The formation of Theravada and Mahayana Tradition

• marcteng

  24 Jan 06, 12:55

  I understand that a council was formed 3 months after the Buddha's Final PariNibbana to preserve and ensure authencity of the Dhamma for future generations isn't it.
  
  Ananda with his photographic memory, was able to recall what the Buddha had said and was instructed by the Buddha that every sutra consists of Thus Have I heard at the beginning of the sutra. Only those who were arahants were invited to the council, but Ananda was not an arahant then, so he tried his level best to attain arahanthood, but was unable. The night before the council, he tried very hard, but failed, but before dawn, he attained arahanthood by resting on the bed wasn't it.
  
  Anyway, I know the Mahayan tradition was formed some few hundred years after the PariNibbana of the Buddha wasn't it. There were a lot of dissent after the first council, so the second council was formed to address the dissenting issues and Mahayana tradtion was formed at the second council. (Am I correct?)
  
  Anyone care to give a background to the formation of Theravada and Mahayana tradtion.
  
  
• sinweiy

  24 Jan 06, 15:06

  First Council
  Also known as 500 Council, Theravada Council", The First Compilation, etc. The assembly of 500 leading Bhikhus gathered for 3 months after the Buddha's death to compile the Buddhist sutras. It was held at Cave of the Seven Leaves near Rajagaha.
  In the assembly, Ananda recited the Sutta-pitaka, Upali recited the Rules of Disciplines of the Order, i.e., Vinaya-pitaka, and Kassapa recited the Abhidhamma. Thus, the Tripitaka was adopted as a unity of doctrines and opinions within the religious order, and also an orthodox teaching for the Buddhists to follow.
  ---
  
  Mahasanghika and Sthavira are known as two earliest sects in Hinayana. Mahasanghika is said to be the basis of the development of the Mahayana Buddhism, while Sthavira of the Theravada Buddhism.
  
  Mahasanghika
  Literally means the Member of the Great Order, majority, community. During the First Council, when the Sthavira or elder disciples assembled in the cave after the Buddha's death, and the other disciples (called to be Mahasanghika) assembled outside the cave. Both compiled the Tripitaka. However, the former emphasized on the rules of disciplines in the monastic community, while the latter concerned the spread of the spirit of Buddhism in lay community. As sects, the principal division took place in the Second Council.
  
  Sthavirah
  Also known as Sthaviranikaya or Aryasthavirah. Sthavirah and Mahasanghikah are the two earliest sects in Buddhism. At first, they were not considered to be different. Sthavirah merely represented the intimate and older disciples of Shakyamuni, while Mahasanghika being the rest. It is said that a century later, a difference of opinion arose on certain doctrines. Three divisions were named as a result (all in Ceylon):
  
  1)Mahaviharavasinah - A subdivision of the Sthavirah school, which
  opposed to the Mahayana system.
  2)Jetavaniyah - Or Jetiyasailah, school of the dwellers on Mount Jeta, which is a sub division of the Sthavirah, one of the Hinayana sect. Also known as Caitya-vandana, who paid reverence to or worship a stupa. Caitya is a religious monument or stupa in which the relics of the Buddha or other reverend sages are placed. This sect held that the Buddha's discourse was transcendent, his enlightenment was already determined when he was born, that he could violate the
  natural laws, and could be reborn wherever he wished (in his previous lives as a Bodhisattva).
  3)Abhayagiri-vasinah - A subdivision of early Sthavirah school. Abhayagiri, the Mountain of Fearlessness in Ceylon, where the disciples dwelled in a monastery.
  
  In the course, the eighteen Hinayana sects were developed. From the time of Ashoka, four principal school are regarded as prevailing:
  
  1) Mahasanghika - Literally means the Member of the Great Order, majority, community.
  2) Sthavira
  3)Sammatiyah - a branch of Sthavirandin, developed from Vatsiputriyah. It is a school of correct measures, or correct evaluation, formed about 300 years after the Nirvana of Shakyamuni. It was classified in the Pudgalavadin category, thus often linked with Vatsiputriyah.
  4) Mulasarvastivada - a branch of the Sarvastivadin sect, which asserted the doctrine of the reality of things. It held that all is produced by causative action, and everything is dynamic, not static. Mulasavastivada is a school of reality of all phenomena, one of the early Hinayana sects, said to have been formed, about 300 years after the Nirvana of Shakyamuni. Later it subdivided into five:
  
  a) Mulasarvastivadah ,
  b ) Dharmaguptah - a subdivision of Sarvastivadah, developed from Mahisasakah and located in northwest India and Central Asia. Literally means those who protect (or preserve) the Law. They were instrumental informing the cult of the stupa, and were expert in incantation.
  c) Kasyapiyah - a subdivision of Sarvastivadah.
  d) Mahisasakah - a branch of Sarvastivadah founded 300 years after the Nirvana, but the doctrines of the school are said to be similar to those of the Mahasanghika. Literally means a ruler who converted or rectified his land or people. The school denied reality to past and future, but maintained the reality of the present. Similarly, the school rejected the doctrine of the void and the non-ego, the
  production of taint by the Five consciousness, the theory of nine kinds of non-activity, and so on. They held that enlightenment came suddenly rathern than gradually.
  e) Vatsiputriyah (most influential) - Vatsiputriyas in Sanskrit, Vajjiputtakas in Pali. Hinayanist sect often linked with Sammatiyah, which broke from the orothodox Sarvastivada. The founder was Vatsa. They may be classified as Pudgalavadins, accepting the pudgala transmigrated, and rejecting the theory of the Five Skandhas (the Five Aggregates comprising personality). They were considered schismatics through their insistence on the reality of the self. That individual self is neither the same nor different from the Five Skandhas. The doctrine challenged the Dharma exposition by the Sarvastivadah. The school was later dividied into four:
  
  i)Dharmottariyah - a branch of Sthavirandin developed from Vatsiputriyah. Dharmottara is the Buddhist logician writing, an important commentary called the Nyayabindu-tika on Dharmakirtis Nyayabindu.
  ii)Bhadrayaniyah - a branch of Sthavirandin, developed from Vatsiputriyah.
  iii)Sammatiyah - a branch of Sthavirandin, developed from Vatsiputriyah. It is a school of correct measures, or correct evaluation, formed about 300 years after the Nirvana of Shakyamuni. It was classified in the Pudgalavadin category, thus often linked with Vatsiputriyah.
  iv)Sannagarikah - a branch of Sthavirandin, developed from Vatsiputriyah.
  
  As far as Sthavira is concerned, there are eleven sects reckoned.
  
  The Sthaviravadins were reputed as nearest to early Buddhism in its tenets, though it is said to have changed the basis of Buddhism from an agonostic system to a realist philosophy.
  
  http://www.buddhistdoor.com/bdoor/common/sources/glossa-e.htm
  
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