BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

Buddhist Monastic Code 1Even a cursory glance at the Pāṭimokkha rules will show that many of them deal withthe latter sort of offense, and that such offenses concern relatively minor matters.The question often arises, then: Why this concern with minutiae? The answer is thatthe rules deal with social relationships — among the bhikkhus themselves andbetween the bhikkhus and the laity — and that social relationships are often definedby seemingly minor points of behavior.Take, for instance, the rule that a bhikkhu not eat food unless it is handed to him orto a fellow bhikkhu by an unordained person on that day. This rule has wide-rangingramifications. It means, among other things, that a bhikkhu may not leave humansociety to lead a solitary hermit's existence, foraging for food on his own. He musthave frequent contact with humanity, however minimal, and in that contact heperforms a service to others, even if simply offering them a noble example ofconduct and giving them an opportunity to develop the virtue of generosity. Many ofthe other seemingly trivial rules — such as those forbidding digging in the soil anddamaging plant life — will reveal, on reflection, implications of a similar scope.Thus the extremely detailed nature of the rules cannot be attributed to a strictlylegalist temperament. And from what we have seen of the way in which the Buddhaformulated the rules — dealing with cases as they arose — there is reason to doubtthat he himself wanted them to form an airtight system. This impression is explicitlyborne out by several passages in the Canon. Take, for instance, this discourse:"At one time the Blessed One was living in Vesālī, in the Great Wood. Then a certainVajjian bhikkhu went to him... and said: 'Venerable sir, more than 150 training rulescome up for recitation every fortnight. I cannot train in reference to them.'"'Bhikkhu, can you train in reference to the three trainings: the training in heightenedvirtue, the training in heightened mind, the training in heightened discernment?'"'Yes, venerable sir, I can...'"'Then train in reference to those three trainings... When you train in reference tothe training in heightened virtue... heightened mind... heightened discernment,passion will be abandoned in you, aversion... delusion will be abandoned in you.Then with the abandoning of passion... aversion... delusion, you will not doanything unskillful or engage in any evil.'"Later on, that bhikkhu trained in heightened virtue... heightened mind... heighteneddiscernment... Passion... aversion... delusion were abandoned in him... He did notdo anything unskillful or engage in any evil." — AN III.85Another discourse with a similar point:"'Bhikkhus, more than 150 training rules come up for recitation every fortnight, inreference to which sons of good families desiring the goal train themselves. Thereare these three trainings under which they (the training rules) are all gathered. Which6