Bhikkhu

“ Should any bhikkhu knowingly consort, join in communion, or lie down in the same lodging with a bhikkhu professing such a view who has not acted in compliance with the rule, who has not abandoned that view, it is to be confessed.
70. And if a novice should say the following: "As I understand the Dhamma taught by the Blessed One, those acts the Blessed One says are obstructive for me when indulged in, are not genuine obstructions," the bhikkhus should admonish him thus: "Do not say that, friend novice. Do not misrepresent the Blessed One, for it is not good to misrepresent the Blessed One. ”

“ Should any bhikkhu engage in conveying a man's intentions to a woman or a woman's intentions to a man, proposing marriage or paramourage -- even if only for a momentary liaison -- it entails initial and subsequent meetings of the Community.
6. When a bhikkhu is building a hut from (gains acquired by) his own begging -- having no sponsor, destined for himself -- he is to build it to the standard measurement. Here the standard is this: twelve spans, using the sugata span, in length (measuring outside) ”

“ Hushka gazed at him inquiringly, and Oman came up, but stood silent and a little confused before him.
“Is there any service that I can perform for thee?” asked Hushka, after regarding him for a moment attentively.
Oman again gazed deep into the large, gentle eyes; and with the look, a thrill of joy ran through him. “Tell me, if you will, O Bhikkhu, if your order practises this Dharma? Are all Buddhist brethren free from desire and from the pain of discontent?”
“It is our endeavor thus to free ourselves. We follow the teachings of the great Master.” ”

“ There was a bhikkhu who had great difficulty in keeping his senses and passions under control; so, resolving to leave the Order, he came to the Blessed One to ask him for a release from the vows. And the Blessed One said to the bhikkhu:1
"Take heed, my son, lest thou fall a prey to the passions of thy misguided heart. ”

“ To conquer the yearning for life and its pleasures was his cardinal aim, and he assigned no peculiar virtue to a mere outward act of renunciation of the world. Nevertheless, as it was difficult to conquer that thirst so long as one was actually living in the midst of his family and enjoying the pleasures of life, Gautama recommended the life of a Bhikkhu as the most efficacious means for securing the great end, and so thousands retired from the world and became Bhikkhus, thus forming the Buddhist monastic system, which was probably the first organized monastic system in the world. ”

“ The Mahâvagga contains a portion of an ancient word-for-word explanation of this code [631] and most of the Sutta-vibhanga is an amplification and exposition of it. The Pâtimokkha was already in existence when these books were composed, for we hear [632] that if in a company of Bhikkhus no one knows the Pâtimokkha, one of the younger brethren should be sent to some better instructed monastery to learn it. And further we hear [633] that a learned Bhikkhu was expected to know not merely the precepts of the Pâtimokkha but also the occasion when each was formulated. ”

“ Now, O Bhikkhus, if such is the forbearance and mildness of kings who wield the sceptre and bear the sword, so much more, O Bhikkhus, must you so let your light shine before the world, that you, having embraced the religious life according to so well-taught a doctrine and a discipline, may be seen to be forbearing and mild. ”

“ And should the bhikkhuni, thus admonished by the bhikkhunis, persist as before, the bhikkhunis are to rebuke her up to three times so as to desist. If while being rebuked up to three times she desists, that is good. If she does not desist, it is to be confessed. ”

“ Honour to women has ever been a part of religion in India, and salvation and heaven are not barred to them by the Hindu religion. "They are capable, Ananda," replied the sage, whereupon they were admitted to the Order as Bhikkhunis under some rules making them strictly subordinate to the Bhikkhus. ”

“ In the cool of the evening he entered the Deer Park in the holiest city of India, and there found the followers who had deserted him. To them he explained his new tenets:—
"There are two extremes, O Bhikkhus, which the man who has given up the world ought not to follow: the habitual practice, on the one hand, of those things whose attraction depends upon the passions, and specially of sensuality, a low and pagan way, unworthy, unprofitable, and fit only for the worldly-minded ”

“ Reading formed no part of the culture of the time, but a life of travel and new impressions, continual discussion and the war of wits, must have given the Bhikkhus a more stimulating training than was to be had in the contemporary Brahmanic schools. ”

“ They told this matter to the Blessed One. “You are not, O Bhikkhus, to put your bowls down on a sunshade. Whosoever does so, shall be guilty of a dukkata.” Now at that time the Bhikkhus, when they were holding the bowls in their hands, opened the door. The door springing back, the bowls were broken. They told this matter to the Blessed One. “You are not, O Bhikkhus, to open the door with your bowls in your hands. Whosoever does so, shall be guilty of a dukkata.” Now at that time the Bhikkhus did not use tooth-sticks, and their mouths got a bad odour. ”

