ancient recipe books for understanding reality. The Sthananga Sutra lays out ten broad categories—substance, modes, motion, rest, merit, fault, and so on—each serving as a big-picture lens on existence. In contrast, Buddhist Abhidharma dives into a much finer grid, listing anywhere from eighty to over a hundred “dharmas” (phenomenal factors) that break down mind and matter into discrete building blocks.

Where the Sthananga feels like a bird’s-eye survey—grouping knowledge into life forms, material elements, karmic particles and the rest—Abhidharma resembles a molecular map of consciousness. Mental events get sorted into mood, awareness, intention, attention, effluents and more, while physical phenomena are cataloged as solidity, feeling-tone, perception, volition or consciousness. It’s almost like comparing a city map showing neighborhoods (the Jain approach) with a street-by-street GPS listing every alleyway (the Buddhist one).

Both traditions share a hunger for systematizing the world, yet they reflect differing priorities. Sthananga’s ten-fold outline balances cosmic scale (multiverse structure) with ethics and epistemology, aiming to guide monks along a path to omniscience. Abhidharma schools, on the other hand, emphasize psychological insight—pinpointing how every tiny impulse, sensation or thought binds one to suffering, and thus where to apply vipassana meditation.

In today’s landscape—where AI researchers juggle layers of neural networks and cognitive scientists dissect mental processes—these millennia-old taxonomies still ring true. Just as data scientists tag thousands of variables to train models, Buddhist Abhidharma teases apart experiential atoms. Meanwhile, the Sthananga Sutra’s ten categories remind of agile frameworks that keep projects on track with broad milestones.

Both systems shine a light on how disciplined categorization carves order out of chaos. One leans toward the sweeping vista; the other hones in on every stepping-stone of the mind. Together, they offer two complementary lenses on a universe that’s as intricate now as it was in ancient India.