Vinaya

vinaya (T. 'dul ba འདུལ་བ་; C. lü; J. ritsu; K. yul 律) is the corpus of rules and regulations for Buddhist monastics, particularly with regard to fully ordained monks (bhiksu) and nuns (bhiksuni).

This term "is used by extension for those texts in which these codes are set forth," which form the Vinaya Pitaka ("basket of discipline") within each of the three major Buddhist canons (Pali, Chinese, and Tibetan). Each of these canons has their own version of the "Vinaya Pitaka."

Based on their respective canons, the three major living traditions of Buddhism (Theravada, East Asian Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism) each follow their own version of the vinaya. In addition to these "living" vinaya traditions, vinaya texts of several Early Buddhist schools are also preserved in the East Asian and Tibetan canons.

The word vinaya is derived from a Sanskrit verb that can mean to lead, take away, train, tame, or guide, or alternately to educate or teach. It is often translated as "discipline."

The term Dhamma-vinaya ("doctrine and discipline") was often used by the Buddha to refer to his complete teachings, indicating the importance of the vinaya within the system of wisdom and ethics taught by the Buddha.

The vinaya texts also contain a wealth of historical, biographical, and cultural material.

Origins

Access to Insight states

When the Buddha first established the Sangha, the community initially lived in harmony without any codified rules of conduct. As the Sangha gradually grew in number and evolved into a more complex society, occasions inevitably arose when a member would act in an unskillful way. Whenever one of these cases was brought to the Buddha's attention, he would lay down a rule establishing a suitable punishment for the offense, as a deterrent to future misconduct.

Over time, this process led to the establishment of a set of rules and regulations for the monastic community. These rules were not written down during the lifetime of the Buddha; rather they were memorized by senior monks.

According to tradition, at the First Council, the disciple with the greatest knowledge of the monastic code of conduct, Upali, was asked to recite all of the rules for the monastic community. Upali recited all of the rules, along the the context or background for each rule. These rules and the stories behind them were memorized by designated monks, who in turn passed their knowledge down to later generations in an oral tradition. This oral tradition formed the basis of the Vinaya Pitaka.

Over time, the original community of monastics divided into different factions or "schools," and each school developed their own versions of the Vinaya Pitaka. These different versions of the oral tradition were eventually written down, leaving different versions of the texts that formed the Vinaya Pitaka for each school.

Contemporary scholars have noted that all of the known Vinaya texts from the different schools use the same system of organizing rules and contain the same sections, leading scholars to believe that the fundamental organization of the Vinaya must date from before the separation of schools.

While traditional accounts fix the origins of the Vinaya during the lifetime of the Buddha, all of the existing manuscript traditions are from significantly later--most from around the 5th Century CE. While the early Buddhist community seems to have lived primarily as wandering monks who begged for alms, many Vinaya rules in every tradition assumes settled monasticism to be the norm, along with regular collective meals organized by lay donors or funded by monastic wealth.

The earliest dates that can be established for most Vinaya texts is their translation into Chinese around the 5th Century CE. The earliest established dates of the Theravada Vinaya stem from the composition of Buddhaghosa's commentaries in the 5th Century, and became known to Western scholarship through 17th and 18th Century manuscripts.

The Mulasarvastivada Vinaya was translated into Chinese in the 8th Century and into Tibetan in the 9th Century, but Sanskrit manuscripts exist from the 5th - 7th Century. Scholarly consensus places the composition of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya in the early centuries of the first millennium, though all the manuscripts and translations are relatively late.

Overview

The core of the Vinaya is a set of rules known as Patimokkha in Pāli and Prātimokṣa in Sanskrit. This is the shortest portion of every Vinaya, and universally regarded as the earliest. These rules are listed in descending order, from the most serious (four rules that entail expulsion), followed by five further categories of more minor offenses. Most traditions include an explicit listing of rules intended for recitation, called Prātimokṣa-sutra, but in the Theravada tradition the Patimokkha rules occur in writing only alongside their exegesis and commentary, the Vibhanga described below. While the Prātimokṣa is preserved independent of the Vibhanga in many traditions, scholars generally do not believe that the rules it contains were observed and enforced without the context provided by an interpretive tradition, even in the early era- many of the exceptions and opinions of the Vibhanga seem to stem from older customs regarding what was and wasn't permissible for wandering ascetics in the Indian tradition.

