Venerable Mahāsi Sayādaw
Father of Modern Sathipattana Bhawana.
Father of Modern Sathipattana Bhawana.
The Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana (1954 - 1956)
The Sixth Buddhist Council was inaugurated at Kaba Aye in Yangon (formerly Rangoon, Burma) in 1954, 83 years after the Fifth Council in Mandalay. It was sponsored by the Burmese Government led by the Prime Minister, the Honorable U Nu. He had previously authorized the construction of the Mahā Pāsāna Gūhā, a great artificial cave built from the ground up and completed in 1952, to serve as the gathering place, much like Rajgiri's Sattapānni Cave in India had housed the First Council immediately after the death of the Buddha. This new "cave" measured 220' by 140' inside and could seat 10,000 people.
The Sixth Council opened on May 17, 1954. Like the preceding councils, its chief objective was to recite, affirm and preserve the genuine wording of the Vinaya, Suttas and Abhidhamma--the pariyatti--as related by the Buddha and his principal disciples. This Council was unique in that the 2,500 learned Theravāda monks who participated came from eight countries--Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India and Nepal--unlike previous councils which had included monks from the host countries only. Mahayana monks and representatives from all Buddhist countries also attended. The only Western monks to participate were German-born, Sri-Lanka-residing Ven. Nyanatiloka and Ven. Nyanaponika. (මේ දෙනම ලංකාවේ දෙනමක් වීම අපිට ලොකු ගෞරවයක්. ඒ වගේම තමයි බලංගොඩ ආනන්ද මෛත්රිය හාමුදුරුවොත් මේ 6 වැනි ධම්ම සංගායනාවෙදි අපේ රට ගෞරවයට පාත්ර කලා.)
Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw performed the central role as Chief Questioner (Pucchaka), which was fulfilled ny Venerable Mahakassapa in the First Counci;, held three months after the Buddha's passing away.
Alongside the venerable Mahasi Sayadaw, the Mingun Sayadaw (Venerable Bhadanta Vicittasārābhivaṃsa Tipiṭakadhara Dhammabhaṇḍāgārika) played a key role in the Sangha Executive Committee. He participated in answering all questions concerning the Vinaya, the portion of the Tripitaka dealing with disciplinary rules of the Sangha. (මේ මින්ගුන් සයාඩෝ ගැන ගිනස් වාර්තා පොතේ තියෙන්නේ මෙහෙමයි, Human memory: Bhandanta Vicitsara (sic) recited 16,000 pages of Buddhist canonical text in Rangoon, Burma in May 1954. Rare instances of eidetic memory the ability to project and hence "usually" recall material are known to science .)
The traditional recitation of the Dhamma Scriptures took two years during which the Tipiṭaka and its allied literature in all the scripts were painstakingly examined. Any differences found were noted down, the necessary corrections were made and all the versions were then collated. Happily, it was found that there was not much difference in the content of any of the texts. Finally, after the Council had officially approved them, all the volumes of the Tipiṭaka and their Commentaries were prepared for printing on modern presses and published in the Myanmar (Burmese) script. This notable achievement was made possible through the dedicated efforts of the two thousand five hundred monks and numerous lay people. Their work came to an end in May, 1956, two and a half millennia after the Lord attained Parinibbāna. This council's work was the unique achievement of representatives from the entire Buddhist world. The version of the Tipiṭaka which it undertook to produce has been recognized as being true to the pristine teachings of Gotama the Buddha and the most authoritative rendering of them to date.
The volumes printed after the Sixth Saṅgāyana were printed in Myanmar script. In order to make the volumes to the people of India, Vipassana Research Institute started the project to print the Tipiṭaka with its Aṭṭhakathās and ṭikas in Devanagari in the year 1990.
This Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana CD-ROM which is a reproduction of the text authenticated in the Sixth Saṅgāyana is now being presented to the world so that the words of the Buddha are easily made available to the devotees and the scholars. The Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana CD-ROM can presently be viewed in the following scripts Devanagari, Myanmar and Roman., Sri Lankan, Thai and Mongol scripts.
you can download it from hear http://www.tipitaka.org/cst/cst4-2008-04-20-beta15.exe
