Second Buddhist Council

Categories: Buddhism | History of Buddhism

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

The Second Buddhist Council was called about one hundred years after the Buddha's Parinibbāna in order to settle a serious dispute. Dispute resolution failed and resulted in the first schism within the Buddhist Sangha which resulted in the formation of different factions of Buddhism. These different Buddhist sects eventually developed into what is now Theravada Buddhism (also called Nikaya Buddhism) and Mahayana Buddhism tradition. The account of the exact nature of disputes differ between Southern Theravada and Northern Mahayana tradition.

The initial dispute arose over the 'Ten Points.' This is a reference to claims of some monks breaking ten minor rules. They were given to:

• 1. Storing salt in a horn.
• 2. Eating after midday.
• 3. Eating once and then going again to a village for alms.
• 4. Holding the Uposatha Ceremony with monks dwelling in the same locality.
• 5. Carrying out official acts when the assembly was incomplete.
• 6. Following a certain practice because it was done by one's tutor or teacher.
• 7. Eating sour milk after one had his midday meal.
• 8. Consuming strong drink before it had been fermented.
• 9. Using a rug which was not the proper size.
• 10. Using gold and silver.

Their misdeeds became an issue and caused a major controversy. The monastic Sangha is structured so that all actions and decisions must be unanimously agreed upon through consensus and because the monks accused of breaking these ten rules refused to be reprimanded or acknowledge fault, the sangha was unable to resolve this dispute in any other way than by convening the Second Buddhist Council.

Some of the Ten Points dealt with relaxing the Vinaya rules as the monastic Sangha spread into different regions, especially Northern India. Before theBuddha's Parinibbāna he told Ven. Ananda that the community may relinquish the minor rules of the Vinaya but at the First Buddhist Council there was uncertainty about which rules he was referring to and it was decided to keep the Vinaya as it was during the Buddha's lifetime. However, some monks now felt that certain rules could be relaxed. They argued that in colder climates eating only one meal a day was impractical or that larger rugs (which could be used as blankets) should be allowed.

The Council decided against relaxing any of these rules and censured the monks who were accused of violating the Ten Points. These monks did not agree to the decision and instead split from the Elders, forming the Mahasanghika school.

Mahasanghika Version

The Mahasanghika school later developed into Mahayana Buddhism and records a different version of events at the Second Buddhist Council.

The Mahasanghika account of the event no longer exists in a Sanskrit text, but its Chinese translation survives under the name of "Discourse on Different Sects". According to this record, the dispute was not about vinaya but the extent and the nature of the enlightenment of Arahants (and likely to be the authority of elders of Sangha). Mahadeva raised five issues (Five Issues of Mahadeva). These were

• 1. Arahants can still have involuntary ejaculation in sleep
• 2. Arahants is still not totally free from ignorance
• 3. Arahants is still not totally free from doubt
• 4. Arahants can still learn from others
• 5. The enlightenment is expressed in words.

Those who recognise argument of Mahadeva become Mahasanghika while those who rejected Mahadeva become Sthaviravada. This is referred to as the fundamental fission (根本分裂) in Chinese. A series of further disputes resulted in additional divisions of 20. In Chinese record, Hinayana are further split into 20 different sects.fr:Deuxième concile bouddhique