Chapter (3)
The Theravada Councils
Preamble to the Councils
The Lord Buddha attained Parinibbāna in the Sal grove in the city of Kusināra on the full moon day of Kason in the 148th year of the Mahāsakkarāj era (544 B.C.). The Venerable Mahākassapa, with a following of 500 Arahats, was traveling from Pāvā to Kusināra to pay homage to the Blessed One.
The great elder and his retinue, due to the late season, were resting under a tree during their journey. At that time, an Ājīvaka ascetic was coming from Kusināra to Pāvā. The ascetic met Venerable Mahākassapa, who was taking a rest.
When the Venerable Mahākassapa asked about the Blessed One, the ascetic replied, “The Buddha has attained Parinibbāna.” When the Sangha heard this news, they could not contain their grief and wept and lamented.
While the other Arahats were weeping, the monk Subhadda did not know he should weep; he was glad that the Buddha was no more. Subhadda spoke words of comfort to the weeping monks.
“Venerable sirs, why are you weeping? We are now free from the hand of the great ascetic Gotama. When Gotama was alive, he would give us instructions, saying, ‘Do not do this; you must do that.’ He controlled us. We could not do as we pleased, lest it be deemed an offense, and he would restrain us with rules. Gotama was one who oppressed and tormented us. Now, we can do as we wish, do what we want; we are free.”
Upon hearing Subhadda’s words, the great elder Venerable Mahākassapa thought to himself, “Even now, improper words are being spoken. Later, if more monks like this arise, unrighteousness will become widespread.”
“The Dhamma teachings that the Lord Buddha preached will only be preserved if they are compiled in a council.”
Venerable Mahākassapa and his group, upon arriving in Kusināra, performed the rites of cremating the Buddha’s physical body and distributing the relics. Afterwards, on the 5th day of the waning moon of Nayon, a Sangha meeting was held at the relic distribution site.
At the great Sangha meeting, the great elder Venerable Mahākassapa proposed holding a council.
“Venerable sirs, if there are many corrupt monks like Subhadda, the noble teachings of the Lord Buddha could disappear. Only if the Buddha’s teachings are preserved will the Buddha’s Sāsana endure for long. As long as the teachings are preserved, it is as if the Lord Buddha is still living and present.
Therefore…
so that the true Dhamma does not fade,
so that the good Dhamma does not disappear,
so that the Adhamma does not spread,
so that those of wrong views do not gain power,
so that those of right views do not lose power…
let us gather and hold a council on the Sutta, Vinaya, and Abhidhamma teachings that the Lord Buddha preached,” he proposed.
The Sangha responded to Venerable Mahākassapa’s proposal, saying, “The matter your reverence has proposed is most fitting. For the holding of the council, may your reverence take the lead and select the appropriate Sangha members.”
The First Council
The great elder Venerable Mahākassapa, to be able to hold the council, selected and made a list of 499 Arahats who were masters of the Pariyatti Dhamma and possessed of the six supernormal powers (paṭisambhidā).
The intention was for 500 Arahats to participate in the council. It was also intended for Venerable Ānanda to be included. However, at that time, Venerable Ānanda was still at the level of a Sotāpanna, so he could not yet be included in the list.
At that time, the other Sangha members submitted that although Venerable Ānanda was still a sekha (a learner), he was a great master of the Dhamma, one who could remember and recite the eighty-four thousand units of the Dhamma taught in the Lord Buddha’s presence. They argued that it was not proper to hold the council by excluding Venerable Ānanda, who had been the great attendant and right-hand disciple of the Blessed One.
Only then did Venerable Mahākassapa select Venerable Ānanda, making the Sangha number 500. After being selected, Venerable Ānanda strived in the Dhamma to become an Arahat and enter the council, and he attained Arahatship just before the council began.
Venerable Mahākassapa, having selected 500 Sangha members, chose the city of Rājagaha as the place for the council. The Sangha members for the council were to observe the rains retreat (vassa) in Rājagaha. The other Sangha members were to observe the vassa in other cities and villages. After the Sangha members observed the vassa in Rājagaha, eight Arahats were selected and sent to King Ajātasattu. They sent a request for the king to be the sponsor, providing the four requisites, and to provide assistance with his royal power for the great council.
