Early Buddhist schools
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The early Buddhist schools are those schools into which the Buddhist
The textual material shared by the early schools is often termed the early Buddhist texts and these are an important source for understanding their doctrinal similarities and differences.
Formation and development
The first council
According to the scriptures (
Some scholars argue that the first council actually did not take place.[3][4][5]
Divergence between the Sthaviravāda and the Mahāsāṃghika
The expansion of orally transmitted texts in early Buddhism, and the growing distances between Buddhist communities, fostered specialization and sectarian identification.[1] One or several disputes did occur during Aśoka's reign, involving both doctrinal and disciplinary (vinaya) matters, although these may have been too informal to be called a "council". The Sthavira school had, by the time of Aśoka, divided into three sub-schools, doctrinally speaking, but these did not become separate monastic orders until later.
Only two ancient sources (the Dīpavaṃsa and Bhavya's third list) place the first schism before Aśoka, and none attribute the schism to a dispute on Vinaya practice. Lamotte and Hirakawa both maintain that the first schism in the Buddhist sangha occurred during the reign of Ashoka.
The various splits within the monastic organization went together with the introduction and emphasis on
Third council under Aśoka
Theravādin sources state that, in the 3rd century BCE, a third council was convened under the patronage of Aśoka.[11] Some scholars argue that there are certain implausible features of the Theravādin account which imply that the third council was ahistorical. The remainder consider it a purely Theravāda-Vibhajjavāda council.[12]
According to the Theravādin account, this council was convened primarily for the purpose of establishing an official orthodoxy. At the council, small groups raised questions about the specifics of the vinaya and the interpretation of doctrine. The chairman of the council, Moggaliputta Tissa, compiled a book, the
The distinction involved was as to the existence of phenomena (dhammas) in the past, future and present. The version of the scriptures that had been established at the third council, including the
Further divisions
Around the time of Aśoka that further divisions began to occur within the Buddhist movement and a number of additional schools emerged.
- The “personalists”, such as the PudgalavādinVātsīputrīyas and Saṃmittīyas
- The “Sarvāstivāda Ābhidharmikas
- The “Sthaviravadins.
One of them was faction of the Sthavira group which called themselves Vibhajjavādins. One part of this group was transmitted to Sri Lanka and to certain areas of southern India, such as Vanavasi in the south-west and the Kañci region in the south-east. This group later ceased to refer to themselves specifically as "Vibhajjavādins", but reverted to calling themselves "Theriyas", after the earlier Theras (Sthaviras). Still later, at some point prior to the
Other groups included the
The schools sometimes split over ideological differences concerning the "real" meaning of teachings in the
Some of these developments may be seen as later elaborations on the teachings. According to Gombrich, unintentional literalism was a major force for change in the early doctrinal history of Buddhism. This means that texts were interpreted paying too much attention to the precise words used and not enough to the speaker's intention, the spirit of the text. Some later doctrinal developments in the early Buddhist schools show scholastic literalism, which is a tendency to take the words and phrases of earlier texts (maybe the Buddha's own words) in such a way as to read-in distinctions which it was never intended to make.[note 1]
The eighteen schools
The Eighteen schools | ||
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The Mahāsāṃghikan history, which gives the following list:
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The Samayabhedo Paracana Cakra, composed by the Sarvāstivādin monk Vasumitra (d. 124 BCE) gives the following list:
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The Sri Lankan chronicles, Mahavamsa (5th century CE), discern the following schools.
In addition, the Dipavamsa lists the following six schools without identifying the schools from which they arose:
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Vinitadeva (c. 645–715), a Mūlasarvāstivādin monk, gives the following list:
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Twenty schools according to Mahayana scriptures in Chinese:
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During the
, and Yijing made pilgrimages to India and wrote accounts of their travels when they returned home. These Chinese travel records constitute extremely valuable sources of information concerning the state of Buddhism in India during the early medieval period.By the time the Chinese pilgrims Xuanzang and Yijing visited India, there were five early Buddhist schools that they mentioned far more frequently than others. They commented that the Sarvāstivāda/Mūlasarvāstivāda, Mahāsāṃghika, and Saṃmitīya were the principal early Buddhist schools still extant in India, along with the Sthavira sect.[14] The Dharmaguptakas continued to be found in Gandhāra and Central Asia, along the Silk Road.
