The Dhamma 67of the community in almost identical terms. These are meeting
often and attending the formal meetings of the order; meeting and
carrying out their duties in concord; not abrogating ways of doing
things that had existed before; honouring the elders; not falling
under influence of craving; delighting in the life of solitude; training
their minds so that holy men come to meet them. Twenty-seven
other conditions are then given, including not being connected with
business; not indulging in idle talk; not stopping at some inferior
goal on the path to nibbana; and dividing without partiality and
sharing in common all that they receive (I, 6–11). At the beginning
and for a long time there was no appointed ‘head’ of the local Sangha;
there was never any ‘vow of obedience’ or ‘vow of poverty’; the
Sangha was democratic, communistic in its sharing of property, and
extremely flexible. If any precedence was given to one bhikku over
another, it was in terms of seniority, not in terms of birth or social
status before entering the Sangha or in terms of any presumed
‘merit’ of knowledge.
It is important to note that the life of the Sangha did not involve
asceticism. In this Buddhism departed from the samana tradition
and was also opposed to Brahmanism. (Indeed, the ‘middle path’
rejected both the asceticism of normal samana life and worldly
hedonism). This led to the Buddhists sometimes being called
‘mundakagahapatis’ or shaven householders i.e., those who do not
really practise asceticism. In a famous story, Devadatta, the in
famous evil samana who seeks to destroy the Sangha and murder
the Buddha himself, attempts to discredit the Sangha by making it
seem unascetic. He puts forward ‘five conditions’, all aimed at
making life more rigorous for the Bhikkus, but the Buddha refuses
to accept them:No, Devadatta. Whosoever wishes to do so, let him dwell in the
woods; whosoever wishes to do so, let him dwell in the neighborhood
of a village. Whosoever wishes to do so, let him beg for alms; whosoever
wishes to do so, let him accept invitations from the laity. Whosoever
wishes to do so, let him dress in rags; whosoever wishes to do so, let
him receive gifts of robes from laymen. Sleeping under trees has been
allowed by me, Devadatta, for eight months in the year; and the
eating of fish that is pure in the three points – to wit, that the eater has
not seen, or heard, or suspected that it has been caught for that
purpose (Kullavagga VII, 3, 15).opportunity alone to guide people at all levels along the path of
righteousness.
Just as the social world was in the main dual, the Buddha also had
a dual approach for both the ‘homeless’ and the society of house-
holders. Samanas through the institution of the Sangha were to
moderate their asceticism and avoid acrimonious debates and philo-
sophical wranglings; while householders were to carry on their
activity within the framework of morality. The approach can be
summarised in simple form by saying that while the social constitution
of the Sangha was democratic and communistic, the prescription for
society emphasised the ethicisation of the emerging market economy
and monarchy, through righteous living for householders and the
righteousness of a cakkavati or universal ruler.
The Sangha
It was believed that although those still in the householder’s life
could achieve understanding, Enlightenment was difficult for them.
Among the ‘fruits of the life of a samanna’, the Samannaphala
Suttatells us, is that the householders’ life is so full of care for
survival in the world, for producing, meeting the needs of social
status, that it rarely allows time for meditation and disciplining of
passions. And so ‘becoming homeless’ was almost a pre requisite
for full self-realisation. But, becoming homeless was not to mean
aimless and solitary wandering. Wandering alone is also praised in
some of the early suttas, especially in the ‘rhinoceros’ sutta of the
Sutta Nipata, but primarily ‘mutual aid and mutual discourse’ were
taken as important prerequisites of spiritual and moral growth. Thus
the bhikkus collected themselves together, and at first wandered in
groups, settling only during the rainy season when travel became
nearly impossible, but then gradually taking on more and more
permanent residence.
The collective life of the Sangha followed a structure that was
adopted from and explicitly associated with the collective political
life of the gana-sanghas. The Mahaparinibbana Suttantatells that
the Vajjians could block the efforts of Vassakara and the Magadha
kingdom to destroy them only by maintaining their collective and
democratic traditions. Following this is the Buddha’s prescription for
Sangha welfare, where he outlines seven conditions for the welfare
66 Buddhism in India