Introduction
1. General understanding of the "present Saṃghas" and "Saṃghas of the four directions"
2. The compounds sammukhībhūta-saṃgha and cātuddisa-saṃgha as they appear in the Pali scriptures
3. Sammukhībhūta-saṃgha in the Pali scriptures
4. Cūtuddisa-saṃgha in the Pali scriptures
Conclusion

This is the second of four essays the author has written on the topic of "Sakyamuni's Saṃgha." The main points have already been summarized in Article 13, "The Saṃgha Led by the Buddha and Saṃghas Led by his Disciples" and I will base the following on it, with some modifications.

In this second essay, I deal with the conceptual expression cātuddisa-saṃgha ("Saṃghas of the four directions"), understood as indicating something like the "Saṃgha of Sakyamuni," incorporating all the followers of the Buddha in the world, and I re-examine it together with its opposite concept, sammukhībhūta-saṃgha (the Saṃgha led by the Buddha).

Its conclusion may be summed up by saying that strictly speaking neither sammukhībhūta-saṃgha nor cātuddisa-saṃgha appears as a compound in either the early Pali scriptures or in the commentaries, the Atthakatha, and so consequently the concepts themselves could not have existed.

Scholars in Japan have long supposed the existence of individual Saṃghas centred on Sakyamuni scattered throughout India ("present Saṃghas"), and the "Saṃghas of the four directions" existing in space and time, in all places and in the future as well as the present. This means they understood "Saṃgha" to have had two types of meaning. However, according to its usage in the early scriptures, "Saṃgha" as it is used in the compounds "present Saṃghas" and "Saṃghas of the four directions" is a group of more than four bhikkhus or four bhikkhunis living within a certain "boundary" (sīmā) under the condition of performing the confession service ("All bhikkhus who are absent from a confession service should send a notice of proxy.") Thus within the Saṃgha as it appears in the Vinaya a two-fold concept of the Saṃgha did not exist.

Specifically, what has come to be called the "present Saṃghas" are groups where the confession service is performed, while the "Saṃghas of the four directions" are those groups where the confession service may be performed, or may have been possible to perform, comprising besides the ordinary residents, bhikkhus or bhikkhunis who have been there for a long time, bhikkhus or bhikkhunis who have come from other places. We must suppose that Saṃghas such as the latter were fixed assets - monastic establishments in parks and buildings - not just the exclusive possession of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis who ordinarily lived in the area, but for open to guest bhikkhus and bhikkhunis who came from all over the country fulfilling the important religious practice of wandering. Such visitors must have been guaranteed the right to use these facilities freely. In other words, the expression "four directions" did not mean "extending in the four directions," but rather "having come, or coming, from the four directions." The Saṃgha was a park or a vihāra, that had to be set up within a limited "boundary."

This means that the concept of "Saṃghas of the four directions" as it has been understood does not actually exist, and so it does not indicate an "organization" incorporating "Sakyamuni's Saṃgha," that is all bhikkhus and bhikkhunis scattered all around India but centring on Sakyamuni, as well as the individual Saṃghas in various places that they had formed ("Saṃghas led by his disciples"). However, this conclusion in itself does not mean that "Sakyamuni's Saṃgha," in whatever sense of the term, did not exist, for, as I have pointed out in Article 1, circumstantial evidence still remains that necessitates the existence of "Sakyamuni's Saṃgha."

This essay, which first appeared in Tōyōgaku ronsō 32 issued by the Faculty of Letters of Tōyō University (Tōyō daigaku bungakubu kiyō 60, Indo Tetsugakka-hen 32, March 30, 2007) has been reprinted here with the permission of the publisher. I wish to express my gratitude here. The form has been altered for this publication, and so please refer to the original article for references and quotations.