It is commonly said that there were eighteen schools of Buddhism in this period. What this actually means is more subtle. First, although the word "school" is used, there was not yet an institutional split in the saṅgha. The Chinese traveler Xuanzang observed even when the Mahāyāna were beginning to emerge from this era that monks of different schools would live side by side in dormitories and attend the same lectures. Only the books that they read were different. Secondly, no historical sources can agree what the names of these "eighteen schools" were. The origin of this saying is therefore unclear.
A hypothetical combined list would be as follows:
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Innovations of the sects
The classic sets of ten, six or four
The new schools also developed new doctrines about important Buddhist topics. The Sarvastivadins for example were known for their doctrine of temporal eternalism. Meanwhile the Mahasamghika school was known for its doctrine of "transcendentalism" (lokottaravada), the view that the Buddha was a fully transcendent being.
Abhidhamma
As the third major division of the various canons, the
The earliest texts of the Pali Canon (the
Although the literature of the various Abhidharma
Traditionally, it is believed (in Theravadin culture) that the Abhidhamma was taught by Buddha to his late mother who was living in Tavatimsa heaven. However, this is rejected by scholars, who believe that only small parts of the Abhidhamma literature may have been existent in a very early form.[note 11] The Sarvastivadins also rejected this idea, and instead held that the Abhidharma was collected, edited, and compiled by the elders (sthaviras) after the Buddha's death (though they relied on the Buddha's words for this compilation).
Some schools of Buddhism had important disagreements on subjects of Abhidhamma, while having a largely similar Sutta-pitaka and Vinaya-pitaka. The arguments and conflicts between them were thus often on matters of philosophical Abhidhammic origin, not on matters concerning the actual words and teachings of Buddha.
One impetus for composing new scriptures like the Adhidhammas of the various schools, according to some scholars[
Late texts in the Theravada Khuddaka Nikaya
Oliver Abeynayake has the following to say on the dating of the various books in the Khuddaka Nikaya:
The Khuddaka Nikaya can easily be divided into two strata, one being early and the other late. The texts
Udana, and Jataka tales belong to the early stratum. The texts Khuddakapatha, Vimanavatthu, Petavatthu, Niddesa, Patisambhidamagga, Apadana, Buddhavamsa and Cariyapitaka can be categorized in the later stratum.[23]
The texts in the early stratum date from before the second council (earlier than 100 years after Buddha’s parinibbana), while the later stratum is from after the second council, which means they are definitely later additions to the Sutta Pitaka, and that they might not have been the original teachings by the Buddha, but later compositions by disciples.
The following books of the Khuddaka Nikaya can thus be regarded as later additions:
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And the following three which are included in the Burmese Canon:
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The original verses of the Jatakas are recognized as being amongst the earliest part of the Canon,[20] but the accompanying (and more famous) Jataka Stories are commentaries likely composed at later dates.
Parivara
The
Other later writings
- all literature of the Mahayana (the Mahayana Sutras).[note 14]
- all commentarial works (atthakatha) of Theravada and other early Buddhist schools.
