Table Of ContentBUDDHISM
Critical Concepts in Religious Studies
Edited by Paul Williams
Volume II
The Early Buddhist Schools and Doctrinal History;
Theravada Doctrine
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ISBN 0-415-33226-5 (Set)
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CONTENTS
VOLUME II THE EARLY BUDDHIST SCHOOLS AND
DOCTRINAL HISTORY; THERA VADA
DOCTRINE
Acknowledgements vn
18 Theravada Buddhist sangha: some general observations on
historical and political factors in its development 1
HEINZ BECHERT
19 Notes on the formation of Buddhist sects and the origins of
Mahayana 23
HEINZ BECHERT
20 Buddhistjhana: its nature and attainment according to the
Pali sources 34
L.S. COUSINS
21 The 'five points' and the origins of the Buddhist schools 52
L.S. COUSINS
22 Person and self 84
L.S. COUSINS
23 Cosmology and meditation: from the Aggaiiiia-Sutta to the
Mahayana 102
RUPERT GETHIN
24 Kindness and compassion as a means to nirvaJ.la 136
R.F. GOMBRICH
v
CONTENTS
25 Concentration or insight: the problematic of Theravida
Buddhist meditation theory 154
PAUL GRIFFITHS
26 Councils as ideas and events in the Theravada 171
CHARLES HALLISEY
27 Saik$a-dharmas revisited: further considerations of
Mahisirpghika origins 186
CHARLES S. PREBISH
28 Mahisirpghika origins: the beginnings of Buddhist
sectarianism 199
JAN NATTIER AND CHARLES S. PREBISH
29 The several bodies of the Buddha: reflections on a neglected
aspect of Therav ida tradition 229
FRANK E. REYNOLDS
30 On the problem of the relation of spiritual practice and
philosophical theory in Buddhism 242
LAMBERT SCHMITHAUSEN
31 Buddhist Modernism and the rhetoric of meditative
experience 255
ROBERT H. SHARF
32 The transforming gift: an analysis of devotional acts of
offering in Buddhist Avadiina literature 300
JOHN STRONG
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Volume II
The publishers would like to thank the following for permission to reprint their
material:
The Association of Asian Studies, Inc. for permission to reprint Heinz Bechert,
'Theravada Buddhist sangha: some general observations on historical and polit
ical factors in its development', Journal of Asian Studies 29, 1970, pp. 761-78.
Reprinted with permission of the Association for Asian Studies, Inc.
The Cultural Department, German Embassy, New Delhi for permission to
reprint Heinz Bechert, 'Notes on the formation of Buddhist sects and the origins
of Mahayana', in Cultural Department of the Embassy of the Federal Republic
of Germany (ed.), German Scholars in India, 1973, pp. 6--18.
Elsevier for permission to reprint L.S. Cousins, 'Buddhistjhana: its nature and
attainment according to the Pali sources', Religion 3, 1973, pp. 115-31.
Reprinted from Religion © 1973, with permission from Elsevier.
The Institute of Buddhist Studies, Tring, Herts, for permission to reprint L.S.
Cousins, 'The "five points" and the origins of the Buddhist schools', in Tadeusz
Skorupski (ed.), The Buddhist Forum: Vol. II, 1991, pp. 27-60.
Dhammakaya Foundation, Thailand, for permission to reprint L.S. Cousins,
'Person and self', in Dhammakaya Foundation Studies in Philosophy and Bud
dhist Scriptural Language Presented by Leading Scholars Worldwide, 1994,
pp. 15-30.
University of Chicago Press for permission to reprint Rupert Gethin, 'Cosmol
ogy and meditation: from the Aggaiiiia-Sutta to the Mahayana', History of Reli
gions 36, 3, 1997, pp. 183-217.
R.F. Gombrich for permission to reprint R.F. Gombrich, Kindness and Compas
sion as a Means to Nirval)a, Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts
and Sciences, 1997
Oxford University Press for permission to reprint Paul Griffiths, 'Concentration
or insight: the problematic of Theravada Buddhist meditation theory', Journal of
vii
AC KNOW L EDGEMENT S
the American Academy of Religion 49, 1981, pp. 605-24. By permission of the
American Academy of Religion, and Oxford University Press.
The Institute of Buddhist Studies, Tring, Herts, for permission to reprint Charles
Hallisey, 'Councils as ideas and events in the Theravada', in Tadeusz Skorupski
(ed.), TheBuddhistForum: Vol. II, 199l,pp.l33--48.
The University of Chicago Press for permission to reprint Charles S. Prebish,
'Saik.ya-dharmas revisited: further considerations of Mahasii.Q1ghika origins',
History of Religions 35, 3, 1996, pp. 258-70.
The University of Chicago Press for permission to reprint Jan Nattier and
Charles S. Prebish, 'Mahasii.Q1ghika origins: the beginnings of Buddhist sectari
anism', History ofReligions 16, 3, 1977, pp. 237-72.
The University of Chicago Press for permission to reprint Frank E. Reynolds,
'The several bodies of the Buddha: reflections on a neglected aspect of Ther
avada tradition', History ofR eligions 16, 1977, pp. 374-89.
The Cultural Department, German Embassy, New Delhi for permission to
reprint Lambert Schmithausen, 'On the problem of the relation of spiritual prac
tice and philosophical theory in Buddhism', in Cultural Department of the
Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany (e d.), German Scholars on India,
1973, pp. 235-50.
