Discipline
Works focusing primarily on the monastic rules and their origins, but also containing a wealth of historical, biographical, and cultural material (Toh 1-7).
Texts: 24 | Published: 2 | In Progress: 18 | Not Begun: 4 |
Discipline
The texts of the Vinaya, or Discipline (’dul ba) comprise the monastic code, its history, and commentaries on it. As well as detailing all the rules to be kept by monks, nuns, male and female novices, and male and female lay practitioners, they include a wealth of history, biography, and narrative recording the circumstances under which each rule was originally introduced by the Buddha.
This section of the Kangyur corresponds approximately to the Vinayapiṭaka of the Pāli and Chinese Tripiṭakas. Since it was largely due to divergences in the details of monastic code that early Buddhist groups differentiated into various schools, the vinaya literature of each school is quite different. The Pāli vinaya is that of the Theravāda school, while translations of vinaya texts into Chinese include the more or less complete vinaya literature of five other Indian Buddhist schools.
The works in this section of the Kangyur were translated into Tibetan from the Sanskrit texts of the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya, the vinaya tradition held by the first monks to bring their ordination lineage to Tibet. Vinaya texts of other schools do not seem to have been translated into Tibetan. While scholars disagree about whether there was a Mūlasarvāstivādin school as such, distinct from the Sarvāstivādin school, the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya is a distinct body of literature many times longer than any other vinaya. It has survived in Tibetan, Chinese, and partially in Sanskrit in the form of manuscripts found in Gilgit. The Tibetan translations represent a more complete version than the Chinese. The Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya literature is notable for its historical and narrative richness and contains material duplicated in, or paralleled by, a considerable number of sūtras, avadānas, and other works and passages elsewhere in the Kangyur; it almost constitutes a canonical collection in its own right.
The seven works listed here can be divided into the four major traditional divisions of the corpus:
(1) Vinayavibhaṅga, the codified rules themselves and their commentarial texts. Toh 2 and 4 are the Prātimokṣa sūtras outlining the rules for monks and nuns, respectively, and each has a detailed commentary, Toh 3 and 5, in which the incidents that gave rise to the different rules are recounted.
(2) Vinayavastu, Toh 1, a single large text containing seventeen “chapters” or topics (vastu, Tib. gzhi) each delineating a specific aspect of monastic life.
(3) Vinayakṣudrakavastu, Toh 6, a large additional “chapter” dealing with a wide range of miscellaneous topics not covered in the seventeen chapters of the Vinayavastu.
(4) Vinayottaragrantha, Toh 7, a compilation of ten or so subsections, some of which may have been independent texts, providing amplified explanations of the monastic code and its history. Two versions of the Uttaragrantha have been preserved in Tibetan translation (here numbered Toh 7 and 7A), of which the second is more complete, the first consisting only of the Questions of Upāli while the second contains the same text along with a number of others. The colophons and the catalogue of the Degé Kangyur suggest that both versions were retained because of different levels of authentication concerning their respective contents.
Texts in this Section
The Chapter on Going Forth
རབ་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བའི་གཞི། · rab tu ’byung ba’i gzhi
Pravrajyāvastu
Summary
“The Chapter on Going Forth” is the first of seventeen chapters in The Chapters on Monastic Discipline, a four-volume work that outlines the statutes and procedures that govern life in a Buddhist monastic community. This first chapter traces the development of the rite by which postulants were admitted into the monastic order, from the Buddha Śākyamuni’s informal invitation to “Come, monk,” to the more elaborate “Present Day Rite.” Along the way, the posts of preceptor and instructor are introduced, their responsibilities defined, and a dichotomy between elders and immature novices described. While the heart of the chapter is a transcript of the “Present Day Rite,” the text is interwoven with numerous narrative asides, depicting the spiritual ferment of the north Indian region of Magadha during the Buddha’s lifetime, the follies of untrained and unsupervised apprentices, and the need for a formal system of tutelage.
Title variants
- “The Chapter on Going Forth” from The Chapters on Monastic Discipline
- Vinayavastu Pravrajyāvastu
- ’dul ba gzhi las/ rab tu ’byung ba’i gzhi
- འདུལ་བ་གཞི་ལས། རབ་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བའི་གཞི།
- 《 律儀根本 》 之《出家根本》
Chapter 2: On the Rite of Restoration
གསོ་སྦྱོང་གི་གཞི། · gso sbyong gi gzhi/
poṣadhavastu
Summary
The Chapter on Purification narrates the origins of the monastic “confession” ceremony. This ceremony, called Poṣadha in Sanskrit, is the very foundation of monastic life throughout Asia. To this day, monks and nuns gather twice a month for Poṣadha to reaffirm their vows and restore the bonds that knit together the monastic community. This text provides detailed instructions on how to purify mind and monastic discipline through the practice of meditation and the formal Poṣadha confession rite, respectively. Its translation into English will be of great value to non-Tibetan speaking saṅghas who seek to uphold the Buddha’s monastic tradition.
Title variants
- 「律儀根本」之《說戒本事》
Chapter 3: On the Relaxation of Restrictions
དགག་དབྱེའི་གཞི། · dgag dbye'i gzhi/
pravāraṇāvastu
Summary
Describes the pravāraṇā ceremony in which certain restrictions adopted for the rains retreat are relaxed, marking the end of the rains retreat.