Hinayana and Mahāyāna
Early Mahayana came directly from "early Buddhist schools" and was a successor to them.[24][25]
Between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE, the terms "Mahāyāna" and "Hīnayāna" were first used in writing, in, for example, the Lotus Sutra. The later Mahayana schools may have preserved ideas which were abandoned by the "orthodox" Theravada, such as the Three Bodies doctrine, the idea of consciousness (vijnana) as a continuum, and devotional elements such as the worship of saints. [26][27][note 15]
Although the various early schools of Buddhism are sometimes loosely classified as "
Membership in these nikāyas, or monastic sects, continues today with the Dharmaguptaka nikāya in East Asia, and the Mūlasarvāstivāda nikāya in Tibetan Buddhism. Therefore, Mahāyāna was never a separate rival sect of the early schools.[29] Paul Harrison clarifies that while Mahāyāna monastics belonged to a nikāya, not all members of a nikāya were Mahāyānists.[30] From Chinese monks visiting India, we now know that both Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna monks in India often lived in the same monasteries side by side.[31] Additionally, Isabella Onians notes that Mahāyāna works rarely used the term Hīnayāna, typically using the term Śrāvakayāna instead.[32]
The Chinese Buddhist monk and pilgrim Yijing wrote about relationship between the various "vehicles" and the early Buddhist schools in India. He wrote, "There exist in the West numerous subdivisions of the schools which have different origins, but there are only four principal schools of continuous tradition." These schools are namely the Mahāsāṃghika nikāya, Sthavira, Mūlasarvāstivāda and Saṃmitīya nikāyas.[33] Explaining their doctrinal affiliations, he then writes, "Which of the four schools should be grouped with the Mahāyāna or with the Hīnayāna is not determined." That is to say, there was no simple correspondence between a Buddhist monastic sect, and whether its members learn "Hīnayāna" or "Mahāyāna" teachings.[34]
Timeline
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See also
- Atthakavagga and Parayanavagga
- Buddhist Councils
- Early Buddhist Texts
- History of Buddhism
- Index of Buddhism-related articles
- Nikaya Buddhism
- Pyrrhonism
- Rhinoceros Sutra
- Schools of Buddhism
- Secular Buddhism
- Timeline of Buddhism
Notes
- ^ Gombrich 1997, pp. 21–22: "I would also argue that unintentional literalism has been a major force for change in the early doctrinal history of Buddhism. Texts have been interpreted with too much attention to the precise words used and not enough to the speaker's intention, the spirit of the text. In particular I see in some doctrinal developments what I call scholastic literalism, which is a tendency to take the words and phrases of earlier texts (maybe the Buddha's own words) in such a way as to read in distinctions which it was never intended to make."
- Kāśyapīya (飲光部), Sautrāntika(経量部).
- (北山住部).
- ^ See Ajahn Sucitto, "What Is Theravada" (2012); see also A.K. Warder, Indian Buddhism, 3rd rev. ed. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000), chapters 8 and 9).
- ^ a b c d e f According to Buswell and Lopez, the Kāśyapīya and Mahīśāsaka were offshoots of the Sarvastivadins, but are grouped under the Vibhajjavāda as "non-sarvastivada" groups.[15]
- Buddhavamsa, and Dhammapadatthakatha, postulates the following ten perfections"
- ^ Dutt 1978, p. 251: "It is evident that the Hinayanists, either to popularize their religion or to interest the laity more in it, incorporated in their doctrines the conception of Bodhisattva and the practice of paramitas. This was effected by the production of new literature: the Jatakas and Avadanas."
- ^ Buswell 2003, p. 2: "several schools rejected the authority of abhidharma and claimed that abhidharma treatises were composed by fallible, human teachers."
- ^ "Although begun as a pragmatic method of elaborating the received teachings, this scholastic enterprise soon led to new doctrinal and textual developments and became the focus of a new form of scholarly monastic life."
- ^ Buswell 2003, p. 2: "Independent abhidharma treatises were composed over a period of at least seven hundred years (ca. third or second centuries B.C.E. to fifth century C.E.)."
- ^ Buswell 2003, p. 2: "These similarities (between the Abhidhammas of the various schools) suggest either contact among the groups who composed and transmitted these texts, or a common ground of doctrinal exegesis and even textual material predating the emergence of the separate schools."
