Buddhist monks and nuns.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.
[04] Chapter fourA member of the Sangha-ooOoo- first . Essential meaning A member of the Sangha is a person who has given up family life, joins the Congregation, works, gathered according to the rules and teachings of the Buddha to finally attain liberation. That is the ordination, ordained as a monk. Whether being a disciple or a monk in the congregation are disciples of the Buddha, but the bhikkhu is the most typical and worthy image of the Buddhist. The monastic life is much more favorable than the lay life to attain liberation. The precepts that a bhikkhu must follow compared to that of a layman are much stricter. In terms of form, the monastic life is more exemplary, more restrictive, and higher than that of the house. The precepts are to support the practice, shorten the practice time to liberate so following the precepts is not easy. Many monks, after a period of effort in the practice, have been renamed. During the Buddha's time, even under the leadership and education of the Buddha, there were many monks who had to be secular. Difficulties in material life, precepts to be followed, plus old habits in life, thought, and emotions ... are not easy to discard, leading to failures or imperfections. Anxiety, anxiety, and psychological hidden thoughts can even hinder the practice of the bhikkhu, much more than the case of a lay layperson. Therefore, Sangha is a close community block of monks. Living in harmony is one of the greatest features of Buddhist Sangha. All organizations, activities, institutes of precepts, festivals ... all show a harmonious coexistence and harmonious coexistence as the organizational goal. The quality of the Sangha depends on the qualities of each member and in the organic sense of the Three Jewels (Triratna), the unsatisfactory Sangha cannot manifest the Dharma. If the Sangha is gone, Buddhism is lost! Since then, a matter of caution in accepting members into the Sangha, and the obligation to monitor, foster, educate and help members in practice. Procedures for recruiting new members into the Sangha, that is, allowing them to take ordination, ordination (on the side of the Sangha) or applying for joining the Sangha, applying for ordination (on the side of the person) renunciation) means a Sangha development, and on the personal side, more importantly, is a new turning point, and a new path with great spiritual effects on the ordained. Joining the Congregation, the Bhikkhu was then a member of the Congregation, living, gathering in a community, dependent on the community and having the duty to connect other members of the community into one. unity. Although reaching the ultimate goal is always a self-effort, the result of spiritual moves, alone, silently, sometimes with great fervor, the situation of the fish units. The synchronous kernel for the reciprocal mutuality between the private and the common is always expressed for each individual. Monks receive the three rules (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha); The Three Jewels are the refuge of all Buddhists, is a three-dimensional entity, each branch includes the other two limbs. The Bhikkhu-stilts, who take refuge in the Three Jewels, manifest the Three Jewels, obviously must have the full characteristics of the Sangha and must endeavor to be identical with the Buddha and Dharma. We will follow the path of a person applying to join the Congregation, activities in the Congregation include study, practice teaching through the practice of Morality, concentration, and wisdom. The presentation below is a synthesis of some details in the sutras, Vinaya ... These details may not be completely accurate because some were written long after the Buddha, there may be more Boots by time, place ... the presentation is only a rough outline, helping us partly understand the characteristics of the Sangha activities during the Buddha's time. 2. Joining teachers measure alk In the early years since the Congregation was established, the precepts have not been enacted by the Buddha, joining the Sangha is relatively simple. That is easy to understand because the monks who come to the Buddha have inherent roots, their practice levels are solid, their spirituality is fully prepared, they only listen to the Buddha's teachings once or a few times. right away, for example, the group of five monks and nuns, Kieu-tran-like, group Da-Xa, brothers Uu-long-frequency-speaker Ca-lettuce, Xa-benefit-phap, Muc-kien-Lien, etc. These are those who were admitted to the Congregation by the words of the Buddha: "Come here, Bhikkhu!" called the "Good hybrid monks". There are also many predestined people who met the Buddha, after a few enlightened replies, "This is my Dao Master", as in