Third Buddhist council

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The Third Buddhist council was convened in about 250 BCE at Asokarama
in Pataliputra, supposedly under the patronage of Emperor Asoka, a
grave question mark hangs over this though as Asoka never mentioned it
in his edicts, which one might have expected if he had called the
council.

The traditional reason for convening the Third Buddhist Council is
reported to have been to rid the Sangha of corruption and bogus monks
who held heretical views. It was presided over by the Elder
Moggaliputta Tissa and one thousand monks participated in the Council.
The council is recognized and known to both the Theravada and Mahayana
schools, though its importance is central only to the Theravada
school.[1] Tradition has it that Asoka had won his throne through
shedding the blood of all his father's sons except his own brother,
Tissa Kumara, who eventually got ordained and achieved Arahantship.
Contents

1 Historical background
2 Council
3 Emissaries
3.1 Results of missions
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Historical background

The account of the background to the Third Council is as follows:
Emperor Asoka was crowned in the two hundred and eighteenth year after
the Buddha's Mahaparinibbāna. At first he paid only token homage to
the Dhamma and the Sangha and also supported members of other
religious sects as his father had done before him. However, all this
changed when he met the pious novice-monk Nigrodha who preached him
the Appamada-vagga. Thereafter he ceased supporting other religious
groups and his interest in and devotion to the Dhamma deepened. He
used his enormous wealth to build, it is said, eighty-four thousand
pagodas and viharas and to lavishly support the bhikkhus with the four
requisites. His son Mahinda and his daughter Sanghamitta were ordained
and admitted to the Sangha.

Eventually, his generosity was to cause serious problems within the
Sangha. In time the order was infiltrated by many unworthy men,
holding heretical views and who were attracted to the order because of
the Emperor's generous support and costly offerings of food, clothing,
shelter and medicine. Large numbers of faithless, greedy men espousing
wrong views tried to join the order but were deemed unfit for
ordination.

Despite this they seized the chance to exploit the Emperor's
generosity for their own ends and donned robes and joined the order
without having been ordained properly. Consequently, respect for the
Sangha diminished. When this came to light some of the genuine monks
refused to hold the prescribed purification or Uposatha ceremony in
the company of the corrupt, heretical monks.

When the Emperor heard about this he sought to rectify the situation
and dispatched one of his ministers to the monks with the command that
they perform the ceremony. However, the Emperor had given the minister
no specific orders as to what means were to be used to carry out his
command. The monks refused to obey and hold the ceremony in the
company of their false and 'thieving' companions (Pali,
theyya-sinivāsaka).

In desperation the angry minister advanced down the line of seated
monks and drawing his sword, beheaded all of them one after the other
until he came to the King's brother, Tissa who had been ordained. The
horrified minister stopped the slaughter and fled the hall and
reported back to the Emperor. Asoka was deeply grieved and upset by
what had happened and blamed himself for the killings. He sought Thera
Moggaliputta Tissa's counsel. He proposed that the heretical monks be
expelled from the order and a third Council be convened immediately.
Council

So it was that in the seventeenth year of the Emperor's reign the
Third Council was called. Thera Moggaliputta Tissa headed the
proceedings and chose one thousand monks from the sixty thousand
participants for the traditional recitation of the Dhamma and the
Vinaya, which went on for nine months. The Emperor, himself questioned
monks from a number of monasteries about the teachings of the Buddha.
Those who held wrong views were exposed and expelled from the Sangha
immediately. In this way the Bhikkhu Sangha was purged of heretics and
bogus bhikkhus.

According to the Pali and Chinese accounts, the Elder Moggaliputta
Tissa, in order to refute a number of heresies and ensure the Dhamma
was kept pure, compiled a book during the council called the
Kathavatthu. This book consists of twenty-three chapters, and is a
collection of discussions on the points of controversy. It gives
refutations of the 'heretical' views held by various Buddhist sects on
matters philosophical. The Kathavatthu is the fifth of the seven books
of the Abhidhamma Pitaka. However, the historicity of this has been
questioned, as the account preserved in the San Jian Lu Pi Po Sho
(Sudassanavinayavibhasha), although otherwise almost identical, does
not mention the Kathavatthu.