- ^ Gombrich 1997, p. 34: "If I am right in thinking that the Buddha left no clear statement about the ontological status of the world – about what 'really' exists – this would explain how later Buddhists could disagree about this question."
- ^ "This work (the Parivara) is in fact a very much later composition, and probably the work of a Ceylonese Thera." from: Book of the Discipline, vol. VI, p. ix (translators' introduction).
- ^ Buswell 2003, p. 493: "would throw the earliest phase of this literature (the Mahayana Sutras) back to about the beginning of the common era."
- Atthakavagga and Parayanavagga
- ^ Cousins, L.S. (1996); Buswell (2003), Vol. I, p. 82; and, Keown & Prebish (2004), p. 107. See also, Gombrich (1988/2002), p. 32: “…[T]he best we can say is that [the Buddha] was probably Enlightened between 550 and 450, more likely later rather than earlier."
- ^ Williams (2000, pp. 6-7) writes: "As a matter of fact Buddhism in mainland India itself had all but ceased to exist by the thirteenth century CE, although by that time it had spread to Tibet, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia." [35] (Originally 1958), "Chronology," p. xxix: "c. 1000-1200: Buddhism disappears as [an] organized religious force in India." See also, Robinson & Johnson (1970/1982), pp. 100-1, 108 Fig. 1; and, Harvey (1990/2007), pp. 139-40.
References
- ^ a b c Cox 1995, p. 23.
- ^ Hanh 1999, p. 16.
- ^ Prebish 2010.
- ^ Hoiberg & Ramchandani 2000, p. 264.
- ^ Williams 1989, p. 6.
- ^ Lamotte, Étienne (1988). History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Śaka Era. Translated by Sara Boin-Webb. Louvain: Peeters Press.
- ^ Hirakawa 1990.
- ^ Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica 1998.
- ^ Skilton 2004, p. 47.
- ^ Harvey 1990, p. 74.
- ^ Berkwitz 2009, p. 45.
- JSTOR 29755746.
- ^ Huifeng 2013, pp. 175–228.
- ISBN 978-0-8160-5459-6.
- ^ Buswell & Lopez 2013, p. 859.
- ^ a b "Abhidhamma Pitaka". Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago. 2008.
{{cite encyclopedia}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Dutt 1978, p. 58.
- ^ "Buddhism". Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago. 2008.
{{cite encyclopedia}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b Hazra 1994, p. 415.
- ^ a b Hazra 1994, p. 412.
- ^ Horner, I. B. Book of the Discipline. Vol. 5. p. 398.[full citation needed]
- ^ Buswell 2003, p. 1.
- OCLC 70908931.
- ISBN 978-1-250-31368-3.
- ISBN 978-0-19-934037-8. Archivedfrom the original on 19 February 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
- ^ Lindtner 1997.
- ^ Lindtner 1999.
- ^ Nattier 2003, p. 193–194.
- ^ Williams 1989, p. 4–5.
- ^ Xing 2004, p. 115.
- ^ Williams & Tribe 2000, p. 97.
- ^ Onians, Isabelle (2001). Tantric Buddhist Apologetics, or Antinomianism as a Norm (D.Phil. dissertation). Oxford, Trinity Term. p. 72.
- ^ Walser 2005, p. 41.
- ^ Walser 2005, pp. 41–42.
- ^ Embree 1988.
