Ceisiwr wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 11:54 amAs is well known the SautrÄntikas of old grew out of that other great Sthavira and Abhidhamma tradition, SarvÄstivÄda. As far as I'm aware no such sub-school developed within TheravÄda until very recently. What could be the reason for this?
We know from Buddhaghosa's introduction to the AtthasÄlinÄ« that there were individual bhikkhus who didn't admit the Abhidhamma Piį¹aka to be buddhavacana. Though he doesn't identify them, it seems likely that he is talking about bhikkhus of Theravada Vinaya lineage, for it is specifically the Theravada Abhidhamma Piį¹aka that they were rejecting. I can think of three possible reasons why they might not have wished to form a breakaway school:
1. There may have been too few of them.
2. It may have been politically inexpedient. That is, the MahÄvihÄra could have called upon royal power to suppress them, just as it did with the Abhayagiri and Jetavana Viharas.
3. They had other fish to fry. That is, their desire to just get on with their own practice may have weighed more heavily with them than any missionary zeal to persuade Ceylonese Buddhists to revert to what they imagined to have been the proto-Canon.
What happened to Abayagiri?
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