Vinaya (3): The Cullavagga
by T. W. Rhys Davids | 1881 | 137,074 words
The Cullavagga (part of the Vinaya collection) includes accounts of the First and Second Buddhist Councils as well as the establishment of the community of Buddhist nuns. The Cullavagga also elaborates on the etiquette and duties of Bhikkhus....
Cullavagga, Khandaka 4, Chapter 10
1. 'There are ten cases, O Bhikkhus, in which the taking of votes is invalid; and ten in which the taking of votes is valid.
'Which are the ten in which the taking of votes is invalid? When the matter in dispute is trivial[2]—when the case has not run its course (that is, when. the necessary preliminaries of submission to arbitration have not been carried out[3])—when regarding the matter in dispute the Bhikkhus have not formally remembered, or been formally called upon to remember, the offence[4]—when the taker of votes[5] knows that those whose opinions are not in accordance with the law will be in the majority, or probably[6] may be in the majority—when he knows that the voting will result in a schism in the Saṃgha—when he is in doubt whether the voting will result in a schism in the Saṃgha—when the votes are irregularly given[7]—when all do not vote equally[8]—and when they do not vote in accordance with the view (which they really hold). These are the ten cases in which the voting is invalid[9].
2. 'And which are the ten cases in which the voting is valid?'
[The ten cases are precisely the reverse of the other ten.]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
On this chapter, see further below, IV, 14, 24-26.
[2]:
Oramattakaṃ. Compare the English law maxim, De minimis non curat lex.
[3]:
Buddhaghosa says, Na ca gatigatan ti dve tayo āvāse na gataṃ, tattha tatth’ eva vā dvitikkhattuṃ avinicchitaṃ. See on these proceedings above.
[4]:
Buddhaghosa says, Na ca sarita-sāritan ti dvitikkhattuṃ tehi bhikkhūhi sayaṃ saritaṃ va aññehi sāritaṃ vā na hoti.
[5]:
Gānātī ti salākaṃ gāhento jānāti. (S.P.)
[6]:
App eva nāma. That this phrase does not merely mean 'perhaps' is clear from its use in § 2.
[7]:
Adhammena gaṇhantī ti adhammavādino evaṃ mayaṃ bahū bhavissāmā ti dve dve salākāyo gaṇhanti. (S.P.)
[8]:
On vaggā, here = vi + agga, compare our note on the 21st Pācittiya, and Cullavagga I, 2, 1. Buddhaghosa here says, Vaggā gaṇhantī ti dve dhammavādino ekaṃ dhammavādisalākaṃ gaṇhanti evaṃ dhammavādino na bahū bhavissanti ti maññamānā.
[9]:
With this chapter the 26th section of chapter 14 should be compared, where very curious means are inculcated for avoiding some of the votes here stated to be invalid.