Part IV—The Bhikkhu and the Laity. - The Bond of Alms. - Buddha and his dhamma,

:: 1. The Bond of Alms. ::
1. The Sangh was an organised body the membership of which was not open to all. 
2. To be a mere Parivrajaka was not enough to give the Parivrajaka a membership of the Sangh. 
3. It is only after the Parivrajaka had obtained Upasampada that he could become a member of the Sangh. 
4. The Sangh was an independent body. It was independent even of its founder. 
5. It was autonomous. It could admit anyone it liked to its membership. It could dismember any member provided it acted in accordance with the rules of the Vinaya Pitaka. 
6. The only cord which bound the Bhikkhu to the Laity was alms. 
7. The Bhikkhu depended upon alms and it is the laity who gave alms. 8. The laity was not organised. 
9. There was a Sangha-Diksha or a ceremony for marking the initiation of a person in the Sangh. 
10. Sangha-Diksha included both initiation into the Sangh as well as into the Dhamma.
11. But there was no separate Dhamma-Diksha for those who wanted to be initiated into the Dhamma but did not wish to become members of the Sangh, one of the consequences of which was to go from home into homelessness. 
12. This was a grave omission. It was one of the causes which ultimatelyled to the downfall of Buddhism in India. 
13. For, this absence of the initiation ceremony left the laity free to wander from one religion to another and, worse still, follow at one and the same time.