King Ajātasattu joyfully accepted the request of the venerable Arahats. Then, for the holding of the council, he had a large pavilion built at the Sattapaṇṇi cave on the slope of the Vebhāra mountain.
Venerable Mahākassapa and the 500 Sangha members, three months after the Lord Buddha’s Parinibbāna, on the full moon day of Wagaung in the 148th year of the Mahāsakkarāj era (also called the 4th month of the rains retreat), convened and held the council.
At the council, Venerable Mahākassapa served as the First Pucchaka (Questioner) of the First Saṅgāyana.
For the Vinaya Piṭaka, Venerable Upāli, who had been designated as the foremost in Vinaya by the Lord Buddha, served as the Visajjaka (Responder) and answered the questions.
Venerable Ānanda had personally heard all the Piṭakas without exception. However, out of respect for Venerable Upāli’s designation as the foremost in Vinaya, he had Venerable Upāli serve as the Visajjaka. Afterwards, the Venerable Ānanda served as the Visajjaka for the Sutta Piṭaka and the Abhidhamma Piṭaka teachings.
In this way, after the questions and answers were completed, the 500 Sangha members collectively recited and chanted them. This first council took seven months to complete.
Buddhists began counting the Sāsana era from that year. Buddhist scholars have noted the start of the Buddhist Era as 487 B.C. or 485 B.C. In Sri Lanka, 544 B.C. is established as the year.
The Second Council
In the 100th year of the Sāsana, 387 B.C., the Vajjiputtaka monks of Vesāli began to practice the ten points (dasavatthūni) that were not in accordance with the Vinaya. (These 10 points have been mentioned above.)
At that time, the Dhamma-holding elders, wishing to dispel the Vinaya revisions of the Adhamma-holding monks and to discipline the Dhamma-holding monks, planned to hold another council.
For this council, the disciples of Venerable Ānanda, the 180-year-old Venerable Revata, Venerable Sabbakāmī, Venerable Sāḷha, Venerable Khujjasobhita, Venerable Mahā Yasa, and Venerable Sambhūta, as well as the saddhivihārika disciple of Venerable Anuruddha, Venerable Visabhāgamika, and Venerable Sumana, took the lead. Among them, some elders had met the Lord Buddha.
From among the elders mentioned above, with Venerable Mahā Yasa as the leader, 700 Arahats convened the Second Council for a period of eight months at the Vālikārāma monastery in the city of Vesāli. King Kālāsoka of Vesāli served as the Sāsana sponsor, providing the four requisites and assisting with his royal power.
The Third Council
During the reign of King Asoka (Siri Dhammāsoka) of Pāṭaliputta, the Buddhist Sāsana was flourishing and developing. Although King Asoka was not a Buddhist in his early life, he later became one. After becoming a Buddhist, King Asoka greatly promoted the Buddhist Sāsana. As a result, the number of Sāsana functionaries, both male monks and female nuns, greatly increased.
Taking advantage of this situation, heretics from outside the Sāsana entered the Buddhist order and became monks. These heretics were not individuals who entered with faith in Buddhism. They also did not study the Dhamma of the Sāsana. These pseudo-monks and pseudo-nuns preached doctrines unrelated to the Buddha’s Dhamma as if they were the Buddha’s Dhamma. They inserted their own doctrines into the Buddha’s teachings. The Buddha’s Dhamma was no longer pure.
Some pseudo-monks worshipped fire. They performed incantations. They worshipped the sun. They performed incantations. Under the guise of Buddhist monks, they worshipped and paid homage to external religious practices.
The true and correct Sangha did not associate with these pseudo-monks. They did not perform Sangha acts such as Uposatha and Pavāraṇā with them.
The Sangha residing at the Asokārāma monastery experienced this doctrinal division for seven years. In various regions of Asoka’s empire, such impurity in the Sāsana and confusion of doctrines were widespread. King Asoka planned to purify the impure and corrupted Buddhist Sāsana and make it a pure Sāsana.
