BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

The Lie Chapter Chapter 8.1Effort. This rule is sometimes translated as dealing with slander — false tale-bearing— but as the examples in the Vibhaṅga show, it actually deals with true talebearing:X really does say insulting things about Y, and Z gives a true report. TheVinaya-mukha notes that if Z engages in false tale-bearing, then regardless ofwhether X and Z's listener are bhikkhus, Z incurs the full penalty under Pc 1.Intent. To give a true report of such matters with motives other than those ofwinning favor or causing a rift entails no offense. Examples of this would include:informing a senior bhikkhu when one bhikkhu has accused another of aserious offense, so that an inquiry can be made for the sake of harmony inthe Community; ortelling a senior bhikkhu about a student of his who is making racist remarks,so that the senior bhikkhu can put a stop to it.Summary: Telling a bhikkhu about insulting remarks made by another bhikkhu — inhopes of winning favor or causing a rift — is a pācittiya offense.4. Should any bhikkhu have an unordained person recite Dhammaline by line (with him), it is to be confessed.This is an offense with two factors: 1) Effort: One gets a student to recite Dhamma line-by-line with oneself(which, as we shall see below, means to train the student to be a skilled reciterof a Pali Dhamma text). 2) Object: The student is neither a bhikkhu nor a bhikkhun .Only the first factor needs explanation, and is best treated under two headings:Dhamma and reciting line-by-line.Dhamma the Vibhaṅga defines as "a saying made by the Buddha, his disciples,seers, or heavenly beings, connected with the teaching or connected with the goal."The Commentary devotes a long discussion to these terms, coming to theconclusion that connected with the Dhamma refers to the Pali Canon — in Pali, notin translation — as agreed on in the first three councils, while connected with thegoal (attha) refers to the Mahā Aṭṭhakathā, the most revered ancient commentary(only in its original Pali version, the Sub-commentary says).The ancient commentaries disagreed as to what other works would fit under thiscategory, but Buddhaghosa's conclusion seems to be that — in the Milinda Pañhā,for example — Ven. Nāgasena's quotes of the Buddha's words would count, but nothis own formulations of the teaching, and the same principle holds for other textsquoting the Buddha's words as well. The ancient commentaries are unanimous,239