At first those who follwed the Buddha resembled other groups of wanderers who worked with individual teachers. They did not live in fixed places, but moved around from place to place, living outdoors and receiving material support from local people. The development of settled monastic communities, an order of nuns, and a standard set of rules was a gradual process worked out over time between the Buddha, his ordained followers, and the lay men and women who supported these communities and benefited from them.

Wanderers and Monastics: two models of Buddhist life

As we saw in the biography of the Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha was born into the kingly class. As a young man he became aware of suffering in the world and decided to figure out how suffering could be ended. Leaving home, the prince became a “wanderer”. His quest for spiritual knowledge first led him to seek out meditation masters to develop extreme powers of calm.

These efforts, however, did not solve the problem of suffering, because when the calming meditation ended, he found that his mind was still agitated. The bodhisattva then tried asceticism, the denial of physical needs for spiritual growth. He found that this method also did not work and that he was near death. Both methods ultimately failed. At last he chose the “Middle Way” between extreme asceticism and the luxury. According to the tradition, his meditations were then successful because he combined calm with insight.

Scholars believe that early followers of the Buddha must have come from wanderers who had also left their homes to follow a spiritual path. Sakyamuni Buddha was one of many teachers. Buddhist scriptures include many stories of dialogues between the Buddha and other wanderers. Often they discuss some point of speculation with the Buddha, then wander off again.

The Buddha himself did not have a settled community and continued to travel about to teach, meditate, and beg for alms just like any wanderer. Typically, during the rainy season of three months, travel was impossible. At those times, all wanderers would settle into temporary communities for the duration of the monsoon. Eventually, followers of the Buddha settled into more or less permanent communities as lay people chose to offer them facilities and material support in exchange for the teaching.

Four necessities, the life of the Wandering Buddhist, and Monastic Life

The followers of the Buddha, although wanderers, were following the middle way. The four necessities of the wandering Buddhist express this middle way. These necessities are

• Food: Food was obtained through begging for alms. This was practiced by most wanderers at the time. The “middle way” here is to eat just enough to sustain your practice.
• Clothing: According to Buddhist texts, the followers of the Buddha made their own robes out of discarded rags. A wanderer would pick up discarded cloth, clean it and sew it into robes. This practice distinguished the Buddhists from other wanderers, many of whom went naked. The “middle way” here is to wear clothing.
• Shelter: Residing under a tree for shelter was considered to be an ascetic ideal. The wanderer did not have a settled home, but he could take shelter under a tree as did the Buddha. The “middle way” here is to take shelter when needed.
• Medicine: In ancient India, cow urine was refined into a form of medicine. This type of medicine was permitted for ordained Buddhists.

In settled monastic life, these four necessities became the core of the ordination ceremony. During the ceremony, the ordinee would be asked if he understood each of the four necessities, and then would agree to a list of exceptions to this ascetic rule that allowed him or her to live harmoniously in the settled communities of the monastery.

What is the Sangha?

In his 40 years of teaching, the Buddha addressed many different groups of people. Those who became ordained monks or nuns learned his teachings and became qualified to teach independently of the Buddha, with his approval. The teaching of the Buddha, therefore, was not dependent on his presence. The group of followers of the Buddha are called the sangha.

In Buddhism there is no creed, but Buddhists often repeat the Three Refuges in rituals and in daily life

• I take refuge in the Buddha
• I take refuge in the Dharma
• I take refuge in the Sangha

The Sangha is as important as the Buddha and the Dharma because it preserves both the teaching and the way of life established by the Buddha during his forty years of teaching and leading his disciples. The Sangha has four different groups of people. The first two groups are monastic

• Monks = males who have left home and dedicate themselves to understanding the Dharma.
• Nuns = females who have left home and dedicate themselves to understanding the Dharma.

Men and women were thought to have the same ability to thoroughly understand the Dharma and achieve the level of arhat.

The other two categories of the Sangha are:

• Lay men = those who follow the Buddha’s teaching and support the monks and nuns.
• Lay women = those who follow the Buddha’s teaching and support the monks and nuns.

These four groups make up the Sangha. Without lay supporters, Buddhist monks and nuns would not be able to concentrate on meditation, study, and teaching the Dharma. Without the monks and nuns, the Dharma would soon die out and lay people could not benefit either from the teaching or from the merit they earn by supporting the monastic community. The mutual support of these four groups is what we mean by the word sangha. To take refuge in the sangha is to rely on that interconnected web of relationships.

Merit and “field of merit,”

Merit is the accumulation of wholesome or good conditions from performing good actions or karma. In Indian religious thought, this merit results in a better rebirth. Accumulating merit through good practices, especially through generosity to the Sangha is one way that lay Buddhists could accumulate merit for a better rebirth.

Accumulating Merit

Merit accumulates through giving, morality, and meditation. All three of these practices are available to both monastics and laity. For the laity, the primary way of making merit is giving, but lay people also made merit through the practice of discipline, or morality. They could follow the first five of the ten precepts given to novice monks or nuns:

1. not intentionally killing.
2. not taking what is not given.
3. no sexual misconduct.
4. no false speech.
5. not taking intoxicants.

Twice a month when the monks performed the ritual of reciting the rules of the order, lay Buddhists could participate. They would agree to three additional rules of not eating after noon; not wearing jewelry and attending entertainment; and not to use a high bed during this period.

Although lay people might not have the time to do extended meditation, they could practice recollection of the Buddha, a calming meditation practice.

Field of Merit

In Buddhism, the term “field of merit” is a metaphor:

• The “field” is a recipient, like a monk or nun, whose strict practice means that they have an accumulation of merit to donate to others.
• The donor “plants” seeds of future merit by supporting the monks or nuns.

Just as a fertile field produces a big crop from the seeds that are planted there, donations to a “field of merit” produces a large amount of merit. In Buddhism the “field of merit” is the three treasures: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Monastics and Lay persons could donate to the three treasures, thus producing great merit. For the laity, the primary means of donation was material support to the Sangha as a whole or occasionally to individual monks or nuns.

Traditionally, laity gave a large gift to the Sangha at the end of the annual three month monastic retreat. The cloth given for robes at this time of the year would last a whole year for clothing for the monks and nuns. In contemporary Buddhist communities, this ceremony, called the Kathina rite, is held in November. The film, “Footprint of the Buddha,” produced by the BBC shows this event. A long line of pilgrims bearing gifts walks up to the monastery. The route is lined with lay people, some of whom are too poor to give any gift themselves. But as the donors walk by, they may touch the offerings, and thus share in the merit of the donor.