"Little Buddhist monks" - child novices (photos)

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; Dietmar Temps (dietmartemps.com, DeepBlue66/flickr.com)

Novitiate initiation in Pagan, Burma (Bagan, Myanmar)

Dressed like Prince Rahula

For a boy in Burma it is customary to enter a Buddhist monastery as a novice (samanera, "little ascetic") between the ages of 7-20.
 
One has his head shaven and vows to adhere to ten precepts (rather than the monks' 227 rules) for at least a week.

The renunciation ceremony

Sometimes the boys are even younger, in rare cases only 5 or 6 years old. For Burmese people, the novitiate initiation is a very important ceremony and a big event for the family.

The temporary ordination ceremony is called Shinbyu in Burmese. The practice is not limited to Theravada Buddhists in Southeast Asia but is practiced throughout the Buddhist world except in Sri Lanka where temporary ordination is not done. The first Buddhist novice was the Buddha's son, Prince Rahula, who became a monastic at age 7.

The first novice

Rahula, his father the Buddha, and Ananda

Rāhula (who lived at least 25 centuries ago) was the only son of Prince Siddhartha Gautama (who later became the ascetic Siddhartha and then the Buddha) and his wife Bimba-devi (who is known to the world as Princess Yasodharā then the Buddhist nun Ven. Bhaddakaccānā). He was the first child to become a Buddhist novice (samanera) at his father's behest. One account of his life is given in the Pāli language canon. More

Bang the gong not the tympani, venerable. I'll ring the bell, handle the vajra. You guys chant.

Vajrayana child novices enjoy temporary ordination throughout the Himalayas -- in India (Ladakh, Dharmsala, AP, HP, Sikkim...), Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, China (dietmartemps.com)

Dietmar Temps is a world class photographer who travels the globe to bring to light cultures and kids rapidly fading into memory due to Western hegemony and the homogenization of the planet (dietmartemps.com).

"Unlawful Sexual Practices"

Maya, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; "Ask Maya" with commentator Jeffery Kaung

Sex is bad? Don't look at it. Don't think about it. And whatever you do, don't wish for it. That's what our parents teach us, but that's not what the Buddha taught lay Buddhists.

  

According to an abbot in Theravadan Burma, the words "unlawful sexual practice" would be more clear and effective than simply "sexual misconduct" for defining the Pali term kamesu micchacara.

In the Pali discourses expounded by the Buddha, he described altogether 20 types of females [not 10, Jeffery Kaung?] with whom males should avoid having penetrative sexual intercourse.

• See Buddhism's "Sexual Misconduct" Defined for the ten types of females who are off limits, at least from the perspective of ancient Indian society and possibly universally. We are awaiting Kaung's list of 20.
  

What did the Buddha teach any why? (HSUN)

Every male who is engaged in these forms of sexual relations with any of these females was said to be guilty of dire misconduct that results in the worst kinds of karmic consequences.

But for females, not every female from the given group of 20 is similarly guilty. In other words, only 12 women from the group are guilty for engaging in sex, and most of these females have already been married off or become "owned" by a particular male and his family. [It should not come as a surprise to Western readers that women were treated like chattel in European marriage contracts until very recently, and the practice is followed to this day in many places including Asia and India in particular.]

The rest of the females in the classification are not guilty since they are not married or have no contractual "owner" yet. Besides, in some of the Buddha's sutras, he encouraged most lay disciples to practice celibacy. 

Believe it or not, females have sexual agency

[We do not know of a single discourse that encourages lay celibacy except as an occasional practice for uposatha lunar observance days and periods of intensive Buddhist practice, such as meditation retreats, temporary ordination, or as the natural consequence of spiritual attainments such as the blissful absorptions and the permanent liberations beyond stream entry and once returning. Please specify, Kaung. We would be very happy to examine these sutra references.]

However, the Buddha said that if one fails to be completely celibate, because s/he is already married, then one should always refrain from "unlawful sexual practices" in his/her everyday life -- as a person with clean feet [avoids a puddle of urine on the road].

Besides, the Buddha also described four (4) features that lead a sexual relationship between a male and a female to be "unlawful conduct." In fact, the Buddha had already mentioned in his discourses how it was "noble" [enlightened] for one [with noble attainments] to stay celibate. However, he said that if one could not practice celibacy because he/she was already married...

