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Mahayana Buddhism
1st Buddhist council
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5th century BCE (543–542 BCE )
Immediately after the Buddha’s
Parinibbana
Rājagṛha/king Ajāthaśatru
Subhadra
To unify the Saṃgha
Mahākāśyapa
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Ānanda: Sutra/Dhrama
Upali: Vinaya
500 Arahants Bhikkhus
Why was not any Bhikkhuni invited?
And why not the lay people who got
arahantship already?
Purāṇa
2nd Buddhist council
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4th century BCE
100 years later
Vaisālī
It concerned the allegation that certain monks
at Vaisālī permitted ten unlawful practices
considering that they are minor rules.
Revata: President
Questioned by Sarvagāmin
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It was convened to resolve a dispute over the 'Ten
Points/Inappropriate behaviors:
Storing salt in a horn.
Eating after midday.
Eating once and then going again to a village for alms.
Holding the Uposatha Ceremony with monks dwelling in the same
locality.
Carrying out official acts when the assembly was incomplete.
Following a certain practice because it was done by one's tutor or
teacher.
Eating sour milk after one had his midday meal.
Consuming strong drink before it had been fermented.
Using a rug which was not the proper size.
Using gold and silver.
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Sthaviravada
Mahāsaṅghika
The second meeting of this
period
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Took place some 37 years later at Pāṭaliputra
Mahādeva, who maintained five theses concerning
the arahant, viz.
(1) That the Arhat could be subject to temptation,
(2) might have a residue of ignorance,
(3) have doubts,
(4) gain knowledge through another’s knowledge
(5) and enter upon the Supramundance path by
means of an exclamation such as Dukkha or possibly
even fall away from the path.
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The Magadha king, Mahāpadma Nanda was
asked to convence a council.
He decided to adjudicate by measuring the
size of the respective parties
Greater number in favor of Mahādeva’s
points.
Mahāsaṅgha, the ‘greater community’
(483 BCE)
Acariyavadins
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The Sthaviras, the elders
Scholars suggest that the first schism
(Saṅghabheda) took place on the basis
of differences only over Vinaya, and not
over matters of doctrine.
Mahāsaṅgha itself split into two over the
status of the arhat.
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As the number of members grew, the
institutional organization increased its
complexity, monks expanded and
elaborated both doctrine and
disciplinary codes, created new textual
genres, developed new forms of
disciplines, and eventually divided into a
number of different schools
Third Buddhist council
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250 BCE at Pataliputra
Asoka
Moggaliputta-Tissa
The objective of the council was to
purify the Saṅgha
Kathavatthu refuting the heretical, false
views and theories
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Mahāyāna (between the 1st century BCE and
the 1st century AD)
Bodhisattvayāna
Does not occur in the Indian inscription untill
the fifth or sixth century.
Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra (Lotus)
Goal: Samyaksaṃbuddha
Mahāyāna Buddhism flourished and spread
during the dynasty of the Guptas (4th-6th
century).
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Hinayāna, early Buddhism
Yijing (7th century CE): Those who
venerate the bodhisattvas and read the
Mahayana sūtras are called the
Mahāyānists, while those who do not
perform these are called the
Hīnayānists.
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Xuanzang (7th century): the monks of the
Mahāvihara as the "Hīnayāna Sthaviras", and
the monks of the Abhayagiri Vihara as the
"Mahāyāna Sthaviras.
The Mahāvihāravāsins reject the Mahāyāna
and practice the Hīnayāna, while the
Abhayagirivihāravāsins study both Hīnayāna
and Mahāyāna teachings and propagate the
Tipitaka.
Mahāyāna school
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Mādhyamaka school : Nāgārjuna (2nd
Century A.D.)
Sunyata - everything is Void
4th Century: Asanga and Vasubandhu
Yogācāra school