The Bhikkhus Rules
A Guide for Laypeople
by Bhikkhu Ariyesako | 1998 | 50,970 words
The Theravadin Buddhist Monk's Rules compiled and explained by: Bhikkhu Ariyesako Discipline is for the sake of restraint, restraint for the sake of freedom from remorse, freedom from remorse for the sake of joy, joy for the sake of rapture, rapture for the sake of tranquillity, tranquillity for the sake of pleasure, pleasure for the sake of conce...
Buddhist Nuns
This book is really only concerned with bhikkhus. [1] In the Theravaada lineage it seems that the bhikkhunii ordination lineage for women given by the Buddha — equivalent to bhikkhu ordination for men — was lost in Sri Lanka with the fall of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka in the eleventh century C.E. and finally with the fall of Pagan in the thirteenth century C.E. Bhikkhuniis originally observed 311 Paa.timokkha Rules, and there are whole sections of the Paali Vinaya texts devoted to the their rules.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Nowadays, there is much interest among women wanting to re establish such a lineage but how to achieve this is problematic. Fortunately, there are places where women can practice the Holy Life in robes as dasasiila mata nuns, developing the best way of Dhamma practice for themselves. (Dasasiila mata is a nuns ordination based on the Ten Precepts.) For example: the Nuns Community, Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, Great Gaddesden, Nr. Hemel Hempstead, Herts HP1 3BZ, UK.(See also BA ch.VII)