than any previous ruler to spread Buddhism. He urged his citizens to follow the guidelines of Buddhism: to become moral, act justly, and live lives filled with love and compassion. People should obey their parents, respect living creatures, tell the truth, and revere their teachers. Not only did he build Buddhist temples and monasteries all around India, but he also established hospitals for both people and animals, and planted gardens. He even denounced war, asserting firmly that the only conquest left for him was the dharma, Buddhist teachings. Asoka’s story can be an inspiration to anyone on the wrong Path. Redemption is possible. Some historians believe that a third council was called by Asoka and took place around 237 B.C., at Pataliputra, lasting for nine months. Asoka donated funds to allow the Theravadins to write down the sutras and rules of the order for the first time. The sutras were grouped together in the Sutta-pitaka (sutra basket) and were actually kept in a basket at first. The rules of the Order were collected into the Vinaya-pitaka (ordinance basket). The commentaries written soon after Buddha’s death, explaining and developing his teachings, were called the Abhidharma-pitaka (treatise basket). The three baskets together were known as the Tipitaka, the Law Treasure of Buddhism. These texts, written in the Pali language, became the literature of early Buddhism, which included Theravada. They are considered the record of the teachings of Buddha and are the oldest written works of Buddhism. They are separate from the later Sanskrit writings of the Mahayana, done in the first century A.D.
Asoka sent missionaries throughout India and neighboring countries to convert people. Even his eldest son, Mahinda, was a devout Buddhist monk. King Asoka sent the prince and his disciples south to transmit Buddhism to Sri Lanka. Mahinda and eight other delegations spread Theravada Buddhism in the Pali language. It was widely accepted and spread to Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, where this form, Theravada (Hinayana) Buddhism, is still practiced widely today.
BUDDHISM OF THE ELDERS SPREADS
According to most accounts, the first country outside of India to receive Buddhism was Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. However, the Sinhalese chronicles and commentaries on the Pali scriptures, written by the ancient people of Ceylon, relate how Buddha personally traveled to Ceylon three times to give them the teachings directly. Early Burmese and Thai Buddhist writings also contain legends, much like the Sinhalese, that claimed Buddha had visited their countries. They believed some of the Indian Pali sutras secretly referred to people and places in Southeast Asia.
Despite these stories, historians believe the first contact with Buddhism came well after Buddha’s death, when King Devanamispiya was introduced to Buddhism by Asoka’s son (Lester 1973, 68). The Ceylonese king liked Buddhism so much that he built a monastery at the capital city, Anuradhapura, and established Theravada as the official form of Buddhism.
Later, King Asoka’s daughter, Sanghamittla, brought to Ceylon a branch from the original bodhi tree where Buddha attained enlightenment. With this important symbol of the Buddha himself, she founded an order of nuns that lasted for many centuries. However, nuns were given a lesser role in Southeast Asian Buddhism, and the order eventually died out.
Over the centuries, Buddhism enjoyed royal patronage. The sangha had a close relationship with the governments of Ceylon, Burma, and Thailand. This strong interdependency helped Theravada Buddhism, later renamed as Hinayana, to develop in new directions.
HINAYANA’S NEW ROLE FOR MONKS AND THE LAITY
The tradition that developed over the centuries altered Hinayana’s original narrow application as a philosophy only for monks. Hinayana became a large religion with a definite place for the general population. Monks continued to pursue the Path to become arhats. But a new way developed for people to practice Buddhism even if they stayed with their families, owned property, and pursued a career. Hinayana Buddhism guided the general public to live ethical, fulfilling, and happy lives with the promise that they would be reborn in a happier state in their next life.
Goals for the layperson were more modest than were the goals for the monks. First, just like the monks, people must sincerely follow the precepts not to kill, steal, be lustful, lie, or take intoxicants. They also were to take refuge in the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha. Taking refuge in the Buddha meant they were to respect and revere Buddha as an enlightened guide to wisdom.
Taking refuge in the dharma involved learning about the teachings of Buddha, although laypersons did not go into as much detail as the monks. They did learn about mindfulness meditation and control of desires, but they followed these teachings more moderately. The monks taught people meditation and rituals that could set them on a gradual path to enlightenment. Once a week people went to the monastery to meditate and perform rituals that helped them become more alert and aware, calmer and happier. On this day they were to eat nothing after noon and wear simple clothes without any jewelry. They sat on the floor, refraining from the comforts of plush furniture or modern conveniences. In a moderate way, people learned to overcome their suffering by lessening desires and becoming more aware.
Taking refuge in the sangha involved helping the monks and the monastery with financial support. When people gave food and money, they earned merit toward a higher rebirth in their next life. Thus, laypersons were encouraged to work and accumulate wealth, so long as their work did not violate the precepts. Commensurate with the amount of wealth people acquired, they were expected to share some of it with the sangha, who relied entirely on the public for support.
Kings, like the common people, were expected to give generously to the sangha, building monasteries and donating financial support. In return, monks taught meditation to the kings and offered an enlightened perspective to help them rule wisely so that the kingdom could thrive.
The close relationship between the monastery and the government put new responsibilities on the monks. The rulers expected the monks to help the people by running Buddhist schools where children could learn reading and writing along with Buddhism. During the rainy season, when no farming could be done, sons were sent to the monastery to live as monks. They shaved their heads and wore the robes. Sometimes they even gave up their regular form of livelihood to join the sangha and become monks. Usually they returned home, but often enriched by the experience.
Hinayana Buddhism is still practiced in many Southeast Asian countries today, where centrally located monasteries are an important part of everyday life. But along the way, Buddhism’s path took a dramatic turn as the liberal form developed into Mahayana.
CHAPTER 3
The Blossom of Mahayana
What makes the limit of Nirvana
Is also then the limit of Samsara
Between the two we cannot find
The slightest shade of difference.
—Nagarjuna
BUDDHISM EVOLVES
At first, conservative and liberal interpretations were not fully opposed. The monks from both perspectives lived and taught side by side for close to four hundred years. Gradually, though, Buddhist doctrine began to change; by around A.D. 100, a new literature and a new rationale for the dissenting doctrine emerged.
This new literature revealed a doctrine that creatively reinterpreted the historical words of Buddha. Over time, these interpretations became more clearly defined, and sentiment grew among the liberal monks to make a formal separation from the conservative Elders.
The liberal groups proposed an explanation for how their ideas were authentic Buddhist doctrine. They said that while the Hinayana sutras were being codified at the First Council, another assembly of monks hid a number of new, more progressive sutras for safekeeping. Five centuries later, these hidden sutras were rediscovered and brought forth as the Mahayana scriptures.
Much
