Why Was Original Buddhism for Monks Only?

Abstract

Early Buddhism was a monastic religion: the Buddha’s disciples were mendicant monks. However, there are many laypeople today who are practising Buddhists, meditating and following the eightfold Buddhist path towards nirvāṇa.This paper investigates how real this apparent inconsistency is. First, it is shown that the Buddha typically did not even speak about his own insights and doctrines to his lay followers; he only preached about general moral principles and gave wise advice, often with a noticeable conservative tinge. Since it is clear that Buddhism was not esoteric (i.e., it did not contain secrets revealed only to the initiated), this state of affairs can be explained only by supposing that the Buddha thought that true Buddhism was useful only for monks. It is never explicitly explained why it was so, but from several hints an answer may be tentatively reconstructed. Buddhist theory was only needed as a basis of Buddhist practice, and in the Buddha’s age and environment, such practice was virtually impossible for laypersons living and toiling in a village, with a family, and taking care of children. One could not find the peace essential for meditation. Furthermore, such worldly life presupposes strong motivations and unavoidably generates desires, whereas Buddhist practice consists of the annihilation of precisely those desires.