Buddhist Scriptures

by Donald Lopez

  The Ordination of Ugra and his Friends

  Then with one voice Ugra and the other eminent householders praised the words of the Blessed One, and spoke to the Blessed One as follows: ‘It is amazing, O Blessed One, how the Blessed One has spoken so well about the faults, obligations and activities of the household life, and about the advantages of the good qualities of the renunciant. O Blessed One, now that it has become clear to us the extent of the faults and bad qualities of the household life and the endless advantages of the qualities of the renunciant, O Blessed One, please let us go forth and receive full ordination in the well-taught dharma and vinaya taught by the Well-Gone One.’ When they had spoken thus, the Blessed One replied, ‘O eminent householders, the renunciant life is difficult; one must keep one’s conduct perfectly pure.’ When he had spoken those words, the eminent householders replied, ‘O Blessed One, it may be true that the renunciant life is difficult, but we ask the Blessed One to allow us to go forth. We ask to be allowed to exert ourselves in the Blessed One’s teachings.’ And the Blessed One allowed them to go forth.

  Then the Blessed One said to the bodhisattva Maitreya and the bodhisattva Sarvacaryāviśuddha, ‘Good men, cause these eminent householders to go forth and ordain them!’ When the Blessed One had spoken, the bodhisattva Maitreya presided over the going forth of nine thousand eminent householders, while the bodhisattva Sarvacaryāviśuddha presided over the going forth of seven thousand eminent householders. And upon the teaching of this dharma-text… a thousand living creatures brought forth the spirit of supreme perfect enlightenment.

  Translated by Jan Nattier from a critical edition of the Tibetan based on the following versions: Otani (= Beijing) No. 760[19], Derge No. 63, Narthang No. 51, Stog Palace No. 11[19], and the London Manuscript Kanjur.

  30

  MAKING NEW MONASTIC RULES

  Some Buddhist texts and doctrines travelled from India to other parts of Asia more easily than others. One genre of texts that did not make the transition without difficulty was the codes of monastic discipline, especially in their movement to China. Chinese monks faced the initial problem of not knowing what rules they should follow; a complete version of the rules of monastic discipline was not translated into Chinese until the beginning of the fifth century. Prior to that time, foreign monks served as role models for the Buddhist monastic life in China, but the leaders of Chinese monastic communities were often forced to improvise rules. The various descriptions of infractions, especially the more minor infractions, contained cultural references and vocabulary that were often impossible to translate into Chinese; some Sanskrit terms had no correlate in Chinese and were simply rendered phonetically. The ethical codes also described situations and practices that were inapplicable simply because they did not exist in China. To further confuse the situation, there were a number of Buddhist monastic codes in India and they differed on many points. When these texts were translated into Chinese and the differences became apparent, it was unclear which version should be regarded as orthodox.

  As the monastic tradition became well-established in China, it became clear that the Indian codes of conduct, required for all true monks, required supplementation. Additional regulations were formulated to govern the daily life of a monastery, regulations that the monks of that monastery were expected to follow while maintaining their monastic vows. These local regulations, often dealing with more practical matters in the life of the community, were more widely known and understood than the often arcane Indian code, even for monks who had received full ordination.

  One of the more famous sets of regulations appears in a text called Establishing Monastic Regulations (Li zhifa), written by the great Chinese master Zhiyi in 597 (see chapters 32 and 40). It provided a set of basic disciplinary guidelines for his Xiuchan Monastery on Mount Tiantai. This work is one of the earliest examples of an integrated code for monastic procedure in China, making it a predecessor to the distinctive genre of ‘pure rules’, monastic codes that gained such prominence during the Song period (960–1279). Zhiyi’s work served as a model for a distinctive style of Tiantai monastic life and institutions that came to be spelled out in detail in later, more elaborate Tiantai monastic codes. It serves here as an example of the trend towards the localization of the Buddhist mendicant ideal in the institutional form of the monastery that became so basic to later East Asian Buddhism.

  The text reflects the very practical concerns of a growing monastic community. One will note that Zhiyi looks back with some nostalgia on the early days of his community when no rules were required, and laments the quality of the new monks, whose misbehaviour has necessitated the formulation of the regulations he set forth. It is said that in the early days of the saṅgha in India no rules were necessary because all the members of the saṅgha were destined for nirvāṇa and their behaviour was, therefore, naturally correct. It was only when the saṅgha grew that the Buddha decided it was necessary to establish a monastic code.

  A new robe that has no holes needs no stitching to repair it. When virtues planted in former lives have already begun to ripen it is pointless to try to increase them with threats of punishment. From the time when I first entered the Buddhist path, through the period of my residence in [the capital at] Jinling, down to the time when I first withdrew to Mount Tiantai, the devotees of the dharma who came to me took responsibility for their own practice of the way. They did not even need soft words to encourage their progress, how much the less the imposition of specific rules to discipline them. However, upon my recent return to Mount Tiantai I find that students who have come lately are like wild monkeys and horses. If you do not tether them firmly they grow worse by the day and month. In my effort to make something of them I lose two for every one that I tame. That I choose to apply the whip is merely to teach them shame, not because I personally delight in causing them pain. In the tract below I have outlined ten basic points to guide students in their training. Henceforth should irregularities arise the assembly [of monks] should take up the matter collectively and emend [these regulations] as it sees fit.

