Encyclopedia of Buddhism

sions of the role of precepts have continued to be im-
portant, as is shown by the fierce arguments that en-
sued when the Meiji government made celibacy and
meat-eating optional. Even though many monks did
not observe these rules, the prestige lost by the new
government ruling was important. In addition, the use
of Maha
ya
na precepts for lay believers should be
noted. These are conferred on laity who wish to have
ethical rules to guide their lives; these precepts are also
used to ordain the dead so that they will have a good
rebirth. In conclusion, although Japan is often de-
scribed as a country where monks do not follow the
precepts, they have discussed them continuously for
well over a millennium.

See also:Japan; Meiji Buddhist Reform

Bibliography

Bodiford, William. So
to
Zen in Medieval Japan.Honolulu: Uni-
versity of Hawaii Press, 1993.

Groner, Paul. “The Fan-wang chingand Monastic Discipline in
Japanese Tendai: A Study of Annen’s Futsu
jubosatsukai
ko
shaku.” In Buddhist Apocryphal Literature,ed. Robert E.
Buswell, Jr. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

Groner, Paul. Saicho
: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai
School.Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.

Groner, Paul. “Vicissitudes in the Ordinations of Nuns during
the Late Nara and Early Heian Periods.” In Engendering
Faith: Women and Buddhism in Premodern Japan,ed. Bar-
bara Ruch. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, Uni-
versity of Michigan, 2002.

Jaffe, Richard. Neither Monk nor Layman: Clerical Marriage in
Modern Japanese Buddhism.Princeton, NJ: Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 2001.

PAULGRONER

MAHI
S ́A
SAKA

The Mah
s ́a
saka mainstream Indian Buddhist school,
a subschool of the Sthavira branch, was prominent in
southern India and was closely tied historically and
doctrinally to the THERAVA
DA school. The term
Mahl
s ́a
sakais variously interpreted as referring to the
name of the founder, a geographical locale, or to their
role in governing or instructing the earth.

See also:Mainstream Buddhist Schools

COLLETTCOX

MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS

By several centuries after the death of the Buddha, the

itinerant mendicants following his way had formed set-

tled communities and had changed irrevocably their

received methods of both teaching and praxis. These

changes were inevitable, a consequence of the growth

and geographic dispersion of the practicing commu-

nities. Confronted with new challenges and opportu-

nities in an increasingly organized institutional setting,

monks expanded and elaborated both doctrine and

disciplinary codes, created new textual genres, devel-

oped new forms of religious praxis, and eventually di-

vided into numerous sects or schools.

The character of mainstream Buddhist schools

Unfortunately, sources for this period, including doc-

uments, inscriptions, and archaeological evidence, are

poor. Inscriptions and archaeological finds, while pro-

viding a priceless contemporaneous record, are limited

in detail. Documentary sources, including chronicles,

doxographies, translator records, narrative sections of

canonical texts, lists of teachers or school lineages, and

the diaries of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who visited

India from the fifth to seventh centuries C.E., provide

greater detail, but postdate the emergence of schools by

several centuries. As themselves products of the sectar-

ian fragmentation that they describe, these documen-

tary sources are colored by sectarian agendas.

Nevertheless, they furnish valuable insight into the val-

ues and objectives of the developing Buddhist tradition.

A picture of the history of Buddhist schools depends

upon reconstruction of the major events in the early

history of Buddhism in India: the life of the Buddha;

the communal recitations or councils; the so-called

first schism; and the fragmentation of the monastic

community after this initial schism. Also important are

more general questions concerning the criteria by

which various groups were distinguished from one an-

other and the notion of what constituted a sect or

school within the tradition. It is unclear whether the

school names mentioned in traditional sources were

intended to refer to independent groups distinguished

on similar grounds. Nor is it clear whether the notion

of what constituted a sect or school remained consistent

in sources of different periods. For example, certain

school names corresponded to separate communities of

practitioners distinguished by distinct ordination lin-

eages and collections of monastic disciplinary codes.

Other names, especially those that appear in the doc-

trinal scholastic texts and later doxographical treatises,

MAINSTREAMBUDDHISTSCHOOLS