Brill Academic Publishers for permission to reprint Robert H. Sharf, 'Buddhist
Modernism and the rhetoric of meditative experience', Numen, 42, 1995,
pp. 228-83.
The University of Chicago Press for permission to reprint John Strong, 'The
transforming gift: an analysis of devotional acts of offering in Buddhist Av adana
literature', History ofR eligions 18, 1979, pp. 221-37.
Disclaimer
The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders of
works reprinted in Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies. This has
not been possible in every case, however, and we would welcome correspon
dence from those individuals/companies whom we have been unable to trace.
viii
18
THERA V ADA BUDDHIST SANGHA
Some general observations on historical and
political factors in its development
Heinz Bechert
Source: Journal ofAsian Studies 29 (1970): 761-78.
Max Weber has tried to analyze the history of the Sangha from the "unstruc
tured" early orders of monks and nuns to the stage of large-scale monastic
"landlordism" by using the theorem of Buddhism as a means of the "domestica
tion of the masses" for the kings of India, Ceylon, and Southeast Asia.1 Monas
tic Buddhism of the Theravada type was believed to have been used by the kings
in order to establish what is defined as a "hydraulic society" by Wittfogel.
Similar interpretations are found in a number of modem studies on the history of
Buddhism. This explanation of the development is certainly one-sided, and a
more balanced analysis of the interaction of different factors of change of the
Buddhist monastic institutions seems necessary. For this, the concepts of Bud
dhist historiography should be taken into consideration.
Concepts of Buddhist historical writing
The development from the early Buddhist Sangha to the modem monastic
communities in the countries professing Theravada Buddhism is fortunately
rather well documented in historical materials, including Buddhist historical
writings, whereas similar material is extremely scarce for the history of Bud
dhism in mainland India. The chronicles of Ceylon composed by Buddhist
bhikkhus (monks) can be considered as the most ancient pieces of existing
historical writing composed in the environment of Indian culture.
One is tempted to explain the development of historical writing in Ceylon as
a consequence of Buddhist concepts. There is, however, the fact that no piece of
fully developed historical literature of Buddhists in mainland India has come
down to us and that the negative evidence of recent manuscripts finds (Gilgit
manuscripts, Turfan manuscripts, Sanskrit manuscripts discovered by Rahul
Sankrityayan from Tibet, etc.) has corroborated the presumption that there were
only more or less isolated records of important events in the history of the
EARLY BUDDHIST SCHOOLS AND DOCTRINAL HISTORY
Buddhist church and some short historical chapters in books otherwise containing
legendary material in Indian Buddhist tradition. Such also has been the material
which was taken over into the earliest Sinhalese tradition, but in Ceylon it has
been developed into full-fledged historiography. Later Southeast Asian Buddhist
historical writing was stimulated by the tradition of Ceylon, as is well known.
As I have shown elsewhere,2 a critical study of the earliest extant Ceylonese
chronicles-Dzpava!Jlsa (4th or 5th century A.D.) and Mahiiva!Jlsa (about 500
A.D.}-reveals the part played by the political concept of the national identity of
the Sinhalese in close connection with the religious tradition of Theravada Bud
dhism, i.e., the concept of the identity of the Sinhalese Buddhists. Side by side
with this basically political idea, certain concepts of Sangha history are reflected
in the early Ceylonese chronicles as well as in all later historical works from
Theravada Buddhist countries. Firstly, we should refer to the importance of the
historical succession of ordination traditions (paramparii) for the validity of the
ordination of Buddhist monks and thereby for the charisma of the religious
communities concerned. The erection of new "slmiis," i.e., ceremonially conse
crated places where ordination rites can be performed, the renewal of doubtful
"upasampadiis," i.e., higher or bhikkhu ordinations, which led to the establish
ment of new "nikiiyas," i.e., "sects" of the Order, can be justified by historical
traditions only. Another related basic concept in the ecclesiastical history of
Theravada Buddhism is the concept of "siisana reform," i.e., the reform of the
monastic communities3 in accordance with the legal principles laid down in the
Vinaya or Vinayapitaka, the canonical law of the Sangha.4
According to the Vinaya, any monk who violates the basic commands of
monastic discipline, the so-called piiriijika principles, is automatically excluded
from the Sangha.5 By way of this rule, "pseudo-monks" came into existence.
These were persons who pretended to be monks though they had lost their mem
bership in the Sangha as a result of violations against the piiriijika rules. Since
each new ordination required the presence of a certain number of validly
ordained monks, it could happen that new ordinations became doubtful as to
their validity if the good moral conduct of the ordaining monks was doubted.
Situations in which the decay of monastic discipline resulted in a serious
jeopardizing of the survival of a legal Sangha have frequently occurred in the
history of Theravada Buddhism. It has been one of the favored essential topics
of Buddhist historical writing to show how orthodox Buddhism managed to
cope with this problem. The earliest-and, as a work of literature, the best
coherent work of ecclesiastical history in Sinhalese language, the Nikiiyasangra
hava composed by the Mahathera Dharmakirti II (14th century), gives an
excellent survey of the history of Buddhism with regard to this aspect.
Methods of sasana reform
According to the traditional records, the task of keeping the siisana intact
devolved upon the Sangha immediately after the Buddha's death, when a monk
2
