Himanshuucharan at 23:59, 20 October 2025

2025-10-20T23:59:38Z

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{{Short description|Early Buddhist school}}
[[File:Ajanta caves 3.jpg|thumb|right|Cave temple associated with the [[Mahāsāṃghika]] sect. [[Ajanta Caves|Ajaṇṭā Caves]], [[Maharashtra|Mahārāṣtra]], India]]
{{EarlyBuddhism}}
The '''Ekavyāvahārika''' ({{langx|sa|एकव्यावहारिक}}; {{CJKV|t=一說部|p=Yī Shuō Bù|v=Nhất thuyết bộ}}) was one of the [[early Buddhist schools]], and is thought to have separated from the [[Mahāsāṃghika]] sect during the reign of [[Asoka|Aśoka]].

==History==

===Relationship to Mahāsāṃghika===
[[Taranatha|Tāranātha]] viewed the Ekavyāvahārikas, [[Lokottaravāda|Lokottaravādins]], and [[Gokulika]]s as being essentially the same.<ref>Baruah, Bibhuti. ''Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism.'' 2008. p. 48.</ref> He even viewed ''Ekavyāvahārika'' as being a general term for the Mahāsāṃghikas.<ref>Baruah, Bibhuti. ''Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism.'' 2008. p. 19.</ref> The Ekavyāvahārikas, Gokulikas, and Lokottaravādins are the three groups that emerged from the first split in the Mahāsāṃghika sect. [[A. K. Warder]] notes that the Ekavyāvahārikas were hardly known in later times and may have simply have been considered part of the Mahāsāṃghika.<ref>Warder, A. K. ''Indian Buddhism''. 2000. p. 281.</ref>

===Early history===
The 6th century CE Indian monk [[Paramartha (Chinese monk)|Paramārtha]] wrote that 200 years after the [[parinirvana|parinirvāṇa]] of the Buddha, much of the Mahāsāṃghika school moved north of [[Rajgir|Rājagṛha]], and were divided over whether the [[Mahāyāna]] teachings should be incorporated formally into their [[Tripiṭaka]].<ref>Walser, Joseph. ''Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture.'' 2005. pp. 50–51.</ref> According to this account, they split into three groups based upon the relative manner and degree to which they accepted the authority of these Mahāyāna texts.<ref>Walser, Joseph. ''Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture.'' 2005. p. 51.</ref> According to Paramārtha, the Ekavyāvahārikas accepted the [[Mahayana sutras|Mahāyāna sūtras]] as the words of the Buddha (''[[buddhavacana]]'').<ref>Sree Padma. Barber, Anthony W. ''Buddhism in the Krishna River Valley of Andhra.'' 2008. p. 68.</ref>

==Doctrines==
===Forty-eight theses===
The ''Samayabhedoparacanaćakra'' of [[Vasumitra (Buddhism)|Vasumitra]] regards the Ekavyāvahārikas, Gokulikas, and Lokottaravādins as being doctrinally indistinguishable.<ref>Walser, Joseph. ''Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture.'' 2005. p. 214.</ref> According to Vasumitra, 48 theses were held in common by these three Mahāsāṃghika sects.<ref>Walser, Joseph. ''Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture.'' 2005. p. 214.</ref> Of the 48 special theses attributed by the ''Samayabhedoparacanaćakra'' to these sects, 20 points concern the supramundane nature of [[buddhahood|buddha]]s and [[bodhisattva]]s.<ref>Sree Padma. Barber, Anthony W. ''Buddhism in the Krishna River Valley of Andhra.'' 2008. p. 56.</ref> According to the ''Samayabhedoparacanaćakra'', these four groups held that the Buddha is able to know all ''[[Dharma (Buddhism)|dharma]]s'' in a single moment of the mind.<ref>Yao, Zhihua. ''The Buddhist Theory of Self-Cognition.'' 2005. p. 11.</ref> Yao Zhihua writes:<ref>Yao, Zhihua. ''The Buddhist Theory of Self-Cognition.'' 2005. p. 11.</ref>

{{quote|In their view, the Buddha is equipped with the following supernatural qualities: transcendence (''lokottara''), lack of defilements, all of his utterances [[Dharma Wheel|preaching his teaching]], expounding all his teachings in a single utterance, all of his sayings being true, his physical body being limitless, his power (''prabhāva'') being limitless, the length of his life being limitless, never tiring of enlightening sentient beings and awakening pure faith in them, having no sleep or dreams, no pause in answering a question, and always in meditation (''[[Samadhi (Buddhism)|samādhi]]'').}}

===Trascendent speech===
The name of the Ekavyāvahārikas refers to their doctrine that the Buddha speaks with a single and unified transcendent meaning.<ref>Sree Padma. Barber, Anthony W. ''Buddhism in the Krishna River Valley of Andhra.'' 2008. p. 67.</ref> They emphasised the transcendence of the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]], asserting that he was eternally enlightened and essentially non-physical. Just as the words of the Buddha were held to be spoken with one transcendent meaning, the [[Four Noble Truths]] were understood to be perfectly realised with one wisdom.<ref>Rockhill, William. ''The Life of Buddha and the Early History of His Order Derived from Tibetan.'' pp. 187–188.</ref>

===Fundamentally pure mind===
The Ekavyāvahārikas held that sentient beings possessed an originally or fundamentally pure mind, but that it has been encumbered and obscured by suffering.<ref>Baruah, Bibhuti. ''Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism.'' 2008. p. 90.</ref> This conception of the nature of the mind as being fundamentally the same as that of the Buddha, has been identified with the Mahāyāna doctrines of [[Buddha-nature]] and the Buddha's [[Dharmakāya]], as well as compared favorably with doctrines in Mahāyāna sūtras such as the ''[[Lotus Sūtra]]'' and the ''{{IAST|[[Avatamsaka Sutra|Avataṃsaka Sūtra]]}}''.<ref>Baruah, Bibhuti. ''Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism.'' 2008. p. 90.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==See also==
* [[Early Buddhist schools]]
* [[Nikaya Buddhism|Nikāya Buddhism]]
* [[Schools of Buddhism]]

{{Buddhism topics}}

[[Category:Nikaya schools]]
[[Category:Mahāsāṃghika]]
[[Category:Early Buddhist schools]]

Ekavyāvahārika - Revision history

Himanshuucharan at 23:59, 20 October 2025