[Kaung, if you cite these sutras, we can respond and clarify. Maybe the Buddha wants everyone to be happy, and maybe celibacy is the supreme (brahma-acharya) vehicle/teaching toward that, but it's not something he said lay Buddhists should do or had to do.  Living beings are reborn into this Kama Loka, Sensual Sphere, because of their sensual cravings. Denying them or forcing celibacy on people is not the way to transcend craving. To be reborn into the more blissful Fine Material Sphere, the Immaterial Sphere, or the supremely blissful attainment of ending rebirth (enlightenment and nirvana) requires seeing things as they really are, seeing sensuality as it really is, penetrating the disappointment (dukkha) articulated in the Four Ennobling Truths. We want living beings to be happy, the Buddha wanted people to be happy, and you probably want people to be happy. Truth is the way to that, not oppression and imposing rules on how people have to live. If we are wrong, please show us. We can show how open minded the Buddha was, how the Dharma is a path that avoid extremes, and leads beyond sensual craving to supersensual bliss and then insight and liberation from the bondage of craving, aversion, and delusion. We arrive there step by step, not by behaving like ascetic renunciants. There is a much easier way to let go than brute force and self-denial -- and it is "calm and insight," blissfully happy absorptions and systematically contemplating the 12 links of Dependent Origination. "There is no path to happiness; happiness is the path!"]

 

Males, Females, and Sex

Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

The Buddha, Battambang, Cambodia, S.E. Asia (Kim Seng/captainkino.com/flickr)

 

We have already been responding to Jeffery Kaung's letter in brackets. But let us go more deeply.

Kaung, everybody should always avoid "unlawful sexual practices." One need not avoid sex; yet, one need always avoid misconduct in regard to satisfying one's sexual desires. And that is easy to do... except in a repressive society that denies one sexual access. Our societies, East and West, now deny us, or try to deny us, legitimate avenues of sexual expression outside of marriage. That may make sense in conservative parts of Asia, as in rural or small communities, but it does not make a lot of sense in urbanized city environments which emphasize the individual to the detriment of extended familial affiliations.

This has to apply to females just as much as males even if India was already a patriarchal and sexist society that assumed sexual agency only for males. Females have the same agency and, therefore, are liable to get in the same sort of karmic trouble as males. Who can believe that when, for example, a man has sex with a married woman, only she is guilty of cheating on her husband? From a literal and closed minded reading of Buddhist texts (i.e., AN X.206), only he would be guilty. She would be said to have seduced him into a great deal of karmic trouble, but no mention is made of her infidelity to her husband, presumably because she has no agency and therefore no ability to make an intentional choice to cheat, which of course is ridiculous.

And with regard to child molestation, which is a severe form of "sexual misconduct" or "unlawful sexual practices," a female can certainly molest just as a male can. Would anyone in this day and age think, "Oh, she's a female, she has no sexual agency, so she can't possibly be guilty of intentional sexual conduct, how much less misconduct"? It's preposterous. Wisdom Quarterly speculates that it was the sexism influencing the Dharma, and not the Dharma itself, which left us with this one-sided set of rules for males only. We hear precious little about the nuns, Buddhist females at the time of the Buddha, or Buddhist girls and women today. 

That is our era's sexism continuing to diminish women aided and abetted by the sexism of the past, and the male Monastic Order, the Bhikkhu Sangha, has much to answer for keeping this unequal state of affairs in place. The status quo, which the Buddha did so much to overturn, was quickly set back up and given legitimacy as if the Buddha had participated in oppressing females when he was the first world-teacher to elevate them to equal status. 

If one says that the Buddha didn't go quite that far, but instead subordinated them to the Monastic Order, then one has not read the Bhikkhuni Vinaya (The Nuns' Code of Discipline with its origin stories explaining each rule), which enumerates ahistorical garudhammas or "additional nuns' rules" that could NOT have come from the Buddha (see the scholarship of Ayya Tathaaloka). 

