جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « sangha » در نشریات گروه « ادیان و عرفان »

Buddhist monasticism (Sangha) like other monastic orders has its own rituals and communal ceremonies. However, the word ritual maybe leads to misunderstanding, because Buddha himself intensely criticized ritualism. Sangha’s ceremonies are formalized, but purely functional. They fashioned in fact to review the Acts of the Sangha. They are to this day carried out without ritual elaboration. Two of these ceremonies are crucial: the higher ordination (upasampadā) and the communal rehearsal of the pātimokkha or the rite of confession. Every fortnight, on the uposatha days of the new and full moons, the monks are enjoined to gather to recite some parts of Vinaya and by so doing, they proclaim their loyalty to the Sangha and its rules.

Sangha as a group of monks and nuns that come together to construct a monastic community based on the principles of vinaya, is the main religious institution in a Theravādin society. Sangha's structure is basedon its member's relationship with each other and with their surrounding society. Within Sangha there is an obvious equality among monks on the one hand, and a distinctive discrimination between monks and nuns. Prohibition of Monk's and nun's economic activity except for begging has made Sangha's continuity dependent on laymen's economic supports, and Sangha, trying to hold these supports, has undertaken certain social functions. Moreover, despite the emphasis on orthodoxy and avoidance of religious innovations in Theravādin Buddhism, it has spread some beliefs which are different from and sometimes even in contrast with Buddha's teachings.