Buddhist Sects

The Buddhist Sects

By Ven. Dr. Phangcham

Ven. Dr. Phangcham is the Head Monk at the Midwest Buddhist Meditation Center, 29750 Ryan Road, Warren, MI 48092-2244, 810-573-266. He is also a friend of Heartland Sangha.

The division of Buddhism can be traced back to the time of the Second Council, a century after the Buddha's lifetime. One of the causes of this separation is rooted in the laxity of discipline and the differing ideas about monastic rules by the group of monks called Vajjiputta at Vesali City. There they made ten proposals which were all against the Dhamma and the discipline of the Buddha. They thought that their views and practices were in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha.

Another reason for the different schools of Buddhism is due to the different cultures, climates, and conditions of the countries in which Buddhism developed. Some of the rules of early Buddhism could not be practiced in certain environments.

As time went on, the number of Buddhist followers, both monks and lay people, increased rapidly. Seven hundred Arahants led by Venerable Yasa Kakandaputta held a meeting, for monks only, at Vilikaram Temple in Vesali City. This was regarded as the Second Council.

The meeting dealt with the ten proposals. They concluded that the ten proposals were undoubtedly wrong and harmful to the Buddha's teachings. There were also other matters in which the monks could not agree. Therefore, the meeting revised and confirmed the Buddha's teachings once again. Meanwhile the Vajiputta monks separately grouped together.

These events mark the time of the Sangha's splint into two groups. The group of Vajiputta monks started the Mahayana School. The other group of the Order is called the Hinayana school. The Theravada tradition or the Hinayana, the only surviving School of that tradition is sometimes called the Southern School of Buddhism, and the Mahayana is sometimes called Northern School of Buddhism. One must remember, however, that Hinayana does not mean Theravada. Also there are several other interpretations of the words Hinayana and Mahayana.

By the time of King Ashoka, the Great, there were eighteen or twenty different schools and many subschools arising out of the Mahayana and Hinayana Traditions. Eleven arose out of Hinayana and seven out of Mahayana. None of these minor schools survived for very long. Another form of Buddhism is called Vajrayana, or the Diamond Vehicle. It is found mostly in Tibet, Bhutan, Ladakh, and Assam. Today, it is not considered good form to use the word Hinayana when speaking of the Theravada School.

The form of Buddhism which flourished under King Ashoka was Hinayana, and this from spread to Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. The other tradition, the Mahayana, spread to Nepal, Tibet, China, Mongolia, The Soviet Union, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. In recent times, there have been a number of worldwide Buddhist conferences, and dialogs which try to see the unity of all the various forms of Buddhism, while retaining their distinctive forms. At the present, both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism is spreading in all parts of the world.

Buddhism has become one of the four greatest religions in the world. There are about 500 million people who believe in Buddhism, both Theravada and Mahayana. More and more people in the European and American continents, and Australia are showing increasing interest in Buddhist Teachings and Buddhist Meditation.

This article is reprinted for the Summer 1998 newsletter of the International Buddhism Friendship Association of Chicago, 5414 N. Broadway, Chicago, IL 606041, 773-271-5708.

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