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== '''[[Buddhist councils]]''' ==
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A number of '''Buddhist councils''' have been held, or alleged to have been held, over the course of the history of [[Buddhism]]. Some are recognized by particular Buddhist traditions as equivalent to ecumenical councils in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity (that term is not generally used in a Buddhist context); others are acknowledged as local.
==Footnotes==
 
At the present day, Mahayana Buddhism gives little prominence to councils, but they are an important part of the self-concept of Theravada Buddhism. Formerly, different Theravada countries had different lists of councils, but recently the Burmese numbering has generally prevailed.<ref>"Die birmanische Zählung hat sich jedoch neuerdings allgemein durchgesetzt." Heinz Bechert, ''Buddhismus, Staat und Gesellschaft in den Ländern des Theravāda-Buddhismus'', Alfred Metzner, Frankfurt/Berlin, volume 1, 1966, page 105, note 362</ref>
 
===First Council===
 
This council is described in the scriptures. They tell how Kassapa/Kāśyapa (Pali/Sanskrit), apparently the senior surviving disciple of the Buddha, convened it shortly after the Buddha's death (currently dated by most scholars around 400 BC), in order to preserve the teachings. It comprised 500 senior monks (a conventional large number) meeting at Rājagaha/-gṛha (modern name Rajgir). Kassapa questioned Upāli on the monastic discipline and Ānanda on the rest of the teachings (in most versions, but some have him expounding the Abhidharma himself). The council compiled and recited the teachings and ensured their passing on. (It was not customary in ancient India to write down religious teachings; if writing had been introduced in the Buddha's day at all it was used only for mundane matters such as bookkeeping.)
 
Historians reject this account as implausible, though they are not agreed on whether some small gathering of leading disciples took place with such a purpose, or whether the whole story is just a projection of later practice back in time.
 
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Latest revision as of 09:19, 11 September 2020

The Mathare Valley slum near Nairobi, Kenya, in 2009.

Poverty is deprivation based on lack of material resources. The concept is value-based and political. Hence its definition, causes and remedies (and the possibility of remedies) are highly contentious.[1] The word poverty may also be used figuratively to indicate a lack, instead of material goods or money, of any kind of quality, as in a poverty of imagination.

Definitions

Primary and secondary poverty

The use of the terms primary and secondary poverty dates back to Seebohm Rowntree, who conducted the second British survey to calculate the extent of poverty. This was carried out in York and was published in 1899. He defined primary poverty as having insufficient income to “obtain the minimum necessaries for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency”. In secondary poverty, the income “would be sufficient for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency were it not that some portion of it is absorbed by some other expenditure.” Even with these rigorous criteria he found that 9.9% of the population was in primary poverty and a further 17.9% in secondary.[2]

Absolute and comparative poverty

More recent definitions tend to use the terms absolute and comparative poverty. Absolute is in line with Rowntree's primary poverty, but comparative poverty is usually expressed in terms of ability to play a part in the society in which a person lives. Comparative poverty will thus vary from one country to another.[3] The difficulty of definition is illustrated by the fact that a recession can actually reduce "poverty".

Causes of poverty

The causes of poverty most often considered are:

  • Character defects
  • An established “culture of poverty”, with low expectations handed down from one generation to another
  • Unemployment
  • Irregular employment, and/or low pay
  • Position in the life cycle (see below) and household size
  • Disability
  • Structural inequality, both within countries and between countries. (R H Tawney: “What thoughtful rich people call the problem of poverty, thoughtful poor people call with equal justice a problem of riches”)[4]

As noted above, most of these, or the extent to which they can be, or should be changed, are matters of heated controversy.

Footnotes
  1. ↑ Alcock, P. Understanding poverty. Macmillan. 1997. ch 1.
  2. ↑ Harris, B. The origins of the British welfare state. Palgrave Macmillan. 2004. Also, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  3. ↑ Alcock, Pt II
  4. ↑ Alcock, Preface to 1st edition and pt III.

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