Vinaya (2): The Mahavagga

by T. W. Rhys Davids | 1881 | 156,382 words

The Mahavagga (part of the Vinaya collection) includes accounts of Gautama Buddha’s and the ten principal disciples’ awakenings, as well as rules for ordination, rules for reciting the Patimokkha during uposatha days, and various monastic procedures....

Mahavagga, Khandaka 1, Chapter 36

1. At that time the Bhikkhus whose ācariyas and upajjhāyas were gone away, or had returned to the worId, or had died, or were gone over to a (schismatic) faction, were not acquainted with (the rules about) the cessation of their nissayas[1]. They told this thing to the Blessed One.

'There are five cases of cessation of a nissaya, O Bhikkhus, between (saddhivihārika and) upajjhāya: When the upajjhāya is gone away, or he has returned to the world, or has died, or is gone over to a (schismatic) faction; the fifth case is that of order (given by the upajjhāya to the saddhivihārika[2]). These, O Bhikkhu's, are the five cases of the cessation of a nissaya between (saddhivihārika and) upajjhāya.

'There are six cases of cessation of a nissaya, O Bhikkhus, between (antevāsika and) ācariya: When the ācariya is gone away, &c.; the fifth case is that of order (given by the ācariya to the antevāsika); or (sixthly) when the ācariya and the upajjhāya have come together at the same place[3]. These, O Bhikkhus, are the six cases of cessation of a nissaya between (antevāsika and) ācariya.

2. 'In five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu should not confer the upasampadā ordination, nor give a nissaya, nor ordain a novice[4]: When he does not possess full perfection in what belongs to moral practices; or does not possess full perfection in what belongs to self-concentration; or does not possess full perfection in what belongs to wisdom; or does not possess full perfection in what belongs to emancipation; or does not possess full perfection in what belongs to knowledge and insight into emancipation. In these five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu should not confer the upasampadā ordination, nor give a nissaya, nor ordain a novice.

3. 'In five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu may confer the upasampadā ordination, give a nissaya, and ordain a novice: When he possesses full perfection in what belongs to moral practices, &c. In these five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu may, &c.

4. 'And also in other five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu should not confer, &c.: When he does not possess for himself full perfection in what belongs to moral practices and is not able to help others to full perfection in what belongs to moral practices; or does not possess for himself full perfection in what belongs to self-concentration, and is not able to help others to full perfection in what belongs to self-concentration, &c.

5. 'In five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu may confer, &c.: When he possesses for himself full perfection in what belongs to moral practices, and is able to help others to full perfection, &c.

6. 'And also in other five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu should not confer, &c.: When he is unbelieving, shameless, fearless of sinning, indolent, forgetful. In these five cases, &c.

7. 'In five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu may confer, &c.: When he is believing, modest, fearful of sinning, strenuous, of ready memory. In these five cases, &c.

8. 'And also in other five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu should not confer , &c.: When as regards moral practices he is guilty of moral transgressions; or when as regards the rules of conduct[5] he is guilty of transgressions in his conduct; or when as regards belief he is guilty of heresy; or when he is unlearned; or when he is foolish. In these five cases, &c.

9. 'In five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu may confer, &c.: When as regards moral practices he is not guilty of moral transgressions, &c.; when he is learned; and when he is wise. In these five cases, &c.

10. 'And also in other five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu should not confer, &c.: When he is not able to nurse or to get nursed an antevāsika or a saddhivihārika when he is sick, to appease him or to cause him to be appeased when discontent with religious life has sprung up within him, to dispel or to cause to be dispelled according to the Dhamma doubts of conscience which have arisen in his mind; when he does not know what is an offence; or does not know how to atone for an offence. In these five cases, &c.

11. 'In five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu may confer, &c.: When he is able (&c., down to:); when he knows what is an offence; and knows how to atone for an offence. In these five cases, &c.

12. 'And also in other five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu should not confer, &c.: When he is not able to train an antevāsika or a saddhivihārika in the precepts of proper conduct[6], to educate him in the elements of morality[7], to instruct him in what pertains to the Dhamma, to instruct him in what pertains to the Vinaya, to discuss or to make another discuss according to the Dhamma a false doctrine that might arise. In these:fÏve cases, &c.

13. 'In five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu may confer, &c.: When he is able, &c.

14. 'And also in other five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu should not confer, &c.: When he does not know what is an offence; or does not know what is no offence; or does not know what is a light offence; or does not know what is a grave offence; when the two Pātimokkhas are not perfectly known to him in their entirety, with all their divisions and their whole course, and with the entire discussion according to the single rules and to the single parts of each rule. In these five cases, &c.

15. 'In five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu may confer, &c.: When he knows, &c.

16. 'And also in other five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu should not confer, &c.: When he does not know what is an offence; or does not know what is no offence; or does not know what is a light offence; or does not know what is a grave offence; or when he has not completed the tenth year (after his upasampadā). In these five cases, &c.

17. 'In five cases, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu may confer, &c.: When he knows (&c., down to:); when he has completed ten years or more than ten years (after his upasampadā). In these five cases, &c.'

End of the sixteen times five cases concerning the admissibility of upasampadā.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

That is, 'did not know how to decide whether their nissaya was destroyed, or not.'

[2]:

This refers, according to Buddhaghosa, to the paṇāmanā (turning away of the saddhivihārika); see chap. 27. 2.

[3]:

Buddhaghosa: 'Coming together may be understood either by seeing or by hearing. If a saddhivihārika who lives in dependence (nissāya) on his ācariya sees his upajjhāya paying homage to a sacred shrine in the same Vihāra, or going on his rounds in the same village, cessation of the nissaya (towards the ācariya) is the consequence. If he hears the voice of his upajjhāya, who preaches the Dhamma or gladdens (lay-people by religious discourse), in the Vihāra or in the interior of a house, and if he recognises that it is his upajjhāya's voice, cessation of the nissaya (towards the ācariya) is the consequence.'

[4]:

About the ordination of novices, see chap. 54. 3.

[5]:

According to Buddhaghosa, moral transgression (adhisīla) is said with regard to offences against the pārājika and saṃghādisesa rules, while transgressions in conduct (ajjhācāra) consist in offences against the minor rules of the Pātimokkha. Buddhaghosa's explanation is confirmed by the Mahāvagga IV, 16, 12.

[6]:

According to Buddhaghosa, this refers to instruction in the khandhakavatta (i.e. in the rules contained in the Khandhaka texts, Mahāvagga and Cullavagga?). See also Spence Hardy, Manual, p. 492.

[7]:

This means instructing him in the sekhapaññatti (Buddhaghosa). We cannot say what is the accurate meaning of the last term, which apparently, as its verbal meaning seems to imply, refers to ordinances for those Bhikkhus who have entered the path of sanctification, but have not yet attained Arahatship. Spence Hardy (Manual, p. 493) gives the term sekha-sīla, which he explains as the observance of precepts in order to become a sekha. See also Hardy's note on ādibrahmakariya-sila, l. l. p. 492.

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