Abstract:

The sacred teachings of Buddha, who lived in the sixth century BCE, were codified and arranged in Buddhist councils, which were gathered by Buddhist monks on various dates after from his death, and each of them had a different importance in terms of their results, thus Tipitaka, the oldest Buddhist sacred book, was created. In addition to codifing the sacred teachings of Buddha, monks tried to solve their inner religious problems related to doctrine and discipline in the councils, and also turned their own teachings into a religion like other religions over time. In this study, the place, importance, purposes, decisions and results of the councils in the history of Buddhism, the development of Buddhism and its basic teachings whether it has an effect on the formation of Buddhist scriptures and the sense of monastic identity were investigated. For this purpose, six great Buddhist councils were examined with descriptive method. The councils had important impacts and positive contributions to Buddhism in terms of the formation of the Buddhist monastic identity, doctrine, discipline, practice, shaping and development of the basic teachings and tradition of Buddhism and its institutional maturation. In addition, the councils had negative effects on the tradition as they could not ensure full harmony among the community and caused splits.

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