Sources
- "Buddhist Council", Encyclopædia Britannica, 1998
- Berkwitz, Stephen C. (2009), South Asian Buddhism: A Survey, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-45248-9
- ISBN 0-02-865718-7
- Buswell, Robert E. Jr.; Lopez, Donald S. (2013), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University Press[ISBN missing]
- Cousins, L.S. (1996). "The Dating of the Historical Buddha: A Review Article" in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 6.1 (1996): 57–63. Retrieved 29 Nov 2008 from "Indology" at https://web.archive.org/web/20210413104729/https://indology.info/papers/cousins/
- Cox, Collett (1995), Disputed Dharmas: Early Buddhist Theories on Existence, Tokyo: The Institute for Buddhist Studies, ISBN 4-906267-36-X
- Dutt, Nalinaksha (1978), Buddhist Sects in India (2nd ed.), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-0-89684-043-0
- ISBN 0-231-06651-1
- Gombrich, Richard F. (1988; 6th reprint, 2002). Theravāda Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (London: Routledge). ISBN 0-415-07585-8
- Gombrich, Richard F. (1997), How Buddhism Began, Munshiram Manoharlal
- Harvey, Peter (1990), An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-31333-3
- ISBN 978-0767903691
- Hazra, Kanai Lal (1994), Pali Language and Literature: A Systematic Survey and Historical Survey, vol. 1[full citation needed]
- Hoiberg, Dale; Ramchandani, Indu (2000), "Early Buddhist schools", Students' Britannica India, Popular Prakashan, ISBN 0-85229-760-2
- Huifeng, Shi (2013), "'Dependent Origination = Emptiness' – Nāgārjuna's Innovation? An Examination of the Early and Mainstream Sectarian Textual Sources", Journal of the Centre for Buddhist Studies, Sri Lanka, vol. 11, pp. 175–228, ISSN 1391-8443
- Hirakawa, Akira (1990), History of Indian Buddhism, vol. 1: From Sakyamuni to Early Mahāyāna, translated by Paul Groner, Hawai'i University Press, hdl:10125/23030
- Keown, Damien and Charles S Prebish (eds.) (2004). Encyclopedia of Buddhism (London: Routledge). ISBN 978-0-415-31414-5.
- Lindtner, Christian (1997), "The Problem of Precanonical Buddhism", Buddhist Studies Review, 14 (2): 2, doi:10.1558/bsrv.v14i2.14851, archived from the originalon 2022-01-29, retrieved 2022-11-05
- Lindtner, Christian (1999), "From Brahmanism to Buddhism", Asian Philosophy, 9 (1): 5–37,
- ISBN 978-0824830038
- Prebish, Charles S., ed. (2010), Buddhism: A Modern Perspective, Pennsylvania State University Press, ISBN 978-0-271-03803-2
- ISBN 0-534-01027-X.
- Skilton, Andrew (2004), A Concise History of Buddhism, Windhorse Publications, ISBN 978-0904766929
- Walser, Joseph (2005), Nagarjuna in Context: Mahayana Buddhism and Early Indian Culture[full citation needed]
- ISBN 978-0-415-35653-4
- Williams, Paul; Tribe, Anthony (2000), Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-20701-0
- Xing, Guang (2004), The Concept of the Buddha: Its Evolution from Early Buddhism to the Trikaya Theory, Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism, ISBN 978-0415333443
Further reading
- Coogan, Michael D., ed. (2003), The Illustrated Guide to World Religions, Oxford University Press, ISBN 1-84483-125-6
- Gethin, Rupert (1998), Foundations of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-289223-1
- Gunaratana, Bhante Henepola (2002), Mindfulness in Plain English, Wisdom Publications, ISBN 0-86171-321-4
- Hurvitz, Leon (1976), Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, Columbia University Press[ISBN missing]
- Jong, J. W. de (1993), "The Beginnings of Buddhism", The Eastern Buddhist, 26 (2)
- Nakamura (1989), Indian Buddhism, Motilal Banarsidas[ISBN missing]
- ISBN 0-8021-3031-3
- Shun, Yin (1998), The Way to Buddhahood: Instructions from a Modern Chinese Master, translated by Wing, Yeung H., Wisdom Publications, ISBN 0-86171-133-5
- Vimalakirtinirdesa (1976), Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti: Mahayana Scripture, translated by Thurman, Robert A. F., Pennsylvania State University Press, ISBN 0-271-00601-3
External links
- The Sects of the Buddhists. Rhys Davids. T. W. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1891. pp. 409–422
- Sources on early Buddhism Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine