Tthe following is the article on
" Theravada Traditional Buddhist Scriptures" which is an excerpt from
the Abhidhamma Newsletter published in August 1988, of which I had the
honor and privilege to be Editor under the advice and direction of
Venerable U Silananda, Abbott of Half Moon Bay Monastery in California.

Theravada Traditional Buddhist Scriptures

One hundred years after the death of the Buddha, different opinions
about the interpretation of some of his teachings arose among the
Sangha,(the commuity of monks).  Based on these opinions, different
schools later developed among the Buddhists.  At one time, there were
more than eighteen different schools.  Some died out over the centuries,
but others continued to exist till the present day.

Today, we have two major divisions of Buddhism in the world.  The first
group belong to Theravada.  Theravada is a Pali word which literally
means the "Teachings of the Elders".  The other group is called
Mahayana; it means "Great Vehicle".  Different Mahayana schools spread
from the first century A.D. on to Nepal, Central Asia, Mongolia, China,
Korea, Japan and Vietnam; in the seventh century it spread to Tibet.
Therefore this group is said to belong to "Northern Buddhism".  The
Theravada school, however, remained for some time in India and later
spread to Southern countries such as Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos
and Cambodia where it flourishes.  It was therefore popularly called
"Southern Buddhism".

It is believed that the original teachings of the Buddha were recorded
and preserved in the Pali Canon of the Theravada Buddhists.  From the
beginning, all teachings were transmitted orally, and the Sangha guarded
their authenticity and attempted to keep the teachings intact.
Therefore, in Theravada Buddhism, one hardly finds any later additions
to the Pali Canon, except some commentaries, which were composed by
various teachers in the centuries that followed.

THE FIRST BUDDHIST COUNCIL

Because the teachings had not been written down at the time of Buddha,
whatever he taught was learned by heart and memorized by his disciples.
It is believed that the Buddha gave 84,000 units of teachings during his
lifetime.  Just after the death of the Buddha in 544 B.C., his
disciples, headed by the Elder Mahakasapa, decided to hold a council to
collect his teachings and record them by word of mouth.  This was done a
little more than three months after the death of the Buddha, at the
Sattapanni Cave near Rajgiri, the capital of Magadha (now the Indian
state of Bihar).  Five hundred arahants ("fully enlightened beings") met
to hold this council.  The Elder Mahakassapa presided over this council
and acted as the "questioner" and the Elder Upali and the Elder Ananda
acted as the "answerers" for the Vinaya ( displinary rules for monks,
nuns and novices) and the Dhamma( suttas or sermons and Abhidhamma)
respectively.  The teachings of the Buddha were minutely scrutinized as
to where, when, on what occasion, to which person or persons they were
taught, and many other points as well.. When all present were satisfied
with the authenticiry of a discourse to be the exact teaching of the
Buddha, all recited it to show their acceptance.  By reciting the
discourse in unison, they gave their approval.  It took seven months to
bring this Council to conclusion.  These teachings, accepted and recited
in unison at the First Buddhist Council, were handed down from teacher
to pupil by word of mouth to future generations.

At this council, the assembled arahants not only collected and
scrutinized the teachings, but also classified them and grouped them
into different divisions.  The most well known division is that into
what we call Pitakas ('baskets" or "learnings"), namely, the Vinaya
Pitaka, the Sutta ( or Suttanta) Pitaka and the Abhidhamma Pitaka.  The
Vinaya Pitaka ( which deals with the rules and disciplines for monks,
nuns and novices) is the Book of Law for monks, nuns and novices.  The
second Pitaka consists of discourses given by the Buddha  on different
occasions.  This Pitaka is the most popular among monks and lay people
alike.  The third Pitaka, the Abhidfhamma,deals with the ultimate
truths: consciousness, mental factors and so on.

Another classification is into Nikaya or "Collections." They are Digha
Nikaya, Collection of Long Discoursses; Mjjhima Nikaya, the Collection
of Medium Length Discourses; Samyutta Nikaya, The Collection of Kindred
Discourses; Anguttara Nikaya, the Collection of Discourses with the
number of units increasing gradually, and Khuddaka Nikaya, the
Collection of Minor Discourses.  Among them the first four Nikayas
belong to the Sutta Pitaka, whereas the last Nikaya comprises Vinaya and
Abhidhamma Pitakas, and other discourses that are not included in the
first four Nikayas.

THE SECOND BUDDHIST COUNCIL C. 444 B.C.

About one hundred years after the death of the Buddha, a second council
was held at Vesali to refute the unorthodox views of some monks
regarding Buddha's teachings.  At this Council, the teachings accepted
at the 'First Council were reconfirmed and the same method of
recitations was used to show acceptance by all those present.  This
Council lasted for eight months.  It was at this Council that another
group, known as Mahasanghika,split from the original Sangha on the
doctrine of Vinaya.  ( The Mahasanghika were the forerunners of Mahayana
Buddhism.)

THE THIRD BUDDHIST COUNCIL

Two hundred and thirty-four years after the death of the Buddha, during
the reign of King Asoka (who had unified India for the first time), the
Third Council was convened by the Elder Moggalliputta Tissa at the
capital, Pataliputta ( the modern Patna in the State of Bihar).  The
authenticity of the texts were reaffirmed and two hundred and nineteen
points of controversy were scrutinized, refuted and documented in the
Kathavatthu, which is the fifth book in the Abhidhamma Pitaka.