  Item One: [Spiritual] capacities are not all the same. Some individuals achieve the way through practising alone. Others attain liberation by resorting to [practising in] a monastic community. For those who choose to rely on the monastic community, three courses of practice are open. The first is seated meditation according to [the collective routine of the community’s] halls. The second is [individual practice of] repentance in a separate sanctuary [removed from the regular community routine]. The third is service as an administrator of monastery affairs.

  Persons engaged in these three modes of practice must be in full possession of the requisite equipment of a Buddhist mendicant, such as the three robes and six items. So long as they are willing to take up one of these activities, they will be allowed to enter the community. If they are lacking with respect to any of the robes or mendicant’s equipment or they refuse to have anything to do with these [three] activities, they may not remain with us.

  Item Two: Monks who [choose to] resort to the [community’s] hall basically take the [daily schedule of] four periods of seated meditation and six intervals of ritual veneration of the buddhas as their regular routine. It is not permitted to miss any of these ten scheduled periods of veneration and meditation. Monks who have just completed a period of separate [retreat] practice may recuperate for three days. But beyond that they must return to the ten intervals of the community’s routine.

  A person who arrives late for worship of the buddhas is to be punished with three prostrations and confession before the assembly for each interval violated. If the entire service is missed, the punishment is ten prostrations and confession before the assembly. Anyone who misses all six periods is to be punished with a period of service [under the direction of] the preceptor. The same applies for the four periods of seated meditation. Incapacity due to illness is excepted; but punishment will be withheld only if the managerial monks have been informed beforehand.


  Item Three: For the six periods of ritual worship of the buddhas, full monks must wear the robe for formal assembly. Since this robe should be free of all geometric or animal motifs, robes bearing any kind of decorative pattern are unacceptable. The monks should gather [in the hall] before the third bell has sounded, proceed to set out their seating, and – taking incense censer in hand – kneel with both knees flush before them. Persons unfamiliar with the chants may not take part in the recitations. Those without express permission to do so are forbidden to wander about or talk. If one is out of time in snapping the fingers [for homage] or in touching the head to the ground [in prostration], or one is inattentive in stowing one’s footwear or in moving to and from one’s seat, a punishment shall be assigned of ten prostrations and confession before the assembly.

  Item Four: The purpose of practice in a separate [sanctuary] is to allow persons to zealously apply themselves to the four forms of samādhi when they find [the regime] of the community to be too slack. Should it be discovered that someone has entered the retreat sanctuary under false pretences, with no real intention to conform to the aims of retreat practice, the punishment will be one term of service [under the direction of the] preceptor.

  Item Five: [The duty of] the administrative monk is basically to promote the stability and benefit [of the community at large]. Instead they often do it harm. They pilfer from the community to gorge and enrich themselves, taking it upon themselves to do just as they please. If even a hair’s breadth of [this sort of] violation is committed – even if one has acted for the general welfare but failed to inform others – should the truth be discovered [the perpetrator] is to be expelled from the community.

  Item Six: At the time of the two [morning and noon] meals, anyone who is not currently sick, who is indisposed but not confined to bed, or who has been ill but has recently improved, must without exception come to the refectory. They are not permitted to request that meals [be brought to them]. Only two types of vessel are permitted to be used in the community: begging bowls [‘meal bowls’] of iron and pottery and vessels for sauce and oil. Cups, side-bowls, chopsticks and spoons are prohibited. Anyone possessing [objects made of] bone, horn, bamboo, wood, gourd, lacquer, leather or shell shall not be allowed to enter the hall.

  Also, making noise by clattering one’s bowl or slurping, talking with one’s mouth full, seeking special portions and privately helping oneself to sauce and vegetables are all forbidden. Anyone who breaks [these rules] is to be punished with three prostrations and confession before the community.

  Item Seven: Any full monk who has received the Hīnayāna precepts is expressly forbidden to take fish, flesh, leeks and pungent herbs and liquor on the sly, regardless of whether he is travelling nearby, far away, in residence within the monastery, or outside the monastery. Persons who [violate this prohibition] or who eat at the unappointed times [i.e., after noon], will not be permitted to remain in the community if they are discovered. The only exception to the rule shall be persons who are acutely ill who have been prescribed [forbidden substances] by a physician, or persons who have left the temple to seek cure elsewhere. They are not to be punished.

  Item Eight: The term saṅgha means ‘joined in harmony’. Harmony exists when people are deferential and accepting. Unity exists when they uphold a common ideal [of righteousness]. Quarrelling, angry outbursts, scurrilous accusation and scandal-mongering and dirty looks are all prohibited. If a conflict breaks out between two people, each is to be punished with thirty prostrations and confession before the assembly. Anyone who refuses to be drawn in [to a quarrel or fight picked by another] will not be punished. If there is any contact of body or limb – regardless of whether it is light or severe – the perpetrators will not be permitted to remain in the community. However, persons who refuse to raise a hand in response will be exempted from punishment.