• The Extra Rules for Nuns Ven. Tataaloka (Ayya Tathaaloka) on the eight "Principles to be Respected" by nuns (garudhammas) and the formation of the female Buddhist Order (bhikkhuni-sangha). The additional monastic rules for women are a "definite historical impossibility." (See also The Buddhist Nuns of California)

But we are all taught that he offered eight or more additional rules to his stepmother, Maha Pajapati, the world's first Buddhist nun, who gladly accepted them to wear like a beautifying head dress or hair piece. Someone, likely sexist male monastics, inserted those to ensure the supremacy of the male Monastic Order. The abbot from Burma you quote without naming is neither likely to realize that nor admit it if he does.

Thai Buddhism going GAY Catholic? (video)

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; The Woody TalkShow

The Monastic Disciplinary Code says pandakas (transsexual or transgender, often gay, individuals) may NOT fully ordain but might be novices as a school interprets its Vinaya.

(The Woody Show interview, April 2014 , Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, English subtitles)
 

Openly gay Thai novice says it should be okay for gays to be monks

Gays are found worldwide but are rarely "out"

According to Theravada Buddhist texts -- from the explanatory stories found in the "Monastic Disciplinary Code" (Vinaya), as translated by Leonard Zwilling (published in Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender, edited by Jose Ignacio Cabezon) -- homosexuality would NOT in keeping with the monastic code. Theravada is the Buddhist tradition followed by 95% of Thailand.

Just friends, Burma* (JLH)

Certainly homosexuals are loved and accepted in the lay Buddhist community. And many gays feel very welcome in traditional Asian Buddhist cultures, not the least of which is Thailand's very welcoming one with its third-gender kathoeys ("lady-boys").

But that acceptance does not extend to official full monastic ordination. Many gays certainly seem to be "monks" (bhikkhus), but they are actually novices (samaneras or "trainees," "probationers," "new recruits").

• PHOTO: *Just friends? A curious thing about Asia, which many closeted gays must find comforting, is that males hold hands and touch one another the way females do in Western society, and no one thinks of it as "gay" or odd or at all sexual. The two novices or monks shown here at Burma's Shwedagon Pagoda  may hold on to one another, and no one in that society would think this was indicative of homosexuality or even an effeminate thing. But as Western tourists we can hardly think it indicates anything else. Females in Asia are not as demonstrably touchy-feely as in the West, but there is some innocent sisterly affection.

Novices are generally young males under 20 who take temporary ordination in fulfillment of their Southeast Asian (Thai, Burmese, Cambodian, Laotian) Theravada religio-cultural obligations.
 
Genrally, ALL Thai males (gay or not) are expected to ordain temporarily in the capacity of a samanera (female samaneri) for at least a week. [Everything said of gay males here would equally apply to females seeking FULL ordination (whether heteroflexible, bisexual, ambisexual, pansexual, lesbian, or experimental), which is distinct from the Ten Precept status (Thai Mae Chee) most females were traditionally restricted to in Theravada countries. Female can now be fully ordained thanks to newer generations of nuns who successfully reinstituted the tradition.]
 

Gender is socially constructed yet very real

Some might do it for a shorter duration, others for a summer vacation (or a traditional three-month "Rains Retreat" period). Of these, it is expected that only a tiny fraction would choose the lifelong celibate, ascetic, formal monastic lifestyle. But few people would be able to tell a novice from a monk (bhikkhu). Usually, age is the giveaway. Most novices are from 7-20 years of age (taking into consideration that in Asia one is born a 1-year-old, the novitiate state is mostly for teens); however, one may temporarily take robes at any age as a novice with the cooperation of a temple and its abbot.

• Buddhism and Sexual Orientation 
• What the Buddha Never Taught: A "Behind the Robes" Account of Life in a Thai Forest Monastery (20th Anniversary Edition) is a funny and enlightening behind-the-scenes account of life in a Thai forest monastery by Tim Ward. 
• What the Buddha Never Taught is a wonderful true-life story by a journalist who wanted to see what it was like to live at Wat Pah Nanachat, the International Forest Monastery open to Westerners in Northeast Thailand. We visited it, asked around, and found it to be just as Ward described even years later. He did not find a nest of homosexuality, but some novices are gay and forced to temporarily ordain as if they were Catholic boys in Rome. Ward tries to explain Thai culture, which as Westerners we are forced to think is so sexual and "anything goes." But apart from the Bangkok Red Light District strip clubs (like Pat Pong) and misleading massage parlors (which actually do massage and are not fronts for prostitution since prostitution can be found everywhere else).

