… If I—having gone forth in this well-taught Dhamma & Vinaya—were to remain lazy & heedless, that would not be fitting for me.’ So he reflects on this: ‘My persistence will be aroused & not lax; my mindfulness established & not confused; my body calm & not aroused; my mind centered & unified.’ Having made the Dhamma his governing principle, he abandons what is unskillful, develops what is …
… I was talking a while back to a Zen practitioner — admittedly someone who wasn’t all that advanced — about conflict resolution in the community, and I pointed out that having the Vinaya as our standard was very liberating. To him that was an unusual idea — that rules could be liberating. Part of his quest, he said, was “to learn how to see beyond rules …
… Where relevant, I have also taken a few passages from the Vinaya Piṭaka, the Collection on Discipline, as these seem to come from the oldest strata of the Canon as well.
I have touched only rarely on the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, and on the vast commentarial literature that has grown up around the topic of mindfulness both in the Visuddhimagga (Path of Purity) and in …
… Which three?
“There is the case of the person who—regardless of whether he does or doesn’t get to see the Tathagata, regardless of whether he does or doesn’t get to hear the Dhamma & Vinaya proclaimed by the Tathagata—will not alight on the lawfulness, the rightness of skillful mental qualities. There is the case of the person who—regardless of whether …
To Channa
Channa Sutta (SN 22:90)
Passages in the Vinaya show that Ven. Channa—apparently, Prince Siddhattha’s horseman on the night of his Great Renunciation—was proud and obdurate. After becoming a monk, he was unwilling to accept instruction from any of the other monks. (See the origin stories to Saṅghādisesa 12 and Pācittiya 12.) DN 16 tells of how the Buddha …
… The Vinaya-mukha notes the discrepancy here between the Commentary and the Parivāra, and—siding with the Commentary—advances the thesis that the authors of the Parivāra were simply careless when they mentioned that a kaṭhina could be spread not only by a Community but also by a group. However, the Parivāra’s explanations, when taken as a whole are—with the exception of …
… Thus it is that many evil, unskillful qualities—born of delusion, caused by delusion, originated through delusion, conditioned by delusion—come into play.
“And a person like this is called one who speaks at the wrong time, speaks what is unfactual, speaks what is irrelevant, speaks contrary to the Dhamma, speaks contrary to the Vinaya. Why…? Because of having wrongly inflicted suffering on another …
… This is why we have the Vinaya. This is
why we have the standards he set down for good human values for people
who want to practice, who want to put an end to suffering.
When you develop these two kinds of strength—the strength of
concentration and the strength of integrity—you can see things a lot
more clearly. You can comprehend the …
… That’s why he was very strict in his observance of the Vinaya and the
ascetic practices—and it caused a lot of controversy.
I was recently reading a conversation between Ajaan Chah and some lay
people. He talked about how Ajaan Mun and Ajaan Sao tended to create
controversy wherever they went. The ecclesiastical head of that area
had asked them to go …
… nor pain.
Vijjā: Clear knowledge; genuine awareness; science (specifically, the cognitive powers developed through the practice of concentration and discernment).
Vimutti: Release; freedom from the fabrications and conventions of the mind.
Vinaya: The disciplinary rules of the monastic order.
Viññāṇa: Cognizance; consciousness; the act of taking note of sense data and ideas as they occur.
* * *
If anything in this translation is inaccurate or misleading …
… And, as is
explained in the Vinaya, the precepts for monks serve several
purposes, internal and external. Some of them are there for training
the mind; others are there for creating calm, peace, and harmony in
the community; still others are there so that the community inspires
respect. If monks are squabbling or competing with one another to get
fancy things, it doesn’t …
… If he
hadn’t had a strong sense of right and wrong, he wouldn’t have set
forth the Vinaya, he wouldn’t have established the precepts. He
wouldn’t have pointed out that there are lots of views out there that
are dead wrong, that cause people to suffer, that keep people in the
round of rebirth, that prevent them from finding any …
… Let me obtain the Going-forth in the Blessed One’s presence, let me obtain Acceptance [into the Saṅgha of monks].”
“Anyone, Kassapa, who has previously belonged to another sect and who desires the Going-forth & Acceptance in this Dhamma & Vinaya, must first undergo probation for four months. If, at the end of four months, the monks feel so moved, they give him the …
… This is in sharp contrast to the Vinayas of some of the other early schools, such as the Mūlasarvāstivādins, who went to great lengths to prohibit non-Buddhist kings from later rescinding such arrangements. This point argues for the relative lateness of these rules in the other Vinayas: The Buddha was not so foolish as to try to legislate for kings.
The Canon does …
… But the
monk was learned & well versed in the tradition, had memorized
the Dhamma, the Vinaya, & the Mātikās,152 was wise, competent,
knowledgeable, scrupulous, anxious (not to commit an offense), &
desirous of training.
And so the monk went to his like-minded companions and said,
“This is a non-offense. This is not an offense. I have not fallen
into an offense. It’s …
… According to the Commentary, “here” can mean either here in the human realm or here in the Dhamma-Vinaya of a Buddha.
See also: AN 3:77–78; AN 3:85–87; AN 4:123–126; Ud 4:4
… And it’s forbidden in the Vinaya, in the meal protocols. Just now I didn’t give a full explanation. The Vinaya says that when a monk makes use of the four requisites—cloth, almsfood, medicine, and lodgings: In the area of food, it says that if you bring it back to eat but you don’t eat it all, you should take care …
… It’s related to Vinaya, the discipline.
Discipline is a word we don’t like. We tend to think of it as having
to do with punishment and harsh regulations. But it’s simply a choice
that you’re making. You’re learning from your past experience that
some of your desires are in your best interest, and some of your
desires are not …
… Vineyya, the verb used here, is a
verb that’s related to a Vinaya, or discipline. You discipline those
thoughts. You don’t give them any space in your mind.
Now, there are times when the Buddha will have you think in terms of
how the world is, mainly for the sake of samvega, but also for the
sake of understanding action: the power …
AN 3:40 Ādhipateyya Sutta | Governing Principles
… If I—having gone forth in this well-taught Dhamma & Vinaya—were to remain lazy & heedless, that would not be fitting for me.’ So he reflects on this: ‘My persistence will be aroused & not lax; my mindfulness established & not confused; my body calm & not aroused; my mind centered & unified.’ Having made the Dhamma his governing principle, he abandons what is unskillful, develops what is …
General Transaction Statements | The Buddhist Monastic Code, Volumes I & II
… Idha amhesu āyasmā Itthannāmo sabba-mahallako bahussuto dhamma-dharo vinaya-dharo, sabrahmacārīnaṁ sandassako samādapako samuttejako sampahaṁsako, bahunnaṁ ācariyo [vā upajjhāyo vā] hutvā, ovādako anusāsako, samattho ca taṁ taṁ vinaya-kammaṁ avikopetvā kaṭhinaṁ attharituṁ. Maññām’aham-evaṁ “Sabbo’yaṁ saṅgho imaṁ sapparivāraṁ kaṭhina-dussaṁ āyasmato Itthannāmassa dātu-kāmo, tasmiṁ kaṭhinaṁ attharante sabbo’yaṁ saṅgho samma-d-eva anumodissati.” Āyasmato Itthannāmasseva imaṁ sapparivāraṁ kaṭhina-dussaṁ dātuṁ …
Discipline Is a Choice
… It’s related to Vinaya, the discipline. Discipline is a word we don’t like. We tend to think of it as having to do with punishment and harsh regulations. But it’s simply a choice that you’re making. You’re learning from your past experience that some of your desires are in your best interest, and some of your desires are not …