  Item Nine: Grave infractions of the precepts are to be handled according to the vinaya codes. Should a person be tricked into committing an infraction, the party deceived shall not be punished, but the one responsible for the deception shall be expelled from the community. The head of the community is not to accept any practitioner known to have committed [a grave infraction] prior to his arrival, for the reason that such an individual is by definition no longer considered to be a member of the monastic saṅgha. If a person is admitted to the community on personal claims to be a bhikṣu but is later discovered to have deceived others about his prior violations, then the punishment shall be the same as above.

  Item Ten: Relying on the sūtras we set up the norms of practice; diagnosing the illness we prescribe the medicine for cure. But for those who would reject the norm and spit out the medicine these things are no use whatsoever. When someone has publicly professed contrition for [breaking] the nine items described above, but after repeated infractions and confessions shows no real thought of remorse and refuses to reform himself, then this is the kind of person who spits out the medicine. It is fitting to drive such a person from the community. If he is later able to reform himself, his return may be considered. When a person flagrantly defies the regulations and stubbornly refuses to repent, then this is one who rejects the norm. Anyone who is not willing to accord with the norms of the community must not be permitted to remain.

  Translation by Daniel Stevenson of Lizhifa by Tiantai Zhiyi (c. 597 CE), contained as document No. 1 in Guoqing bailu, edited by Guanding, T 1934, vol. 46, pp. 793b19–794a17.

  31

  LIVES OF EMINENT MONKS AND NUNS

  Stories of renowned monks and nuns are told throughout the Buddhist world, but it was in East Asia (beginning in China) that compilations of the lives of eminent monks and nuns developed into a significant literary genre. There is little evidence of such works in India, suggesting that these Chinese works developed from indigenous traditions of biography and historiography. Although there are references to previous works, the earliest such collection to survive was compiled by the learned monk Huijiao (497–554). He set out to record the lives of eminent monks (those who concealed their great achievement) rather than the lives of famous monks (those of little virtue who happened to gain notoriety). His Lives records accounts of 257 men from 67–519 CE, with appended accounts of 259 others, spanning the period from the first decades of Buddhism in China to that of his own contemporaries. The biographies follow a standard formula, beginning with an account of the circumstances of ancestry, birth and ordination and ending with an account of the monk’s death, generally noting the piety of the monk and any supernatural occurrences that may have attended his passing. The middle portion recounts various events in the monk’s life, some of which we would regard as miraculous, yet presented in the same sober tone. The biographies provide a great deal of valuable historical detail, while at the same time identifying what constituted eminence, that is, the monastic ideal in China. Huijiao’s accounts are categorized under ten major headings: translators (yijing); exegetes (yijie); theurgists (shenyi); meditators (xichan); disciplinarians (minglü); self-immolators (yishen); cantors (songjing); promoters of works of merit (xingfu); hymnodists (jingshi); and sermonists (changdao). The genre was not restricted to monks; Biographies of Nuns (Biqiuni zhuan) was compiled by the monk Baochang around 516.

  The genre continued in subsequent centuries. In 982, the distinguished scholar Zanning (919–1001) was instructed by the emperor himself to compile a new edition, resulting in the famous Song Biographies of Eminent Monks (Song gaoseng zhuan). The various Lives were widely read: copies were kept in monastic libraries and also often owned by individual monks. New editions preserved the stories from the old, while adding biographies of monks from a period or a region that a previous compiler had neglected.

  The motivations for compiling these biographies included not only those of traditional Chinese historiography, but more distinctly Buddhist concerns as well. As Buddhist monks, the authors clearly wished to demonstrate the virtue of Buddhist monks and nuns, both to propagate the dharma and to pro
vide exemplars for ordinary monks and nuns to venerate and emulate. At the same time, it is clear that these works were also intended for the court. The fortunes of Buddhism in China depended to a large extent on the support and patronage of the emperor, and royal attitudes towards the Buddhist saṅgha fluctuated widely over the course of Chinese history. The biographies thus seek to demonstrate the great learning, virtue, piety and miraculous powers of eminent monks and nuns.

  Four biographies are included here, beginning with a monk who died around 396 CE and ending with a nun who died in 1922.

  Biography of the Jin Monk Bo Sengguang of Hermit Peak in Shan

  The background of Bo Sengguang, whom some called Tanguang, is not known. After practising meditation as a youth, at the beginning of the Yonghe era [c. 345] of the Jin, he travelled to Jiangdong, taking up residence at Mount Shicheng in Shan. The people of the mountain said that the area had been devastated by wild animals, brought on by a violent mountain spirit, and that no one had lived there for years. Showing not the least sign of fear, Sengguang hired a man to cut a path for him and, shouldering his staff, proceeded up the mountain. After he had gone several li [a measure of distance, approximately a third of a mile], a great storm suddenly burst forth and packs of tigers began to howl. On the southern side of the mountain Sengguang spotted a cave. There he sat in meditation with his palms pressed together, determined to settle in this cave.