King Asoka questioned the pseudo-monks and pseudo-nuns who had entered the Buddhist order regarding their doctrines. The pseudo-nuns could not answer the true and genuine teachings of the Buddha. They mixed and answered with doctrines outside the Buddha’s teachings as if they were the Buddha’s teachings.
After King Asoka examined them in this way, he disrobed 60,000 pseudo-monks who could not answer the true Buddha’s doctrine and had them leave the order. King Asoka expelled them from the Asokārāma monastery. After King Asoka took action to purify the Sāsana, a group of 1,000 Arahats, with Venerable Mahā Moggalliputtatissa presiding, had to hold the Third Council for the purification of the Buddha’s Dhamma.
The Third Council was held starting from the month of Nayon in the 235th year of the Sāsana (252 B.C.) and was completed after nine months. The sponsor of this great Third Council was the great King Asoka himself.
The Fourth Council
Before the Fourth Council, during the two reigns of King Vaṭṭagāmaṇi on the island of Sri Lanka, a great famine caused by the Brahmin Tissa occurred among the Tamil people. Because of the famine, the king had to leave his throne and go into hiding. During that time, due to a lack of rain, the crops failed, and the entire island faced a great famine and hardship.
The venerable Sangha, being without food, could not recite the Buddha’s Piṭaka teachings. Until that time, the Sangha had preserved the Buddha’s Dhamma teachings only through oral tradition. When they faced such a famine, the monks, fearing illness, began to suffer from various diseases. However, they had to strive to recite and preserve the Piṭakas so that they would not be forgotten.
Some venerable monks, due to starvation, passed away. The monks who survived without dying had to preserve the Piṭakas by memorizing them orally. This arduous preservation had to be done for 12 long years. During those years, King Vaṭṭagāmaṇi was able to defeat the threat of the rebels and ascend the throne for a second time.
At that time, the monks who had memorized the three Piṭakas orally realized the great responsibility of transmitting them by memory. They thought that if they faced such calamities again and were unable to recite them, the Buddha’s teachings could disappear. Therefore, they felt that they would only be at ease if the teachings were recorded in writing on palm leaves.
Therefore, the Arahat Sangha of Sri Lanka decided to hold a council to record the Piṭakas in writing on palm leaves. After this decision, under the leadership of Venerable Mahādhammarakkhita, 500 Arahats convened the Fourth Council in the 450th year of the Sāsana at the Āloka Cave in the Malaya country. The Dhamma teachings of the Piṭakas were inscribed on palm leaves.
The Fifth Council
King Mindon, who ruled the kingdom of Myanmar, founded the city of Mandalay Ratanapura in the year 1221 of the Burmese Era. King Mindon established many meritorious works in the new capital, including the Kuthodaw Pagoda and the Atumashi Monastery. He also placed a new hti (umbrella) on the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.
In the month of Tabaung, 1222, King Mindon had the three Piṭakas of the Pāli canon inscribed on palm leaves. Not being satisfied with just that, and with the desire for the long-term preservation of the Piṭakas, he conceived the desire to inscribe the Piṭakas on stone, something that the ancient Sāsana-sponsoring kings had not done.
Therefore, he ordered stone slabs from the Sagyin hills and undertook the project of inscribing the Piṭakas on stone. For the authenticity and purity of the Piṭakas, he entrusted the responsibility to the following great venerable teachers:
- The Dakkhiṇārāma Sayadaw, who held the title “Jāgarābhivaṃsa Tipiṭaka Dhajamahādhammarājādhirājaguru” and was the teacher of the chief queen, Zabu Mahe.
- The Sayadaw who held the title “Narindābhidhaja Siri Saddhammajotikāpāladdhaja Rājaguru,” the teacher of the second queen.
- The Sayadaw who held the title “Sumaṅgalasāmi Siri Pavara Maṇidhaja Mahādhammarājādhi Rājaguru.”
From the lay side, the governors of Theinpyat, Yaw, and Maingkaing were appointed to supervise.
King Mindon’s project of inscribing on stone was successfully completed on the 14th day of the waxing moon of Kason, in the year 1230. In recording the Piṭakas as stone inscriptions:
- The five books of the Vinaya Pāli canon 111 slabs
- The Abhidhamma Pāli canon 208 slabs
- The Sutta Pāli canon 410 slabs
The total number of stone slabs is 729.