THE FOURTH BUDDHIST COUNCIL

Thus the teachings were handed down from generation to generation by
word of mouth until the first century B.C., when they were written down
on palm leaves.  The authenticity of the oral tradition was proven by
the following incident.  At that time, Sri Lanka suffered from a great
rebellion which lasted for twelve years.  During these difficult times,
food was scarce and many monks went over to southern India and stayed
there until the rebellion was over.  When the monks returned to Sri
Lanka and met other monks who stayed behind, the latter compared texts
which they had held with those held by monks  who went to south India
and found , to their immense joy, no discrepancies. However, the monks
became concerned about the endurance and purity of the texts in the
future when, in their opinion, monks would not be capable of memorizing
all teachings.  Therefore, these Sri Lanka monks decided to write down
the Buddha's teachings on  palm leaves.  This writing down of Buddha's
teachings on palm leaves in the first century B.C., has been called the
Fourth Buddhist Council, although the ancient records did not
expressedly call this event the Fourth.  From that time, palm leaves
books appeared and were also taken to other countries such as Burma,
Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

Commentaries and Treatises on Tipitaka

Commentaries to the Tipitaka recorded at the First Council and
reaffirmed at the Second and the Third Councils, were composed by the
Elders of old and brought to Sri Lanka by the missionary monk Mahinda,
of the Third Council.  They were there rendered into Sinhalese tongue
and were edited and retranslated into Pali by the Venerable Buddhaghosa
and others.  Buddhaghosa Thera, who lived in the fifth century A.D. was
also the author of the monumental work called Visudhimagga, the Path of
Purification.  The Venerable Ananda wrote the Sub-commentaries in the
seventh century A.D.  These were commented on in Sub-sub-commentaries of
the Venerable Dhammapala who probaby lived in the later part of the
seventh century.

THE FIFTH BUDDHIST COUNCIL

In 1871 A.D., during the reign of King Mindon of Burma, the Fifth
Buddhist Council was held in the capital, Mandalay.  He ordered the
entire Tipitaka to be written first on palm leaves in gold ink and by
stylus and finally on marble slabs.  Each marble slab is 5 1/2 feet high
and 3 1/2 feet wide and about 5 inches thick.  It took 729 marble slabs
to inscribe the entire Tipitaka.  King Mindon thought that when Tipitaka
was inscribed  on marble, which endured longer than palm leaves, it
would endure as long as the world exists.  It was very lucky that these
slabs were not hit by bombs or shells during World War II, so they still
stand intact.  Each is housed in a brick building, and these buildings
were grouped around a cetiya, or stupa (pagoda).

THE SIXTH BUDDHIST COUNCIL

After World War II, when Burma had become independent, the elders of
Sangha and the political leaders decided to call the Sixth Buddhist
Council  It was inaugurated in Rangoon, Burma in  1954.  The Tipitaka
was reaffirmed at this Council and the reaffirmation and recitation of
the Texts (Pali) ended in 1956 which was the 2500th year after the
passing away of the Buddha.  A superb edition of the Tipitaka and the
Commentaries, etc. is the glorious outcome of this Council.  The Sixth
Buddhist Council edition of the Texts consists of forty volumes, and
that of the Commentaries and Sub-commentaries, 79 volumes.  The
Abhidhamma Pitaka comprises twelve volumes and runs about 4950 pages.
The Tipitaka canonical Texts were also translated into Burmese.  The
other remarkable thing about this Council is that both Theravada and
Mahayana leaders participated.

Question and  Answer regarding Pali Buddhist Scriptures

Student Question:   Is it possible to trust the reliability of the Pali
Buddhist scriptures since they were handed down by word of mouth for
such a long time?

Venerable U Silananda:   The teachings of the Buddha were handed down
from teacher to pupil, first by word of mouth for over four hundred
years and later published in books whenever Councils were held.  Some
people have doubts about the reliability of oral traditions, because
they think that in such traditions, additions, omissions and distortions
can be made easily.  In my opinion, however, these are not possible.
Those who learnt the teachings by heart and kept them in their memory
were not just a few, but thousands and thousands, and they tried to keep
them intact and in perfect purity.  Even if they wanted to make changes
in the texts, they must have the approval of all the monks who held the
texts, which was impossible.

At the First Buddhist Council there were officially five hundred
arahants who held the teachings
in memory.  In fact, there were many more such persons.  If a person
added or omitted something it would be easily detected at the meetings
and would certainly be rejected.  It would be possible only if there
were only a group of a few monks holding the teachings in memory, and
such fortunately, was not the  case.  It was to prevent additions,
omissions and distortions that the First Council was held and the
succeeding Councils followed suit.

Furthermore, those who hold the teachoings in memory had too great a
respect for the Buddha and his teachings to make addition and so on.
Therefore, in my opinion, the Buddhist oral tradition is reliable as
written records.

With loving kindness,

Maung Tin-Wa, Ph.D.

P.S. Venerable U Silananda held a prominent position in the Sixth
Buddhist Council as the chief commpiler of the comprehensive
Pali-Burmese Dictionary and as one of the final editors of the Pali
Texts, the Commentaries, Sub-commentaries and other works.