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.
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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.
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