No doubt homosexuality exists in the Thai Sanghas, both in the larger more lax Mahanikaya and the more extreme royal Dhammayut schools. The latter has grown famous for its restoration of the ancient Forest Tradition, but some criticize it as illegitimate because it was founded by a Thai king who wanted to ordain, and kings have no business and no authority to found Buddhist schools. They, however, do have the money and authority to fund them. So while Dhammayut is only one-tenth the size of the Mahanikaya, it enjoys prestige, reverence, fame, and financial influence far beyond its size. Most renowned Western monks who studied in Thailand did so in the Forest Tradition, which is often associated with the famous Thai teacher Ajahn Chah.

The most famous is the comedic British monk in Australia, Ajahn Brahm. Others include Jack Kornfield (author of Living Buddhist Masters, who brought attention to Ajahn Chah and other Buddhist saints in the jungles of South and Southeast Asia to the West, reissued as Living Dharma: Teachings of Twelve Buddhist Masters), Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, Ajahn Sumedho and other former abbots of WPN, and so on.

 

In spite of what casual visitors may conclude, Thailand may be liberal and tolerant, but as a Buddhist society with 90-95% adherence to Theravada Buddhism, it is very conservative.

Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender explores historical, textual, and social questions relating to the position and experience of women and gay people in the Buddhist world from India and Tibet to Sri Lanka, China, and Japan. It focuses on four key areas: Buddhist history, contemporary culture, Buddhist symbols, and homosexuality (including traditional Japanese pederasty or shudo akin to Roman and Greek practices presumably followed to this day by the closeted Catholic priesthood in the old Mithra temple complex now called the Vatican), and it covers Buddhism’s entire history, from its origins to the present day. The result of original and innovative research, the contributors offer new perspectives on the history of the attitudes toward, and of the self-perception of, women in both ancient and modern Buddhist societies. They explore key social issues such as abortion, examine the use of rhetoric and symbols in Buddhist texts and cultures, and discuss the neglected subject of Buddhism and homosexuality.
 

What leaders do -- be it Obama, Netanyahu, or the Pope -- followers will follow, regardless of the motives of the leaders doing it. Hugs are homeplate, and exemplars are on first base.

 

The question becomes a Roman Catholic one: Are non-practicing homosexuals acceptable for full ordination? That is a question that for all practical purposes has to be left to the abbots who would train and be responsible for them. This is where money enters the picture because Western homosexuals can, due to their affluence, find acceptance in poorer temples with few questions asked. Formally, one would be asked during the ordination process. But what will the abbot or the quorum of monks hear if they do not want to know?

Thai New Year (arztsamui)

"Are you a pandaka [pervert, transsexual, flamboyant homosexual, gender-bending transvestite, eunuch, lascivious person incapable of containing your tendency toward sex, self-soothing, masturbation, or sexual misconduct]?" Honestly speaking, one would probably have to say "probably not in the long run." But practically speaking, who would admit to not having self-control. Surely at the time of ordination, one would feel an imperative to rein it in, conceal from oneself, or conceal it from the gatekeepers to live in the close company of unmarried men. 

What's the big deal? - It is a big deal! (TM)

Karmically, this would be a horrible thing to do, but few people believe in the godlike abilities of karma (intentions with the power to bring forth mental and physical results in the future) or even give much consideration to their actions. How long have gay and bisexual men escaped the hetero-normative world into what they perceive to be the welcoming arms of a cloistered all-male community? Men are comfortable and comforting, and would anyone even know? They would know, and laypeople are unlikely to ask for if they know or figure it out, they would still be kowtowed by religious fears of so much as entertaining the question. Why do young novices and boys in the community end up being molested by some fraction of those who enter and remain in the Sangha as frauds?*

• [*NOTE: This is not to suggest that homosexuality leads one to molest boys, but only to say an almost equally controversial thing: All males who molest boys are engaging in homosexuality, even if one maintains that they are straight or doing it for nonsexual reasons. A terrible thing that happens with molestation, incest, and sexual abuse is that no one talks about it, creating a perfect environment for it to fester and perpetuate itself. Let gays be gays and bis be bis, but let's never let children be molested or victimized because we have too many hang ups to deal with the stark reality of our own issues.]