King Mindon, following the tradition of ancient kings like Ajātasattu, Kālāsoka, Siridhammāsoka, and Vaṭṭagāmaṇi, once again felt the desire to hold a council where the Piṭakas would be recited orally. Regarding this matter, he consulted with the Thathanabaing (head of the Sangha) and other venerable teachers in the royal city and decided to hold a council. Afterwards, he appointed the Dakkhiṇārāma Sayadaw, the Thibin Sayadaw, and the Thidaw Myin Wut Sayadaw as leaders, invited 2,400 Sangha members to the royal palace, and on the 11th day of the waxing moon of Tagu, in the Burmese Era 1233, Buddhist Era 2415, and Christian Era 1871, he convened the Fifth Council.
At this council, the Piṭakas were recited orally, and it was completed after 5 months and 3 days.
The Sixth Council
In the Burmese Era of 1247, the nation of Myanmar fell under the rule of the British colonialists. The Burmese people struggled in various ways to escape from British rule. Not only laypeople, but also venerable monks of the Buddhist Sāsana, preached and participated in the independence movement. They formed associations and strove for the nation, language, and religion. At that time, many patriotic associations emerged.
The venerable Sangha also formed an association and strove for the propagation of the Sāsana. Among these organizations, the one called “Saṅgha Sāmaggi” was a powerful organization. The monks from the Saṅgha Sāmaggi association had been urging for the holding of a Sixth Council since around the year 1920. However, the British government did not pay the slightest attention to the matter of holding a council. Thus, in 1948, Myanmar gained its independence.
At that time, the great venerable teachers of Myanmar became enthusiastic about holding a Sixth Council. The existing Piṭakas, through successive copying and printing, had accumulated errors in punctuation, paragraphs, letters, and words. If the punctuation and paragraphs are incorrect, and the letters are wrong, the meaning can also be distorted. If the meaning is distorted, the Pariyatti teachings can be destroyed.
Therefore, for the purification of the Pariyatti teachings, it was decided to hold a Sixth Council. For this great council, the President of the Union of Myanmar, U Ba U, took on the role of the Sāsana sponsor. The Prime Minister of the government, U Nu, took on the responsibility of providing extensive assistance with state power.
The State Buddhist Sāsana Organization, led by the Thado Thiri Thudhamma title-holding Abhidhaja Mahāraṭṭhaguru Sayadaw, took responsibility for supporting and worshipping with the four requisites on behalf of the citizens.
The Prime Minister’s wife, Daw Mya Yi, leading the women, also enthusiastically participated in the veyyāvacca (service) activities of the council, donating their efforts.
After being fully prepared from all sides, under the leadership of the Nyaung Yan Sayadaw of Mandalay, the Abhidhaja Mahāraṭṭhaguru Baddanta Revata, 2,500 Sangha members, at the Mahāpāsāna Cave on the Kaba Aye grounds in Yangon—
- Buddhist Era 2498,
- Christian Era 1954, May (17)th,
- Burmese Era 1316, full moon of Kason (15)th day, convened the Sixth Council.
To the Sixth Council, 144 Theravada monks from Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Sri Lanka, and 2,473 monks from Myanmar, chanted for 245 days. To this council, Mahayana monks from non-Theravada countries such as Japan, Tibet, Vietnam, Korea, the island of Java, the island of Malaya, and the state of Sikkim also attended as observers and honored guests.
At this great council, the role of the Sixth Saṅgīti Pucchaka (Questioner) was taken by the Aggamahāpaṇḍita Mahāsi Sayadaw Baddanta Sobhana, and the role of the Sixth Saṅgīti Visajjaka (Responder) was taken by the Tipiṭakadhara Dhammabhaṇḍāgārika Aggamahāpaṇḍita Abhidhaja Mahāraṭṭhaguru Baddanta Vicittasārābhivaṃsa.
Afterward, the task of purification by inscribing the Piṭaka teachings on metal plates was undertaken.
This Sixth Council was concluded on the full moon day of Kason, in the 2500th year of the Sāsana, Burmese Era 1318, Christian Era 1956, May 24th.