the case of Ma-ha Ca-lettuce; or have a lot of reason to answer the Buddha's questions well, Later, the Sangha had a large number. The admission of new disciples of monks in the Sangha is somewhat permissive, lacks selection, leading to the fact that the Sangha in some places is not in harmony, many bhikkhus are rotten, letting go of lack of discipline. Since then, joining the Congregation has become more difficult, requiring more conditions, especially when the Vinaya is increasingly formed to meet the requirement of purity, harmony in the Sangha among the large number of bhikkhus disciples of the Buddha. To apply for ordination, ordination, join the union, first of all, the person must have enough intelligence to have a proper sense of his renunciation decision, have some basic knowledge to relatively grasp the doctrine, receive Clearly know the good things, the benefits of the place where you depend. He must have full health to endure the poor life of a monk such as rain, heat, cold, erratic weather, meager eating, limited sleep ... He must have a strong spirit. gold, persevere to endure all challenges. The partner must not be bound by family circumstances, social status ... Vinaya recounts many cases in which some monks, aged seventeen and eighteen, were crying because they could not eat dinner; Many people are dragged by their parents or relatives, many people who are hidden from sex have to commit suicide or become vulgar ... The Laws (Four parts, Five parts) also clearly stipulate that the litigant must not suffer from thirteen obstacles called obstacles or old age (Antàrayikadharma). The effects of these obstacles are explained in many ways, but in the end, they interfere with the practice of the person and of the Sangha. The thirteen obstacles are:
In addition to the above obstacles, some documents also add that the ordained must have a decent appearance, full of five senses, not blind, lame, mute, deaf, lisp, not too tall, too short, not too black. , not too white. Insufficient faculties can interfere with spiritual practice, the remaining and even the remaining conditions, and even the conditions of the faculties, perhaps to avoid malicious defamation of some bad people or of paganism, especially at the time when Buddhism is emerging in the context of many other groups coexisting. In addition to the above conditions, the person applying for ordination must find a monk that he believes in and admires to be a disciple. In addition to the first thousand, two hundred and fifty monks who were allowed to join the congregation by the Buddha, there are many others who are also "Good-natured monks" received by the Buddha himself, at least about three years. The first time after he attained enlightenment, the majority of Bhikkhus later were given by the great disciples, ordained, and in the case of the Buddha, he also gave the Venerable Sàriputta, the Venerable Moggllàna and the Venerable. Upāli direct education. We do not see the sutras describing the admission of disciples of the Elders, but the Vinaya: it is the guardian Bhikkhu, the teacher who directly guides the learning and practice of the disciples, called The Venerable or Uu-ba-da-da (Upàdhyàya). The Venerable Master who wants to accept a disciple must be someone who has settled ten times (ten years, ten years old), has mastered the scriptures, has wisdom, can provide material for the disciple, is recognized by the Sangha. , it is allowed to admit disciples and to receive only one disciple each year. In the case of Elder Upasena (Udumbara-first), brother of the fake Sun Sàriputta (Xa-benefit-waving), after spending two seasons of settling down, accepted his disciple; after being scolded by the Buddha. Next, the Venerable monk had to take care of the Sangha Kamma (Sangha Kamma) procedure, which is the form of writing, reporting the incident to apply for the disciple-receiving ceremony. New to the Congregation, the ordained had to take the novice ordination. Sramanera is the lowest rank in the Church. The smallest age that can be admitted is seven, often assigned to keep chores to get used to the monastic life such as sweeping, cleaning tents, courtyards, rooms clean, servants or keeping the chase of crows. (In many parts of India there are many crows, often in groups, making noise and polluting the dwellings, hence the term "Satan chasing crows" to refer to the young uncles). If the practitioner is fourteen years old or older, he or she will be allowed to fully study the role of the monk. From the age of twenty or older, the monk has been considered a mature, full personality of a monk but has not yet received the ordination. The celebration of Sa-di's life expectancy is relatively simple, the cumbersome details may be added later. In the Buddha's time, the procedure only required the teacher to accept a qualified disciple, accepted by the Sangha for the disciple. A novice is a person who has undergone the first trial period, preparing for a pure monastic life with ten novice precepts as follows:
