The History of Buddhist Thought c10.84

c10.84

In the rules of the Vinaya concerning schism the story of the schism of Devadatta, the cousin of Buddha, is told.² Towards the end of Buddha’s life he aimed at becoming leader, and being repulsed he proposed that five rules should be made compulsory : (1) That monks should dwell all their lives in the forest, (2) that they should live only on alms begged, (3) wear only clothes taken fron a dustheap, (4) dwell at the foot of a tree, (5) not eat fish or flesh. The first four are among the dhutangas. Buddha is said to have refused to make them compulsory, but pointed out that all were permissible except sleeping at the foot of a tree during the rainy season. The schism is said to have been soon suppressed, and nothing more is heard of it. The Chinese traveller, Fa Hien, however, writing in the fifth century A.D., mentions the existence of a body that followed Devadatta. It has been assumed that this proves the continued existence of Devadatta’s followers in complete obscurity for a thousand years. All it really tells us is that there was then a body that followed Devadatta’s rules. Some schools certainly appear to have treated his memory more favourably than the Theravādins did, for the Lotus (ch. XI) says he is to become a Buddha, and that he helped Buddha in his former existence to attain the Perfections, apparently by putting hindrances in his way, which made the Perfections all the greater.