Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c6.s5.t5.5

c6.s5.t5.5

In response to a question by Upāli in *Cullavagga* of *Vinayapiṭaka* (chap. VII) he enumerates eighteen possible causes for the split of the *saṁgha*. There can be a split if the followers of the *saṁgha* start explaining non-*dhamma* as *dhamma*, non-obedience as obedience, attributing things to *tathāgata* which he did not say, attributing practices to him which he did not practise, attributing tenets to him which he did not propound, explaining no offence as offence, slight offence as serious offence, a curable offence as incurable, a bad offence as a good offence; as well as the vice versa of these take the number up to eighteen. These causes are enlisted in the chapter on the split of *saṁgha* (*saṁghabhedasutta*) of *Aṅguttaranikāya* (5.93) in a more compact way, reducing the number to ten.