Of the ten precepts above, the first five precepts are that of a lay Buddhist, the next three are also practiced by lay Buddhists in the days of the son's precepts (Uposatha), the novice ordination is five or six. year, if there is a minimum age of twenty, and during the process of becoming a novice, the monk always appears pure and uplifted, he is given the ordained ordination, which means the full duty of a bhikkhu, includes more than 150 precepts as the original and later documents (with the deity of 250 or 270 precepts). The ordination ceremony is described in a very complex way by many laws over many different stages. Roughly, the person who applied for ordination was approved by the Venerable Master after a period of time as Sa-di, fully qualified to be a monk, immediately prepared for the three y, alms bowls and the elderly (seat pads ). Three y is: (1) An-da-Assembly (Antàravàsa), called y in or under y; (2) Uat-da-is-increased (Uttarasanga): outer y, or y on; (3) Sangha-Le (Sanghàtì) consists of two layers, covering the body. Y is algae pollen, covered with bark fibers, dyed earth yellow, ie color decay. Medicine of monks is very important because it represents the whole monk. The monastic precepts spend a lot of things on medicine that a bhikkhu must obey. The alms bowl or the bowl, or the Bat-da-la (Pàtra) is a utensil for food and drink when the monk performs alms, usually of irregularity, of bronze, the size is not too big, not too much. small, how to fit enough food for one meal (ie all food in a day). The monk or Nisìdana (Nisìdana) is an object for sitting, including many layers of fabric, grass ... the size is set just enough to be used as a seat for monks.
The above story is intended to narrate one's belief in Buddha, believe in Dharma, believe in the Sangha and the liberation caused by such strong belief, and clearly through the story, we also see the y and the bowl for a monk- On stilts, Buddhist disciples are extremely important, manifesting and shaping the lifestyle of a member of the Sangha. When you have finished preparing the medicine, bowl and seat for the disciple, because the Venerable Master must write before them (Sangha-old listing-ma) to ask for permission to take the precepts for the disciple. About the death ceremony to invite the Master, the Venerable Master, invited the teacher Yet Ma A-la-le to teach the teachings, invite the Dharma Teachers ... Usually, in the residences where the monks only include 5 or 7 of them, the Hoa upper guru, A-sarl, teacher life is a person. In the case of the Venerable Rahula (the Buddha's biological son) taking ordination, the Buddha assigned the great Elder Sàriputta to be the Venerable Master, the great elder Moggallàna to be the Arahant, and the great elder Upàli as the teacher. At least in the first ten years since the Congregation was founded, the three great Elders were assigned by the Buddha to educate and guide newly ordained monks and possibly much later. The merits of teaching, organizing, and mediating in the union, after the Buddha, must include the false Religious Sàriputta (Sàriputta). Since the monks in the Congregation were allowed to accept disciples, when the Congregation had a great increase in number, the admission of bhikkhus was somewhat lax, so a lot of schools arose. assembling many monks violating the precepts, secularism, breaking the Sangha harmony ... Therefore, the Buddha had to refine many more precepts to keep the discipline. The reception of monks and the congregation became more strict, and after the Buddha's death, the procedure was even more cumbersome and annoying. The Order of Yet-ma monks meticulously describe the ordination of monks. Accordingly, after the priesthood prayed and was approved by the Venerable Master, Jeth-ma and the Dharma Life in an old-year-old Yet-ma, the Teacher of Life instructed, preparing for the monk fully of things to say, must do during the ceremony. The monks and nuns met, questioned the monks about the conditions to join the Congregation. After the Sangha has agreed, the death is infused with the four-gas method, ie four important prohibitions that if violated, a monk will be expelled from the Congregation. These are the Ba-la-di (Pàrajika), translated by Han as Air or Tha won. To summarize the four Balasmas are:
After the transmission of the four-part method, the transmission of the quadrilateral method, that is, the four things that a lifelong Bhikkhu must rely on and must keep closely, thereby, we see the poor life of a monk- stilts Buddhist disciples.
