The Beginnings of the Dispute

The Buddha spent the ninth rainy season retreat since his awakening in Kosambi, the capital of the kingdom of Vamsa. It was here that the first serious discord within the Sangha of monks arose. This story is very important because it shows that no spiritual community, even the very Sangha established by the Buddha with the Buddha still physically present, is entirely free of human imperfections such as egotism, partisanship, stubbornness, defensiveness, and self-righteousness. This story shows how such a discord arose, how it was eventually resolved, and how the Buddha dealt with it.

The problem began when a respected teacher of the Buddha’s discourses, left some unused water in a jar in the latrine. The water was to be used for washing oneself, and the jar was always supposed to be poured out after use. Today, this offense against monastic propriety might be equivalent to not flushing the toilet. Now this rule, as with the other minor rules of monastic etiquette, was not considered an offense if done unintentionally. Since the offending monk had not intended to leave the water in the jar, he and his supporters did not think he needed to confess to an act of wrongdoing. Other monks, however, believed that he was being deliberately negligent and furthermore recalcitrant. Frustrated with the offender, the monk who first corrected him, an expert in the monastic rules, and his supporters voted to suspend the discourse teacher. The offender’s supporters declared that he had been unjustly suspended and that the suspension was not valid, and so the Sangha at Kosambi split into two factions.

When this was reported to the Buddha, he immediately expressed his concern stating by way of a warning, “There will be schism in the Sangha, there will be schism in the Sangha.” He then went to both factions and requested that they not be so stubborn and one-sided. To the faction of the rules expert he said, “Just because it appears to you that an offense has been committed do not think that a monk must be suspended on every occasion.” He told them that if the offending monk is one who is known to be dedicated and sincere, then he should be given the benefit of the doubt and should not be suspended if he does not believe that he committed an offense lest such a suspension lead to the greater harm of fighting, factionalism, and eventually schism in the Sangha. Then the Buddha went to the faction of the discourse teacher and said, “Just because you think that you did not deliberately commit an offense does not mean that you should not apologize for it.” He further explained that they should have confidence in their fellow monks and apologize so that harmony could be restored and so that neither they nor the others will be led into fighting, quarrels, and division through overzealousness, enmity, foolishness, or fear. Then the Buddha left, trusting them to resolve their differences.

But the monks of Kosambi did not resolve their differences and the fighting escalated. The discourse teacher was unwilling to admit any fault on his part, and the precept master was not willing to let even so slight an offense go without a confession on the part of the offender. Their specific motives are not revealed, but one can well imagine that pride, self-righteousness, and partisanship on the part of their supporters all had a role to play as they continue to do within any group of people today. Both sides took a stand on principle, and no one was willing to compromise or consider the view of the other side, or give anyone the benefit of the doubt. So it was that a disagreement over a minor offense led to many and greater offenses.

 Now at that time monks, causing quarrels, causing strife, falling into disputes in a refectory amidst the houses, behaved unsuitably towards one another in gesture, in speech; they came to blows. People looked down upon, criticized, spread it about, saying: “How can these recluses, sons of the Shakyans, causing quarrels…come to blows?” (Book of the Discipline Part 4, p. 488)

As was often the case in these stories of monastic malfeasance, the people of the towns and villages complained first and then more sensible and modest monks reported what was happening to the Buddha. The Buddha then rebuked the monks who had been fighting and said:

“Monks, if the Sangha is divided, if it is behaving not according to the rule, if there is unfriendliness, you should sit down on a seat thinking: ‘At least we will not behave unsuitably to one another in gesture, in speech; we will not come to blows.’ Monks, if the Sangha is divided but if it is behaving according to the rule, if there is friendliness, you may sit down on a seat together.” (Ibid, p. 488)

 This is something that is even more important for Buddhist of today to consider, now that there are in fact many schools and sects, and different forms of Buddhism originating from different nations. All of them are coming into contact as never before as the world becomes smaller due to the internet, the ease of modern transportation and communication systems, as well as patterns of immigration and international business. Now more than ever different types of Buddhists must learn to accommodate each other and to display harmony in their interactions despite their myriad differences. The Buddha does not demand that his followers force themselves to become one, but at the very least he asks his followers to behave in a civil and kindly manner so that they can at least get along in situations when they need to sit down together. In this way, they can maintain respect for each other and garner respect from the wider community who most likely would not understand or care about the differences in question.