The second major component of the Vinaya is the Vibhanga or Suttavibhanga, which provides commentary on each of the rules listed in the Prātimokṣa. This typically includes the origin of the rule in a specific incident or dispute, along with variations that indicate related situations covered by the rule, as well as exceptions that account for situations that are not to be regarded as violations of a more general rule.

The third division of the Vinaya is known as the Vinayavastu, Skandhaka, or Khandhaka, meaning 'divisions' or 'chapters'. Each section of these texts deals with a specific aspect of monastic life, containing, for instance, procedures and regulations related to ordination, obtaining and storing medical supplies, and the procurement and distribution of robes. The final segment of this division, the Ksudrakavastu ("Minor division") contains miscellanea that does not belong to other sections, and in some traditions is so large that it is treated as a separate work. Strong agreement between multiple different recensions of the Skandhaka across different traditions and language with respect to the number of chapters (generally 20) and their topics and contents has led scholars to the conclusion that they must stem from a common origin.

Parallel and independent Prātimokṣa rules and Vibhnagas exist in each tradition for bhikkhus and bhikkhunis. The majority of rules for monks and nuns are identical, but the bhikkhuni Prātimokṣa and Vibhanga includes additional rules that are specific to nuns, including the Eight Garudhammas. In the Pali tradition, a specific chapter of the Khandhaka deals with issues pertaining specifically to nuns, and in the Mulasarvastivada tradition devotes most of one of the two volumes of its Ksudrakavastu to issues pertaining to nuns.

Beyond this point, the distinct Vinaya traditions differ in their organization. The Pali Vinaya includes a text known as the Parivāra that contains a question-and-answer format that recapitulates various rules in different groupings, as well as a variety of analyses. The Chinese texts include two sections not found in the Pali tradition, the Niddanas and Matrkas that have counterparts in the Tibetan tradition's Uttaragrantha. Relatively little analysis of these texts have been conducted, but they seem to contain an independent reorganization of the Vinaya rules that may be an earlier strata of texts.

Texts

The Theravada Vinaya is preserved in the Pāli Canon in the Vinaya Piṭaka. The Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya is preserved in both the Tibetan Buddhist canon in the Kangyur, in a Chinese edition, and in an incomplete Sanskrit manuscript. Some other complete vinaya texts are preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon (see: Taishō Tripiṭaka), and these include:

• Mahīśāsaka Vinaya (T. 1421)
• Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya (T. 1425)
• Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (T. 1428)
• Sarvāstivāda Vinaya (T. 1435)
• Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya (T. 1442)

Six complete versions are extant. Fragments of the remaining versions survive in various languages. The first three listed below are still in use.

