[Buddha-l] Vaitulyakas

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Ngawang Dorje schreef:

> Hi
>
>  
> I read from a book:
>
> The Kathavatthu records how the Vaitulyakas had made a provision that 
> "on account of a particular intention, the saint could resort to 
> sexual-intercourse"
>  
> Kathavatthu, XXIII.219.1, p.535 - ekaabhippaayena methuno dhammo 
> patisevitabbo
>  
> Can anyone verify this?Who are the Vaitulyakas?


from http://www.lankalibrary.com/Bud/establishment.htm I read:

>  

After this incident, for about 3 1/2 decades, 
no king seems to have paid any attention to Cetiyagiri till Vasabha (127-171 AD) 
effected some improvements there. He appears to have patronised all viharas 
impartially, and he did a great deal to further the cause of Buddhism by 
providing for the preachers of dhamma and building new cetiyas and images, and 
repairing old monasteries. Viharas were built even in Nagadipa (modern Jaffna 
peninsula) in the north during the reign of this king. He is said to have 
celebrated 44 Vesak festivals. Between the reigns of Vasabha and Voharika-Tissa 
(269-291 AD) for about a century, nothing of importance appears to have taken 
place. During the time of Voharika-Tissa, we hear for the first time of a new 
school of thought called Vetullavasda, Vaitulyvada or Mahasunnavadi. This school 
of thought believed that the Buddha, having been born in Tusita heaven, lives 
there and never comes down to the human world, and that it is only a created 
phantasmal form (nimmitarupamattakam) and not the Buddha that appears among men. 
Both this created form. and Ananda who learned from it preached the dhamma; the 
Buddha himself never preached. Further more, according to this view, the Buddha 
as such does not take anything (na Bhagava kinci paribhunjati), but pretends to 
accept offerings in order to be in comformity with the world 
(lokanucattanattham). Therefore, what is given to him bears no fruit because it 
is of no help (nirupakaratta). The king who supported the two viharas 
--Mahavihara and Abhayagiri -- is said to have suppressed Vaitulyavada, keeping 
heretics in check with the assistance of his minister Kapila, who was evidently 
well-versed both in the law of the Buddha and in that of the land. 
Voharika-Tissa had not only to suppress the Vaitulyas, he had also to purify the 
Sangha as a whole. Buddhism seems to have been in a bad state and the Sangha.was 
corrupt. The king is said to have paid three hundred thousand and freed many 
monks who were in debt. Such a thing was unheard of during the early days. 
Perhaps during a famine about two decades before Voharika -Tissa's reign monks 
incurred these debts as alms-begging may not have been easy. Voharika -Tissa is 
said to have established alms-giving at places all over the Island where the 
Ariyavamsa Sutta was preached which meant that Buddhism was in an unsatisfactory 
state. Voharika-Tissa also abolished the infliction of physical pain as penalty 
and held a great Vesak. festival.

So the Vaitulyas were a suñyavada group.
According to Warder ('Indian Buddhism' p. 414) its a nickname for mahayanists, derived from vaitaalika/vai.daalika = magician, destrucionist.

Erik


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