so The Word of Buddha: Scriptures and Schools
Two communal ceremonies are fundamental to the constitu-
tion of the Sangha; the first is the ordination ceremony itself,
the second is the fortnightly rehearsal of the rule (priitimok$al
piitimokkha). As I have already mentioned, for an ordination to
be legitimate the participation of at least five monks of ten years'
standing is required. The priitimok$a ceremony involves the
gathering together of the members of the Sangha in a given locale
ity in order to recite the rule and confess any breaches; a valid
ceremony requires a quorum of at least four monks. Since both
valid ordination and priitimok$a ceremonies are thus essential
for any group of monks' claim to be monks, it follows that, even
in the short term, only a schismatic group that includes at least
four monks in its party is viable; for a schismatic group to be viable
in the long term it must include five senior monks in its party.Clearly in the first century or so after the Buddha's death, as
the numbers in the Sangha increased and it expanded across first
northern India and then the whole subcontinent, the establish-ment of groups of monks around particular teachers, perhaps asso-
ciated with particular views on certain issues of Abhidharma, was
both natural and inevitable. But as long as such groups followed
essentially the same Vinaya and recognized the validity of each
other's ordination lineage, movement between the groups would
present no problem: monks from one group could legitimately
attend and participate in the ceremonies of another group; there
was no question of formal division in the Sangha.One should note here that holding a particular opinion or view
on any matter-let alone on a moot point of Abhidharma philo-
sophy-cannot be grounds for expulsion from the Sangha. The
grounds for expulsion from the Sangha are sexual intercourse,
taking what is not given, intentionally killing a human being,and falsely claiming spiritual attainments. The only opinion or
view that is even to be censured according to the Vinaya is the
view that sexual intercourse is not an 'obstacle'.^24 It is easy to see
the practical reason why: it threatens the very basis of a celibate
community. Since the Vinaya left monks and nuns largely free
to develop the Buddha's teaching doctrinally as. they saw fit,
there would be little incentive to provoke a schism on purely