Good thing this is only for a week (D_C)

Isn't it because gatekeepers are lax or condoning? They can hardly keep pleading ignorance to the practices and inclinations of someone under their 24 care and oversight. Much the same might be said for parents, but a monastic upbringing is much more structured and controlled than any but the most repressive households, and it is this way by design. Homosexuality in and of itself would not, in our opinion, be "sexual misconduct" (kamesu micchacara), but many Southeast Asian as well as Western societies surely see it that way.

Do I need a penis? (Buddhist Monastic Code)

Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Abbot Thanissaro (Metta)

Young novices in Tergar home to 150 from Tibet, Nepal, AP and UP India (Groobo/flickr)

 
Self-mutilation

Buddhist Monastic Code II

A male monastic (bhikkhu) who cuts off his own genitalia [is in violation of the Disciplinary Code and] incurs a thullaccaya ["grave offense"].

Now at that time a certain monastic, tormented by dissatisfaction, cut off his own penis. The others reported this matter to the Blessed One (who said), “When one thing should have been cut off, that foolish man cut off something else.”

The “thing that should have been cut off,” the Sub-commentary notes, was the obsession for [sensual] passion. The Commentary adds that cutting off any other part of one’s body -- such as an ear, nose, or finger -- out of spite [is also a violation and] entails a dukkata ["misconduct" or "wrongdoing").

However, one is allowed to cut or cut off any part of one’s body for a medical purpose (as in an amputation); or to let blood, for example, when bitten by a snake or an insect, or to treat a disease that calls for blood-letting (see Chapter 5; Mv.VI.14.4).

Disciplinary Code
Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

Older translations exist (i.e., Rhys Davids)

While Wisdom Quarterly is pro-sex, we are also pro-monasticism, which entails submitting oneself temporarily to celibacy of mind and body. Why would that ever be a good idea?

One can make excellent progress on the path to enlightenment in a very short time living as the Buddha prescribed the "high life," the "holy life," the "supreme life" (brahmacharya) -- or teaching that leads to the "supreme" attainment -- IF one enters into it with the right view and motivation rather than because of delusion, guilt, debt, aversion, with an aim to win fame and gain, or to be in the constant company of men or women (if gay), and so on.

High morals and even higher ideals have a strong tendency to lead to hypocrisy. The Buddha set out a path that works and that has worked for thousands of years. One must find it, rediscover it, and practice it to get ahead. Most Vinayas are corrupted and misinterpreted in practice, but the books remain. Enter with eyes wide open.

Does one need a penis?

Bush, okay, but who really needs Dick?

That is, Does a male intending to become a Buddhist monk need a penis? Absolutely, yes. One will not be allowed in without one, which may be due to the banning of pandakas [a term we have attempted to explain in many posts], a difficult term that has long been mistranslated as "eunuch." Another explanation is that what one needs to overcome is not the physical member but the mental motivation behind it, and to do that a penis is necessary.

Monastic Life
The Buddhist monastic life, at least in the older and stricter Theravada school (and particularly the revivalist super strict Thai forest Thammayut sect Ven. Thanissaro is a part of), is circumscribed on all sides.

The Buddha laid out a Disciplinary Code (Vinaya), a Path-to-Moksha or Liberation (Patimokkha), with explanations for each rule. 

The hundreds of self-imposed guidelines for fully ordained monastics -- 227 for monks, 311 for nuns -- living supported by the generosity of donors are divided into sections based on their seriousness.

• Why "extra rules" (garu-dhammas) for nuns?

The largest body of guidelines, which are in addition to these rules, concern etiquette and make for the relative peace of communal living in a monastic setting for monks and nuns, who dwell separately.

In contrast the smallest, most serious, and most important group of rules are called defeat-offenses (parajikas). They are strict prohibitions on killing, stealing, sexual contact, and falsely claiming attainments (such as the stages of enlightenment or magical powers).

