Before discussing the Buddhist Councils, it is helpful to first understand what Buddhism is.
What, then, is Buddhism?
In Pāli, Buddhism is known as Buddha Sāsana. The word Buddha refers to "the Awakened One", while Sāsana means "teaching", "dispensation", or "instruction". Thus, Buddha Sāsana literally means the Teaching of the Buddha, commonly referred to as Buddhism.
In the Pāli Canon, however, Buddhism is more commonly referred to as "the Dhamma and Vinaya of the Blessed One" or "the Dhamma and Vinaya of the Tathāgata." This indicates that the Buddha's Dispensation consists of two inseparable aspects: Dhamma and Vinaya.
The Dhamma was later compiled into the Sutta Piṭaka and the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, while the Vinaya was compiled into the Vinaya Piṭaka.
The Dhamma comprises the Buddha's teachings, principles, doctrines, and methods of practice. The Vinaya is the monastic discipline—the code of conduct governing the daily lives of monks and nuns, prescribing what should and should not be done. Together, the Dhamma and the Vinaya form the complete Teaching of the Buddha, providing both the doctrinal foundation and the practical discipline for living the holy life.
For this reason, the scriptures frequently use the expression "going forth in this Dhamma and Vinaya," meaning to enter the monastic life and practise in accordance with the Buddha's Teaching and Discipline.
During the Buddha's lifetime, neither the Dhamma nor the Vinaya was committed to writing. Both were preserved entirely through oral transmission. It was only about five hundred years after the Buddha's Parinibbāna that the Tipiṭaka was first written down, an event that took place in
Sri Lanka.
The Tipiṭaka that we study today has been faithfully preserved through generations of learned elders who memorised and orally transmitted the teachings before they were systematically compiled, organised, and committed to writing. All of this took place after the Buddha's Parinibbāna.
From 17 May 1954 to 24 May 1956, the Sixth Buddhist Council was convened in Myanmar. A Buddhist Council is an assembly of senior elders who gather to collectively recite, verify, and preserve the Tipiṭaka. The scriptures that have come down to us today have all been safeguarded through this continuous tradition of communal recitation and compilation.
Let us now turn to the history of the Buddhist Councils.