佛敎에서의 正統과 異端 -초기불교를 중심으로-

Abstract

The examinations of the orthodoxy in Buddhism can be made in two different aspects. One is about being recognized as the orthodox faction from the viewers outside of the religion, and the other is regarding the conflict between the orthodox and heretics from inside. As for the first aspect, there are two major factors that made Buddhism recognized as orthodox. The first one would be the fact that Buddhism is not relying on the power of the absolute one or the authorities of the existing scripture. Instead, Buddhism is based on the truth discovered by Buddha himself. Secondly, Buddhism enjoyed strong supports from the priest class who led Brahmanism, the king and his courts. As for the examination of the question on the orthodoxy and heresy,Buddhism uses the term ‘the true Dharma(正法)’ and ‘the false Dharma(非法).’ During the days of Buddha, the criteria that made the differences between the true Dharma and the false Dharma were the decision by Buddha himself. It was determined by whether the reference was made by Buddha himself or whether such determination was made last only temporarily. After Buddha passed away, 500 of his disciple who reached the status of ‘arahan’ gathered and determined the orthodox rules and teachings from Buddha. At that time, there were no occurrences of the false Dharma. But, one hundred years after the passing away of Buddha,there were occurrences of the false Dharma and seven hundred arahan monks gathered to reconfirm what belonged to the true Dharma. But, 10thousand other monks who disagreed with that created the separate sect,giving birth to notions that could be considered as heretic. However, there is no indication that there were significant conflicts between the orthodox and heretic factions.