How The Personalities Of Maha Kassapa And Ananda Affected The Course Of Theravada Buddhism

[camerata]

There is a long but interesting essay at BuddhaSasana about how the very different personalities of Kassapa and Ananda resulted in the two-track approach to Theravada monastic practice: scholarship and meditation. Worth reading if you have the time. Here is the conclusion:

"The personality, attitudes and the behaviour of the two great elders not only shaped the history of the Sasana at its formative years but also it continues to do so even at present. As we saw earlier all the traditional modes of monastic life of the Sangha such as, gamavasi and arannavasi (busy life of social service in the city and solitary and meditative life in the forest), dhammakathika and pamsukulika (life of comfort and ease and life of austerity characterized by wearing rag-robes and feeding on alms-food), and ganthadhura and vipassanadhura (life of erudition and learnedness and. life of contemplative practice) may well be traced back to Ananda and Maha Kassapa respectively. These divisions have been among the Sangha all the way through. In fact, they have been universal characteristics of the entire Sangha no matter whether they are Theravada, Mahayana or Vajrayana. The ideals behind Ananda and Maha Kassapa do not need to be perceived as contradictory. They can be quite complementary. The life of any member of the Sangha may well be taken as oscillating between these two ideals although the degree of oscillation may differ from individual to individual. The ideal disciple of the Buddha is one who strikes a balance between these two poles, a feat by no means looking easy."

I never knew before that Kassapa didn't much like women and was not in favour of the bikkhuni order.