• The Pāli version of the Theravāda school
  • Suttavibhaṅga: Pāṭimokkha and commentary
    • Mahāvibhaṅga: rules for monks
    • Bhikkhunīvibhaṅga: rules for nuns
  • Khandhaka: 22 chapters on various topics
  • Parivāra: analyses of rules from various points of view
• The Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya (Sanskrit; Tibetan: འདུལ་བ་, Wylie: ‘Dul ba; Chinese: 根本說一切有部律; pinyin: Gēnběnshuōyīqiēyǒubùlǜ; Wade–Giles: ken pen shuo i ch'ieh yu pu lü) (T. 1442), a translation from the Mūlasarvāstivāda school, extant in both Chinese and Tibetan. This is the version used in the Tibetan tradition. It comprises seven major works and may be divided into four traditional sections.
  • Vinayavastu (འདུལ་བ་གཞི་ ‘dul ba gzhi): 17 skandhakas (chapters)
  • Vinayavibhaṅga
    • Prātimokṣasūtra (སོ་སོར་ཐར་པའི་མདོ་ so sor thar pa‘i mdo): rules for monks
    • Vinayavibhaṅga (འདུལ་བ་རྣམ་འབྱེད་ ‘dul ba rnam ‘byed): explanations on rules for monks
    • Bhikṣunīprātimokṣasūtra (དགེ་སློང་མའི་སོ་སོར་ཐར་པའི་མདོ་ dge slong ma‘i so sor thar pa‘i mdo): rules for nuns
    • Bhikṣunīvinayavibhaṅga (དགེ་སློང་མའི་འདུལ་བ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ་ dge slong ma‘i ‘dul ba rnam par ‘byed pa): explanations on rules for nuns
  • Vinayakṣudrakavastu (འདུལ་བ་ཕྲན་ཚེགས་ཀྱི་གཞི་ ‘dul ba phran tshegs kyi gzhi): miscellaneous topics
  • Vinayottaragrantha (འདུལ་བ་གཞུང་བླ་མ་ ‘ba gzhung bla ma): appendices, including the Upāliparipṛcchā, which corresponds to a chapter of the Parivāra.
    • Vinayottaragrantha (འདུལ་བ་གཞུང་དམ་པ་ ‘dul ba gzhung dam pa): a second, more comprehensive version of the above
• The Four Part Vinaya (Sanskrit: Cāturvargīya-vinaya; Chinese: 四分律; pinyin: Sìfēn lǜ; Wade–Giles: Ssŭ-fen lü) (T. 1428). This is Chinese translation of the Dharmaguptaka version and is used in the Chinese tradition and its derivatives in Korea, Vietnam and in Japan under the early Kokubunji temple system. In the case of Japan, this was later replaced with ordination based solely on the Bodhisattva Precepts.
  • Bhikṣuvibhaṅga: rules for monks
  • Bhikṣunīvibhaṅga (明尼戒法): rules for nuns
  • Skandhaka (犍度): of which there are 20
  • Samyuktavarga
    • Vinayaikottara, corresponding to a chapter of the Parivara
• The Ten Recitation Vinaya (Sanskrit: Daśa-bhāṇavāra-vinaya; Chinese: 十誦律; pinyin: Shísònglǜ; Wade–Giles: Shisong lü) (T. 1435), a Chinese translation of the Sarvāstivāda version
  • Bhikṣuvibhaṅga
  • Skandhaka
  • Bhikṣunīvibhaṅga
  • Ekottaradharma, similar to Vinayaikottara
  • Upaliparipriccha
  • Ubhayatovinaya
  • Samyukta
  • Parajikadharma
  • Sanghavasesha
  • Kusaladhyaya
• The Five Part Vinaya (Sanskrit: Pañcavargika-vinaya; Chinese: 五分律; pinyin: Wǔfēnlǜ; Wade–Giles: Wu-fen-lü) (T. 1421), a Chinese translation of the Mahīśāsaka version
  • Bhikṣuvibhaṅga
  • Bhikṣunīvibhaṅga
  • Skandhaka
• The Mahāsāṃghika-vinaya (Chinese: 摩訶僧祇律; pinyin: Móhēsēngqílǜ; Wade–Giles: Mo-ho-seng-ch'i lü) (T. 1425), a Chinese translation of Mahāsāṃghika version. An English translation of the bhikṣunī discipline is also available.
  • Bhikṣuvibhaṅga
  • Bhikṣunīvibhaṅga
  • Skandhaka

Within the major living traditions

Theravada

The Theravada tradition follows the Vinaya Pitaka of the Pali canon. This tradition has 227 rules for bhikkhus and 311 for bhikkhunis. As the nun's lineage died out in all areas of the Theravada school, traditionally women's roles as renunciates were limited to taking eight or ten Precepts. More recently, women have been undergoing upasampada as full ordination as bhikkhuni, although this is a highly charged topic within Theravadin communities.

East Asian Buddhism

The monastics of East Asian Buddhism follow the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, which has 253 rules for the bhikkhus and 348 rules for the bhikkhunis.

The texts for this vinaya are included in the Vinaya Pitaka of the Chinese Canon.

Some schools in Japan technically follow this vinaya. But Japan also has a tradition of "married monks" who do not follow this vinaya; these "monks" follow the Bodhisattva Precepts only, which was excerpted from the Mahāyāna version of Brahmajālasutra (梵網經). The Bodhisattva Precepts contain two parts: for lay and clergy.