Chapter 4: On the Rains
དབྱར་གྱི་གཞི། · dbyar gyi gzhi/
varṣāvastu
Summary
Describes the timing and procedures for the annual rains retreat.
Chapter 5: On Leather
ཀོ་ལྤགས་ཀྱི་གཞི། · ko lpags kyi gzhi/
carmavastu
Summary
This text discusses the use of hides by members of the Buddhist monastic community for various occasions. It begins with a lengthy narrative on the life story of Śroṇa Koṭikarṇa, whose wandering in the realms of the hungry ghosts eventually led him to become an ordained Buddhist monk. Regulations on the matter of hides were first discussed when Śroṇa Koṭikarṇa, on behalf of his master Mahākātyāyana, asked the Blessed One five questions concerning the special circumstances in the region of Aśmāparāntaka. More rules were established to regulate the use of shoes and the materials that could be use to make shoes, rugs, sitting mats, as well as rules that regulate the use of tall and wide bed, issues concerning river-crossing, bathing, and the storage of tools for repairing shoes.
The Chapter on Medicines
སྨན་གྱི་གཞི། · sman gyi gzhi
Bhaiṣajyavastu
Summary
The Bhaiṣajyavastu, “The Chapter on Medicines,” is a part of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, the corpus of monastic law of one of the most influential Buddhist schools in India. This chapter deals with monastic regulations about medicines. At the same time, it also includes various elements not restricted to such rules: stories of the Buddha and his disciples, a lengthy story of the Buddha’s journey for the purpose of quelling an epidemic and converting a nāga, a number of stories of the Buddha’s former lives narrated by the Buddha himself, and a series of verses recited by the Buddha and his disciples about their former lives. Thus, this chapter preserves not only interesting information about medical knowledge shared by ancient Indian Buddhist monastics but also an abundance of Buddhist narrative literature.
Title variants
- “The Chapter on Medicines” from The Chapters on Monastic Discipline
- Vinayavastuni Bhaiṣajyavastu
- ’dul ba gzhi las/ sman gyi gzhi
- འདུལ་བ་གཞི་ལས། སྨན་གྱི་གཞི།
- 藥事
- 《 律儀根本 》 之《藥本事》
Chapter 7: On the Robes
གོས་ཀྱི་གཞི། · gos kyi gzhi/
cīvaravastu
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 「律儀根本」之《衣事》
Chapter 8: On Turning Cloth into Robes
སྲ་བརྐྱང་གི་གཞི། · sra brkyang gi gzhi/
kaṭhinavastu
Chapter 9: On the Monks of Kauśāmbī
ཀཽ་ཤཱམ་བཱིའི་གཞི། · kau shAm bI'i gzhi/
kośāmbakavastu
Chapter 10: On Formal Acts
ལས་ཀྱི་གཞི། · las kyi gzhi/
karmavastu
Chapter 11: On a Group of Troublesome Monks
དམར་སེར་ཅན་གྱི་གཞི། · dmar ser can gyi gzhi/
pāṇḍulohitakavastu
Chapter 12: On Types of Person
གང་ཟག་གི་གཞི། · gang zag gi gzhi/
pudgalavastu
Chapter 13: On Demotions
སྤོ་བའི་གཞི། · spo ba'i gzhi/
pārivāsikavastu
Chapter 14: On Suspending the Restoration Rites
གསོ་སྦྱོང་གཞག་པའི་གཞི། · gso sbyong gzhag pa'i gzhi/
poṣadhasthāpanavastu
Chapter 15: On Shelter
གནས་མལ་གྱི་གཞི། · gnas mal gyi gzhi/
śayanāsanavastu
Chapter 16: On Disputes
རྩོད་པའི་གཞི། · rtsod pa'i gzhi/
adhikaraṇavastu
Chapter 17: On Schisms in the Saṅgha
དགེ་འདུན་གྱི་དབྱེན་གྱི་གཞི། · dge 'dun gyi dbyen gyi gzhi/
saṅghabhedavastu
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Saṅghabhedavastu
The Prātimokṣa Sūtra
སོ་སོར་ཐར་པའི་མདོ། · so sor thar pa'i mdo/
prātimokṣasūtra
Detailed Explanations of Discipline
འདུལ་བ་རྣམ་འབྱེད། · 'dul ba rnam 'byed/
vinayavibhaṅga
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 'dul ba rnam par 'byed pa/
The Bhikṣunīs’ Prātimokṣa Sūtra
དགེ་སློང་མའི་སོ་སོར་ཐར་པའི་མདོ། · dge slong ma'i so sor thar pa'i mdo/
bhikṣunīprātimokṣasūtra
Detailed Explanations on Nuns’ Discipline
དགེ་སློང་མའི་འདུལ་བ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ། · dge slong ma'i 'dul ba rnam par 'byed pa/
bhikṣunīvinayavibhaṅga
Finer Points of Discipline
འདུལ་བ་ཕྲན་ཚེགས་ཀྱི་གཞི། · 'dul ba phran tshegs kyi gzhi/
vinayakṣudrakavastu
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 《根本說一切有部毘奈耶雜事》
Preeminent Account of Discipline
འདུལ་བ་གཞུང་བླ་མ། · 'dul ba gzhung bla ma/
vinayottaragrantha
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 律大全分
Preeminent Account of Discipline
འདུལ་བ་གཞུང་དམ་པ། · 'dul ba gzhung dam pa/
vinayottaragrantha
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- [Note: a variant but more complete version of the preceding text.]