Sexual indiscretion is perhaps the most common problem faced in a celibate order of ascetics trying to live as a community in a monastery, caves, or a forest hermitage (aranya). It is easy to control if one does not come into contact with temptations, but the Buddha ensured that one would constantly be in contact with the lay community, who visit to provide food and hear the Dharma.

Why did the Buddha have to make rules?

People often lose sight of the three reasons for a formal Disciplinary Code:

1. to provide a speedy vehicle to enlightenment, a direct path, a prati-moksha (path-to-supreme-liberation),
2. to encourage new meditators and comfort those who have already attained (enlightenment stages, absorptions, etc.),
3. to preserve the Dharma as a living tradition with "saints" (arhats) for many generations.

Wouldn't it be so much better for me, as a monastic, not to tell you what to do and not do -- and, conversely, have you not tell me what to do and not to do? No, no, no. One can live on one's own with that kind of attitude. The Buddha set up a system dependent on lay people, dependent on others, dependent on the Doctrine-and-Disciples (Dhamma-Vinaya)

Being a recluse (bhikkhu/bhikkhuni) or wandering ascetic (samana) usually means mental rather than physical seclusion. There is plenty of good company in kalyana-mittas ("noble friends"), but one withdraws to contemplate and meditate successfully -- progressing through the stages of absorption and insight that make Buddhist monasticism a delight with many fruits. (See "The Fruits of Recluseship Discourse," Samanaphala Sutta where the Buddha outlines the advantages of monasticism over living an ordinary household life).

Buddhist Monastic Code I

Wisdom Quarterly is in no way fond of Ven. Thanissaro (Geoffrey DeGraff)'s eccentric and misleading translations, interpretations, grammar, style, or general deportment as a person and monk pushed out of Thailand. But he has done a great service to the English-speaking world in at least one way: He long ago translated the Vinaya (Buddhist Monastic Code I and II), which most lay Buddhists are completely unfamiliar with, and he has freely provided his strained and oddly interpreted version of the Dhamma through many translations from Thai and Pali available through accesstoinsight.org. We speak from years of knowing him personally and his few American disciples not from merely trying to read his free works.

Destructive behavior

The Vibhanga to Pr 2 states that a monastic who breaks, scatters, burns, or otherwise renders unusable the property of another person incurs a dukkata. Cv.V.32.1 adds that a monastic is not allowed to burn underbrush. However, if a brush fire is burning, a counter-fire may be lit and protection (paritta) made. This last phrase apparently means reciting a protective charm [mantra-like chanting of Buddhist sutras], such as...

The Path to Freedom (self-guided tour)

Wisdom Quarterly; FGS; AccessToInsight.org, Self-guided Tour of the Buddha's Teachings

Modern Buddhist pyramid pagoda/stupa complex (Linc060/flickr.com)

  

A foundation in the Buddha's Dharma

By its nature, the truth invites us to "come and see," to question and investigate. Curious about exploring the Buddha's teachings as presented in the ancient Pali canon?

  

Links are to selections of short passages from the Buddhist sutras introducing or illustrating aspects of a single topic.

 

When encountering a particularly meaningful or interesting passage, look for the full text by simply following the link at the end. 

 

The teachings are profound and complex

Many passages are cross referenced with other pages, making it possible to pursue a theme to whatever depth is desired.

 

This is not, of course, an exhaustive tutorial. A number of the topics introduced are explored more thoroughly in the Study Guides. The General Index also contains references to additional readings on related topics.
 

Modern Buddhist pyramid, Fo Guang Shan, Taiwan (Steven Barringer/Zosoiv71/flickr.com)

  
Begin the tour by exploring the Three Guides (Triple Gem):

1. THE BUDDHA: Sketch of the Buddha's life based on sutra excerpts.
2. THE DHARMA: Outline of the Buddha's teachings organized according to the "gradual instruction." The Buddha frequently used this framework to guide students from first principles through progressively more advanced teachings, all the way to the culmination of the Four Noble Truths by the realization of nirvana (Pali, nibbana).
3. THE SANGHA: Descriptions of the Noble Order -- the community of monastics and laypersons who have gained at least the first stage of enlightenment called stream entry. This is known as they Ariya-Sangha).

