Moćan, Dora.
(2018).
Buddhist monastic community – past and present.
Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Indology > Chair of Indology.
[mentor Krnic, Krešimir].
Abstract
Saṅgha is a community of buddhist monks (bhikṣu, pāli: bhikkhu) and nuns (bhikṣuṇī, pāli: bhikkhunī) who live by the rules written in the Vinayapiṭaka, first of three books that make buddhist pāli canon - Tipiṭaka. They coexist with laymen (upāsaka and upāsikā) who help them by giving them food, assist around monasteries or supplying them with wardrobe and medicine. By doing that, they gain merits and good karma (pāli: kamma) for next life. The main goal of saṅgha is attaining nirvāṇa (pāli: nibbāna) – release from rebirths. They achieve it by following rules from the Vinayapiṭaka, meditating, giving up all material things and living in peace with other laypersons. Buddha, who first achieved enlightenment, started preaching his doctrine and got many followers.
The Vinayapiṭaka consists of Suttavibhaṅga, Khandhaka and Parivāra texts. Each of them have rules (śikṣāpada,pāli: sikkhapada) regarding ceremonies and proper behaviour during them, they order monks and nuns how to repent for their sins and inform them about hierarchy in the Order or help them arrange residance during rainy seasons.
Those rules are quite versatile, they vary from the main set of rules, such as „don't kill, have intimate relations with women, drink alchohol or steal“ to more minor ones that describe what kind of materials should their robes be made of.
Of course, there is not only harmony and peace. Some of those rules don't work in favor to nuns since they have more strict rules than monks and are overall in a submissive position. Also, putting on a robe and being ordained isn't tempting to young people because modern society thinks of those rules as too rigorous and drastic and they feel that the saṅgha system needs to be more open to reorganization.
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