Moggaliputtatissa told Ashoka that the doctrine taught by the Buddha
was the Vibhajjavada, the Doctrine of Analysis. This term is used in
various senses, and it is not clear exactly what it meant in this
context. Traditionally, however, the Sri Lankan Theravadins and other
mainland schools of Early Buddhism identified themselves as
Vibhajjavada.
Emissaries

see also Greco-Buddhist monasticism
Buddhist proselytism at the time of king Ashoka (260–218 BCE).

One of the most significant achievements ascribed by Theravada
tradition to this Dhamma assembly and one which was to bear fruit for
centuries to come, was the Emperor's sending forth of monks, well
versed in the Buddha's Dhamma and Vinaya who could recite all of it by
heart, to teach it in nine different countries.
Country name Missionary name
(1) Kasmira-Gandhara Majjhantika/Mahyantika Thera
(2) Mahisamandala (Mysore) Mahadeva Thera
(3) Vanavasi Rakkhita Thera
(4) Aparantaka (Northern Gujarat, Kathiawar, Kachch and Sindh)
Yona-Dhammarakkhita Thera
(5) Maharattha (Maharastra) Mahadhammarakkhita Thera
(6) Yona (Greece) Maharakkhita Thera
(7) Himavanta (area in Himalayas) Majjhima Thera
(8) Suvannabhumi (Myanmar / Mon) / Thailand) Sona Thera and Uttara Thera
(9) Lankadipa (Sri Lanka) Mahamahinda Thera
Results of missions

Theravāda
Asokanpillar-crop.jpg

Countries


Nepal
India

Sri Lanka
Cambodia

Laos
Burma
Thailand

Bangladesh



Texts


Pali Canon
Commentaries
Subcommentaries



History


Pre-sectarian Buddhism
Early schools
Sthavira
Asoka
Third Council
Vibhajjavada
Mahinda
Sanghamitta
Dipavamsa
Mahavamsa
Buddhaghosa



Doctrine


Saṃsāra
Nibbāna
Middle Way
Noble Eightfold Path
Four Noble Truths
Enlightenment Stages
Precepts
Three Jewels
Outline of Buddhism



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The Dhamma missions to Sri Lanka and Kashmir and Gandhara were very
successful, leading to a long-term presence and dominance of Buddhism
in those areas.

It is not clear exacly how influential the interactions to Egypt and
Greece may have been, but some authors have commented that some level
of syncretism between Hellenist thought and Buddhism may have started
in Hellenic lands at that time. They have pointed to the presence of
Buddhist communities in the Hellenistic world around that period, in
particular in Alexandria (mentioned by Clement of Alexandria), and to
the pre-Christian monastic order of the Therapeutae (possibly a
deformation of the Pali word "Theravada"), who may have "almost
entirely drawn (its) inspiration from the teaching and practices of
Buddhist asceticism" (Robert Linssen).

Possibly Buddhist gravestones from the Ptolemaic period have also been
found in Alexandria, decorated with what may be depictions of the
Dharma wheel (Tarn, "The Greeks in Bactria and India"). Commenting on
the presence of Buddhists in Alexandria, some scholars have even
pointed out that "It was later in this very place that some of the
most active centers of Christianity were established" (Robert Linssen
"Zen living").

In the 2nd century CE, the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria
recognized Bactrian Buddhists (Sramanas) and Indian Gymnosophists for
their influence on Greek thought:

"Thus philosophy, a thing of the highest utility, flourished in
antiquity among the barbarians, shedding its light over the nations.
And afterwards it came to Greece. First in its ranks were the prophets
of the Egyptians; and the Chaldeans among the Assyrians; and the
Druids among the Gauls; and the Sramanas among the Bactrians
("Σαρμαναίοι Βάκτρων"); and the philosophers of the Celts; and the
Magi of the Persians, who foretold the Saviour's birth, and came into
the land of Judaea guided by a star. The Indian gymnosophists are also
in the number, and the other barbarian philosophers. And of these
there are two classes, some of them called Sramanas ("Σαρμάναι"), and
others Brahmins ("Βραφμαναι")." Clement of Alexandria "The Stromata,
or Miscellanies" Book I, Chapter XV [2]

See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Buddhist_council