Tagged: Monasticism
Pages with this tag
Brekke - The Early Saṃgha and the Laity (2019)
1The early Buddhist Saṃgha transformed from an open, conversionist movement that actively competed for followers into a more withdrawn, introversionist community due to the influx of members with extrinsic, or worldly, motivations. Citing the Vinayapitaka, the author shows that many people joined the order not for spiritual reasons but to escape poverty, debt, punishment, or simply to secure a comfortable life, which threatened the Saṃgha's purity and reputation among the laity. In response, the Saṃgha developed introversionist measures to protect its integrity, including stricter admission procedures, detailed rules for appearance and conduct to ensure monks appeared dignified and aloof, an emphasis on internal unity to prevent schisms, and the establishment of fixed monastic dwellings that physically separated the community from the world. This created a self-enforcing cycle where the Saṃgha's cultivated purity attracted greater lay support, which in turn made it a more appealing refuge for extrinsically motivated individuals, necessitating a continuous process of purification to maintain its stability.
Gombrich, Richard F. - Theravāda Buddhism (2006)
2Richard Gombrich's *Theravāda Buddhism* provides a social history of this conservative branch of Buddhism, which originated with the Buddha's teachings in 5th-century BCE India on achieving salvation (*nibbāna*) from suffering through a "Middle Way" of morality, meditation, and wisdom. Central to this path was the redefinition of *kamma* as intention and the denial of an eternal soul (*anattā*), doctrines preserved and spread by a monastic Order (the Sangha) governed by a detailed disciplinary code (*vinaya*). With the patronage of Emperor Asoka, Theravāda was established in Sri Lanka around 250 BCE, where it became fused with Sinhalese national identity and developed a devotional culture of pilgrimage and relic worship, while the Sangha adapted to its role as a land-owning elite, undergoing cycles of decline and revival. The 19th century brought a major transformation with the rise of "Protestant Buddhism," a lay-led movement reacting to Christian missionaries and colonial rule, which reinterpreted Buddhism as a rational, scientific philosophy and promoted lay activism. In the contemporary era, this legacy has been shaped by civil war and globalization, fostering a more intense nationalism and new forms of lay religiosity, from ecstatic god-worship to the re-establishment of the nuns' order, presenting new challenges and adaptations for the ancient tradition.