At the end of the ordination ceremony was the declaration of the valid, successful ceremony, the new bhikkhu's advice to study, cultivate, attain attainment, etc. The refuge and ordination of the monks and nuns are similar to those mentioned above, but the Samaritans, before receiving the ordination, must be composed of twenty or ten (depending on whether the land is crowded or few people). in which half are monks, half are nuns, receive eight three-la-di (Parajika) and especially, receive more Eightfold Dharma are eight venerable Dharma monks that since the establishment of the nuns, Buddha invented: The Buddhist Sangha III has cited the Buddha's pretense of the Eightfold Dharma:
Regarding the precepts, Bhikkhunis also live longer than Monks and monks and like some other forms of bondage, the problem is not the distinction of values and qualities between the two sets of Buddhist disciples. aimed at solving a number of situations and conditions of the monastic woman related to the whole of an individual, psychological, ideological, physical, social, etc .. of the nun herself. From time to time the Buddha, the monks and nuns, also accepted the female disciples who were assigned to the nuns, under the leadership of Mrs. Ma-ha Ba-bara-ban and Other Elders and Nuns for ordination, practice ... In case of non-believers who want to apply for refuge, ordination, or join the congregation, the process is more difficult. Middle A-function 32 mentioned the case of Upāli, of the Niganttha sect (Niganttha) who came to the Buddha to seek refuge, was ordained as a Buddhist disciple, but the Buddha told him to take time to think. to be fully mature, to avoid some difficulties later. Indeed, Upāli himself had to deal with so many troubles and troubles caused by the nuns, because Upāli had a large role in the Nirvana congregation. A-function 6 school told that two Brahmin of the Phallas line were ordained to Buddhism, the Buddha accepted the condition that he had to try to live together for four months with the Sangha. Likewise, these two have met many difficulties due to their family, social status, old religion ... Kinh also told many cases of pagans joining the monks of monks to disrupt. .. Hence, the admission of the pagan into the congregation is somewhat careful, the procedure is more cumbersome. For example, non-believers must have time to live with monks, must be separate from their old environment, and the ordination ceremony for pagans has a different content than some place ... Through some of the above sketches, we can see a part of the image and quality of a monk, gentle, dignified, patient, poor ... always bound to the Sangha collective, living. with the Sangha is the outstanding feature of a Buddhist monk. When violating the precepts, whether heavy or light, the person involved is dealt with by separating from the Sangha for a while. The reason for doing so is to purify the Sangha. The heavy or light handling is of a negative nature, the main thing is keeping oneself, knowing wrong, right, repenting ... The precepts set forth are all causal causes. avoid recidivism, hindering the collective. The example of the four crimes (Parajika - Ba-la-di) is the most serious one, the loss of the pure nature of a bhikkhu, is set to law after the wrongdoing has hindered the fish. for the offenders and for the Sangha collective, at least in terms of scandals against the world. Elder Tu-Thread-na (suddina), at the request of the family, returned home to celebrate with his ex-wife to expect a child to be descended, another Bhikkhu also did the same. Another bhikkhu living in the forest, being suppressed by sex, had sex with apes. Elder Dominic took the wood of King Tan-Bà-sa-la to keep his tent, a Bhikkhu stole the clothes of a washman by the stream. Some monks who contemplated the impure body disgusted their bodies to commit suicide, some other monks who at the request of monks with serious voluntary illness killed the sick because they thought that they did. is the end of suffering for the sick; or the laws often tell the story of Migalandika (Loc Trượng), wearing a monk's robe, living with the Congregation, has killed many monks. Some monks living in remote areas thought they had attained, or pretended they had, declared their success to have many disciples, offerings ... These cases have been discovered, reported to the Buddha. He sternly rebuked the offenders and from there, inventing the Bala-di crimes which are the most serious violations, were expelled from the Congregation. A monk who is ordained, must think that he is truly a member of the congregation, for the sake of the congregation and for his own sake that he must manifest and experiment the Triple Gem. And, one of the outstanding meanings is that he is a pure person, has attained or prepared to attain sainthood. 