• Buddhist Dictionary, by Ven. Nyanatiloka (Kandy: BPS, 1980). A classic handbook of important terms and concepts in Theravada Buddhism.
• Path to Deliverance, by Ven. Nyanatiloka (Kandy: BPS, 1982). A systematic exposition of essential points of Dharma based on passages from the sutras.
• Study Guides: anthologies of short passages for individual and group study.
• The Wings to Awakening: An Anthology from the Pali Canon, by Ven. Thanissaro (Barre: Dhammadana Publications, 1996).

Institute preserves the Dharma (cartoon)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Chancellor Ashin Nanissara, S.I.B.A., Burma 

(Bemineto99) Looking down from the Tusita world, the Bodhisat decides to take rebirth on Earth, strive for enlightenment, and establish the Dharma to relieve beings of suffering.

 

Burmese monastic (Perakman)

Siddhattha Gotama (Sanskrit, Siddhartha Gautama) was born in approximately 623 B.C.E. He achieved buddhahood (maha bodhi) at the age of 35. He freed himself from all rebirth and suffering by attaining final nirvana in 543 B.C.E. at the age of 80. 

During the intervening 45 years he taught, toured the “Middle Land” (Northeastern India) -- expounding the Dharma (Doctrine, sutras, Conventional Teachings), Abhidharma(Ultimate Teachings), and Vinaya (Disciplinary Code) for the benefit of all humans and devas.
 

Dharma forms the guiding light of daily practice. The Abhidharma is the systematic treatment of Buddhist psychology and physics in language more precise than the discourses. The Monastic Disciplinary Code is a collection of rules, their origin and explanations, etiquette guidelines, and disciplinary (parliamentary, democratic) procedures for monastic living.
 

Long after the Buddha made an end of suffering, the Dharma, Abhidharma, and Vinaya live on to guide others wishing to also make an end of all suffering. As long as they remain in practice, we to that extent a supremely wise teacher with us. The Buddha taught by extraordinary perception, revealing what he directly saw as helpful and harmful on the path to enlightenment (awakening from delusion) and liberation (nirvana).
 
This is of great benefit to all humankind and to beings on adjacent superior and inferior planes of existence. To promote the quality of conceptual understanding of sometimes very subtle teachings, he and later commentators taught the Abhidharma, which are the Ultimate Teachings abstracted and systematized from the conventional language of the discourses (sutras).
 
To help all who would help themselves overcome disappointment and misery and gain satisfaction and peace, the Buddha taught a path-and-practice we now call the Dharma [always capitalized to distinguish it from the multivalent Sanskrit term dharma]. Most of what we know about what the Buddha taught comes from ordinary discourses -- surviving in standardized form appropriate to oral transmission and memorization rather than writing and reading.

BotanischerGarten Hamburg, Germany, KleinFlottbek Buddha (JinxHH/flickr)

  
These sutras -- recorded in Pali, Sanskrit, and Prakrit (Magadhi) -- often appear to us as stilted, artificial, and redundant tautologies more than actual instructions or natural threads (sutras, sutures, i.e., strings of related ideas). This is because they were never meant to stand alone the way a book might today. They were chanted, explained, and studied; they make sense as shorthand reminders of the teachings, which are much broader and detailed instructions the Buddha and early disciples provided.
 
The Nuns' Teachings

Most of what the nuns taught does not seem to have survived or been preserved following the lapse of their Monastic Order. (Or it is only temporarily lost to most scholars, hidden away in the origin stories accompanying the Bhikkhuni Vinaya, where few male scholar-monks seem intent to search. Or it may be found in Central Asian storehouses (and treasure troves in and around Afghanistan, formerly Gandhara, Greater India) where Buddhism flourished before moving north and east to China). But there are a few scraps to be found in the Bhikkhuni Samyutta and inspired utterances (Therigatha). 
 
This is a tragedy because the Buddha designated two chief female disciples, Khema Theri and Uppalavana Theri, who must have taught just as his chief male disciples Sariputra Thera and Maha Moggallana Thera did.

• The Buddha brought people to the Path, then newly ordained monks were brought to stream entry by Sariputra and arhatship by Maha Moggallana. It then makes sense that the wise nuns Khema and Uppalavana served these functions for female disciples. 