Tibetan Buddhism

The monastics of Tibetan Buddhism follow the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, which has 253 rules for the bhiksus and 364 rules for bhiksunis. In addition to these pratimokṣa rules, there are many supplementary ones.

The texts for this vinaya are found in the Vinaya Pitaka of the Tibetan canon.

Role in Mahāyāna Buddhism

The Mahāyāna Bodhisattvabhūmi, part of the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra, regards it an offense for monastics following the Mahāyāna to reject the traditional rules of the Vinaya:

If he thinks or says, "A future buddha has nothing to do with learning or observing the law of the Vehicle of the Śrāvakas," he commits a sin of pollution (kliṣṭā āpatti).

Louis de La Vallée-Poussin wrote that the Mahāyāna relies on traditional full ordination of monastics, and in doing so is "perfectly orthodox" according to the monastic vows and rules of the early Buddhist traditions:

From the disciplinary point of view, the Mahāyāna is not autonomous. The adherents of the Mahāyāna are monks of the Mahāsāṃghika, Dharmaguptaka, Sarvāstivādin and other traditions, who undertake the vows and rules of the bodhisattvas without abandoning the monastic vows and rules fixed by the tradition with which they are associated on the day of their Upasampad [full ordination].

See also

• First Buddhist Council
• Schools of Buddhism

Bibliography

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Schopen, Gregory (2004). "Vinaya". MacMillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism. 1. New York: MacMillan Reference USA. pp. 885–89. ISBN 0-02-865719-5. 

Further reading

• Horner, I.B. (1970). The book of discipline Vol. I (Suttavibhaṅga), London Luzac, reprint.
• Horner, I.B. (1957). The book of discipline Vol. II (Suttavibhaṅga), London Luzac.
• Horner, I.B. (1957). The book of discipline Vol. III (Suttavibhaṅga), London Luzac.
• Horner, I.B. (1962). The book of discipline Vol. IV (Mahāvagga), London Luzac. 1. publ., reprint, Oxford: Pali Text Society 1993.
• Horner, I.B. (1963). The book of discipline Vol. V (Cullavagga), London Luzac.
• Horner, I.B. (1966). The book of discipline Vol. VI (Parivāra), London Luzac.
• Ichimura, Shōhei (2006). "The Baizhang Zen monastic regulations", Berkeley, Calif: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, ISBN 1-886439-25-7.
• Jayawickrama, N.A., trans. (1962). Inception of discipline and the Vinaya-Nidana, Sacred books of the Buddhists Vol. XXI, London Luzac. (Buddhagosas Samantapasadika, the Vinaya commentary)
• Pruden, Leo M. (1995). "The essentials of the Vinaya tradition", by Gyōnen, Berkeley, Calif: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, ISBN 0-9625618-9-4.
• Rhys Davids, T. W.; Oldenberg, Hermann, trans. (1881–85). Vinaya Texts, Sacred Books of the East, volumes XIII, XVII & XX, Clarendon/Oxford. Reprint: Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi (Dover, New York) Vol. XIII, Mahavagga I–IV, Vol. XVII, Mahavagga V–X, Kullavagga I–III, Vol. XX, Kullavagga IV–XII
• Singh, Upinder (2016), A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century, Pearson, ISBN 978-81-317-1677-9 

External links

General

• Sects & Sectarianism – The origins of Buddhist Schools
• The Essence of the Vinaya Ocean by Tsongkhapa (1357–1419)

Theravada Vinaya Pitaka

• Translations and context on Theravada Vinaya (Vinaya section on www.accesstoinsight.org)
• The book of discipline Vol. I–VI, translated by I.B. Horner
• Translation by Isaline Blew Horner (Scanned Text)
• Pali Canon online: Vinaya Pitaka in English
• Davids, T. W. Rhys, Oldenberg, Hermann (joint tr): Vinaya texts, Oxford, The Clarendon press 1881. Vol.1 Vol.2 Vol.3 Internet Archive (Scanned Text)
• Translation by T. W. Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg (HTML format)