3. Ethics of a monk A bhikkhu, first of all, is a Satan like so many Samsons of the other congregations, living poverty, purity, homeless life, wandering, alms for the ultimate purpose of liberation. The meaning of liberation can be conceived differently depending on the sect. The goal of a Buddhist monk is the Noble Truths, the ultimate Nirvana. The results will be discussed in another part of this book, here is just a rough outline of the image and morality of a bhikkhu, a member of the Sangha during the Buddha's time. . The image of such a virtuous person was first made in the Buddha himself and in the disciples who followed him. Characteristic ethical qualities of the Buddhist Sangha, according to E. Conze ( Buddhism, Its Essence and Development) is impoverishment, celibacy, and nonviolence. These characteristics are easily found in most other non-Buddhist congregations. It should be said that this feature represents a great characteristic throughout the teachings of the Buddha. That is the Three Dharma seals: Suffering, Impermanence, Anatta. Because of understanding that life is Suffering, the leaves are impermanent, without an unchanging, eternal self, the Buddhist monk endeavors to eradicate suffering, does not create opportunities and circumstances for suffering to develop, the monk is relieved. neglect, selflessness, poverty, compassion, compassion, joy, discharge, gentleness, harmlessness or non-violence. Scattered in the previous sections, we have seen the quality of the Bhikkhu-stilts, that quality is summarized in the recent passage of Dìgha Nikàya 1-4 (The School) about the virtues of the male Buddha through comments. of heathen:
Above are some features of the Buddha's moral qualities, a model for all the Sangha. These are the basic features for the content of the monastic precepts (Patimokkha), namely in the ten precepts of Sa-di. That quality is manifested in the daily life of a Buddhist monk. Their gentle and peaceful image has become familiar to everyone. This is the result of the practice of Morality, Concentration, Wisdom, manifested in the practice of the Eight Noble Truths (Ariya-Atthanjikammagga): Right Understanding, Right Thought (the two parts belong to Wisdom), Right Speech, Right Karma Right life (three parts belong to Precepts), Right diligence, Mindfulness, Right concentration (the three parts belong to concentration). Due to the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path, Morality, Concentration, and Wisdom, the advancement of moral qualities can reach the point of being like the Buddha. including all animals. Many stories and sutras are written, the Buddha surrendered to evil elephants, dragons, ... wild animals to the monks in the deep forests ... A special feature of the Bhikkhu is the spirit of the Four Immeasurable Minds (great love, compassion, joy, and equanimity) which is a method of training emotions to get rid of the clinging attachment that a bhikkhu wants to penetrate deeply into Concentration. must do it. Compassion is the desire for good for others, Compassion is the compassion for suffering sentient beings, Joy is the pleasure of seeing others happy, and Discharge is the heart to let go of all attachments. Here we only discuss the moral aspect of the Four Immeasurable Minds, this is the aspect of selflessness, the manifestation of selflessness in life, the causal system of human beings contained in the three dharmas (suffering, impermanence, and impermanence). fall). The four limbs of the Four Immeasurable Minds are intended to manifest non-self, so in one limb they all contain the other three parts. From the Sutta (Mettà Sutta) or the Sutta Nipàta, there is a poem about the immeasurable kindness of the Buddha's disciple:
Phap Cu Kinh, 3-5, gives a poem about renunciation, chastity, gentleness, peaceful love, harmless spirit:
The indestructible, nonviolent spirit is not fear but an expression of peaceful love, compassion and courage. This spirit manifests firstly in the Buddha himself. Ngoi often told his disciples his courageous example of compassion when he was a Bodhisattva in the ancient past lives that we know from the Jataka Nikàya that he has transformed so much. Evil people, He suffered torture, beatings, limbs, eyes gouging ... but he is always kind and gentle. In the A-Ham, Trung Bo Kinh, the Chief Elder Monks, all tell the story of the Venerable Punna (Phú-lau-na), the great disciple of the Buddha, representing the Sangha, to the land of Sronàparanta (Du-Lan- na) to teach this native. Although he knew that the people there had not been tamed, he also resolved to ask the Buddha to allow him to come to cultivate: The Buddha taught: "The people of Sronàparanta are hot-tempered, violent, and fierce. They say harsh, rude words. If they tell you harsh, rude, insolent words, what do you think? " Punna: "I would think that the people of Sronàparanta are really kind and gentle people because they don't hit me with their hands, nor throw stones at me." Buddha: "But if they hit you with their hands or throw stones at you, what will you think?" Punna: "I will think that they are gentle and kind people because they do not hit me with sticks, do not stab me with eels." Buddha: "But if they hit you with sticks or where you hit with a sword, what would you think?" Punna: "I would think they were gentle and kind people for not killing me." Buddha: "But if they killed you, Punna, what would you think?" Punna: "I will think that they are gentle and kind people because they liberate me so easily from revealing this rotten body. I know that there are many monks who are ashamed of their flesh. , confused, depressed and they committed suicide by weapon, used poison, hanged themselves by ropes or plunged into the abyss. " Buddha: "Hey Punna, you have the highest kindness and patience. Go and teach them how to be as free as you are, you are free!" Needless to say, the quality of the monks determines the quality of the Sangha and the existence of the Sangha. That quality is the result of the practice of wisdom and meditation practice and is a condition for the attainment of liberating wisdom. The ordained monks (Patimokkha) let the monks keep themselves and continue to study. It is keeping our body, speech and mind pure, making the whole Sangha pure. Ethics means mainly action evaluation, related to knowledge. It is the realization of life through intellectual right action. Hence morality guides life. The simplest, most concrete moral meaning in life, in social communication is doing good, avoiding evil, being love, owning yourself ... That meaning can be found easily in The Dhammapada (Dhammapada) records the teachings of the Buddha, first of all for his Congregation and of course for everyone. Here are some excerpts from the Dharma Canon, chosen by the Venerable Rahula, from which we draw a few small parts representing the morality of monks:
Although Buddhism is vivid and fresh, it is inevitable that many people see the image of a Buddhist monk with austerity, being constrained by form or not, not by others. conception of him. Moreover, if we note that there is a "negative" loss of gentle peaceful attitude also in the Buddhist monk, we cannot help but say that morality is the expression of knowledge in life. in the world of relative and limited phenomena. Morality is not liberation, but the aid leading to liberation and is the result of each step of practice to liberation. H. De Glasenapp has identified the relative personality of morality as follows:
Indeed, the question of morality only poses for those who are not yet liberated in reaching the goal of ultimate liberation. In the liberated ones, in the fullness and absolute nature, the self-spontaneous morality makes ordinary people "within a certain limit" realize their high morality. . The reason for saying that "within a certain limit" is because ordinary people or ordinary people only recognize the reflections of a relative morality in life. So, in the A-function School, the Pham Vong sutra, after the Buddha mentioned the praise of the world to him, he also taught:
The Germany of the Tathagata mentioned above, is Germany Tri, Germany No-self, Germany Anatta, Germany's Liberation of an enlightened person. And, despite the relative ethics, the Buddhist ethics up to now is still nothing outdated, and the moral qualities of the Buddhist Sangha must be so sublime that many of them attain Holy results, and that moral quality has persisted for more than twenty-five centuries. END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.22/8/2020.. |
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