The Vinaya, or Monastic Code of Conduct, was taught for self-discipline and the peaceful coexistence of intensive practitioners on the Path.

 

These three major collections are known as the “Three Baskets” (Tri-Pitaka). These divisions have, in the absence of the Buddha, been rightly viewed and regarded as teacher, trainer, mentor, and guide to enlightenment (bodhi) and the final end of suffering (nirvana). They may be likened to the invisible presence of the Buddha as a universal teacher existing wherever these three are preserved and put into practice.
 

Those who esteem the Buddha are therefore well versed in these three main divisions of the teaching.

The Six Buddhist Councils

Studying monk (ChristyB30/flickr)

Three months after the Buddha's final nirvana, the First Buddhist Council was convened in Rajagaha (Rajgir, India). The congress was attended by a large number of monastics, all fully enlightened (arhats) with the additional analytical knowledges (patisambhida). Maha Kassapa led this Council of Elders (theras and theris). He offered three major points:

1) Teachings (Doctrine or Discipline) the Buddha not taught should not be offered by monastics. 2) Those teachings taught by the Buddha should neither be deleted, augmented, nor edited by monastics. 3) Those teachings the Buddha taught should be followed by monastics.

Therefore, the knowledge, belief, and practice of strictly following the historical Buddha's Doctrine and Discipline became known as Theravada (“Teaching or School of the Elders,” the “Elders” being the enlightened monastics of the time. The Noble Sangha is, of course, composed of many accomplished laypeople as well, but these are not considered elders since they have not gone forth into monasticism).
 

The Second Council was held in 100 B.C.E. in Vesali and was attended by 700 monastics. It was co-led by Sabbakami Thera and Yasa Thera.
 

The Third Council took place in 236 B.C.E. in Pataliputra (which Dr. Ranajit Pal places much farther to the west) and was attended by 1,000 monastics. It was led by Tissa Thera.
 

The Buddha, Indonesia (Luxquarta/flickr)

The first, second, and third of these councils were held in greater India and were attended exclusively by enlightened "Indian" monastics. (How far did Greater India extend, did it encompass modern Iran or only come up to its eastern border?)
 

The Fourth Council was held in Sri Lanka in 540 B.C.E. and was attended by 500 monastics. It was led by Dhammarakkhita Thera. Another significant difference between the previous councils and the fourth one was that up until this time, the monastics had put the Tripitaka (Three Baskets) down in writing on bundled ola palm leaves.
 

In 240 B.C.E., the Fifth Council was held in Mandalay (Burma) and was attended by 2,400 monastics. It was led by Jagara Thera. The outstanding fact was that there was no Sangayana for 2,000 years between the Fourth and Fifth Councils. During the Fifth Council the three divisions of the Dharma were carved on giant marble slabs, filling 729 of them, each measuring six feet by four feet.

The Fourth Council had been attended only by Sri Lankan monastics. The Fifth was attended only by Burmese monastics.
 

Most of the modern literature that attempts to explain the Buddha’s teachings is merely the interpretation and inference of respective a author(s). This is a great loss for those who have never tasted the “authentic” teaching.
 
Consequently, Sitagu International Buddhist Academy (S.I.B.A.) has Romanized and translated the authentic Three Baskets of the Sixth Council, in which learned monastics from five Theravada countries participated along with monastics from some Mahayana countries. This has been done for worldwide dissemination for the benefit of those interested in tasting the essence of the Dharma.

Sabbadanam Dhammdanam Jinati

"May knowledge, belief, and practice of the truth shine forth in every corner of the world!"

S.I.B.A. - Sitagu International Buddhist Academy

S.I.B.A. formed a governing board, a Board of Admonishing Masters, consisting of 15 Burmese monks to provide spiritual guidance: U Sobhita, U Kumara, U Vimalabhivamsa, U Supannindabhivamsa, U Pandita, U Vimalacara, U Acinna (the most venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw), U Janinda, U Agghiya, U Sumangala, U Sajjanabhivamsa, U Samvarabhivamsa, U Narada, U Jotikabhivamsa, and U Kavisara.