Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.29

c10.29

The difficulties, which were bound to arise from this, and which have as a fact arisen, are obvious. The band of disciples, which had gathered round Buddha, had grown with unparalleled rapidity into a great spiritual power. Throughout all India and soon beyond the confines of India, in the woods, through the villages, went the Buddhist monks preaching and begging. How then was the "Church of the four quarters, those present and those absent" to undertake in fact the administration of their common concerns? This object could only have been secured by creating a powerful centre, a spiritual regency in which the will of the whole Church would