“ A. Yes. It is said that the Mussalmāns invaded, overran and conquered large areas of India; everywhere doing their utmost to stamp out our religion.
315. Q. What cruel acts are they charged with doing?
A. They burnt, pulled down or otherwise destroyed our vihāras, slaughtered our Bhikkhus, and consumed with fire our religious books.
316. Q. Was our literature completely destroyed in India?
A. No. Many Bhikkhus fled across the borders into Tibet and other safe places of refuge, carrying their books with them. ”

“ Let us land the bhikshu and place him on some island-shore. We must not for the sake of one man allow ourselves to be exposed to such imminent peril." A patron of F‚-hien, however, said to them, "If you land the bhikshu, you must at the same time land me; and if you do not, then you must kill me. If you land this Sramana, when I get to the land of Han, I will go to the king, and inform against you. The king also reveres and believes the Law of Buddha, and honors the bhikshus." ”

“ Hwuy-king, Hwuy-tah, and Tâo-ching went on ahead towards (the place of) Buddha’s shadow in the country of Nagâra;5 but Fâ-hien and the others remained in Woo-chang, and kept the summer retreat.6 That over, they descended south, and arrived in the country of Soo-ho-to.7
1 Udyâna, meaning ‘the Park;’ just north of the Punjâb, the country along the Subhavastu, now called the Swat; noted for its forests, flowers, and fruits (E. H., p. 153) .
2 See chap. iii note 6.
3 Bhikshu is the name for a monk as ‘living by alms,’ a mendicant. All bhikshus call themselves Śramans. ”

“ Student, (2) Householder, (3) Hermit, (4) Wandering Mendicant—Brahmacārin, Gṛihastha, Vānaprastha, and Parivrājaka. [15]
It will be noticed that this final arrangement differs in two respects—and both of them of importance—from the earliest. In the first place the wandering beggar is put in the last, that is in the highest, place. He is not subordinated, as he was at first, to the hermit. In the second place the expression Bhikshu, applied in Gautama to the wandering mendicant, is dropped in the later books.
The commentators are at great pains to harmonise the divergent order. ”

“ He sets himself to restrain that which might give occasion for evil states, covetousness and dejection, to flow in over him so long as he dwells unrestrained as to his mental (representative) faculty. He keeps watch upon his representative faculty, and he attains to mastery over it. And endowed with this self-restraint, so worthy of honour, as regards the senses, he experiences, within himself, a sense of ease into which no evil state can enter [44] . Thus is it, O king, that the Bhikshu becomes guarded as to the doors of his senses. ”

“ No householder likes these Bhikshus or beggars to depart from his house without having received a gift, however small, while the Bhikshu himself is not degraded, but enjoys, on the contrary, the same respect which the begging friars enjoyed during the middle ages. Even in later times we hear in Scotland of the Gaberlunzie men, and elsewhere of Bedesmen, Bluegowns, etc., all forming a kind of begging fraternity, and having a recognised position in society. ”

“ Bhakti is the religion of many millions of India, combined more or less with the conventional externals of sacrifice and offerings and pilgrimages and employment of brahmans, which together constitute the third path of salvation, by karma or works. That ecstatic adoration is religion for many millions of India, although the name bhakti may never pass their lips. We judged the idea of salvation by knowledge, or by intense concentration of mind, to be genuinely felt, because it could override the idea of caste. ”

“ The Pala dynasty of Bengal seem to have remained Buddhist nearly to the Mahomedan conquest (A.D. 1203) , when they seem suddenly to have dropped that religion and plunged headlong into the Vaishnava and Saiva superstitions. Whether from this, or from some other cause we cannot now explain, Jainism never seems to have taken root in Bengal. At the time that it, with Buddhism, took its rise in the 6th century B.C., Behar was the intellectual{240} and the political centre of India, and Buddhism long held its sway in the country of its birth. ”

“ A detailed account of the doctrines held by these six heretics would prove highly interesting, as it would throw some light on the very obscure and imperfectly known history of Indian philosophy, in the days when Buddhism assumed the shape of a religious system. To those who are unacquainted with Indian literature, the great progress made by Hindus in philosophical sciences at such an early period may appear somewhat doubtful: but modern discoveries made all over the Indian peninsula leave not the least doubt respecting this startling assertion. ”

“ When S‚riputtra was a great Brahman, he went to Buddha, and begged to be permitted to quit his family and become a monk. The great Mugalan and the great Kas'yapa also did the same. The bhikshunis [5] for the most part make their offerings at the tope of Ňnanda, because it was he who requested the World-honored one to allow females to quit their families and become nuns. The Sr‚maneras [6] mostly make their offerings to Rahula. [7] The professors of the Abhidharma make their offerings to it; those of the Vinaya to it. Every year there is one such offering, and each class has its own day for it. ”

“ And the two classes of perfect and imperfect disciples in Mânî's community were copied from those of Buddhism, which divides all believers into two categories: those who sincerely and fervently seek to attain to Nirvana and are termed Bhikshus, and the Upasakas or laymen who, while holding on to life, practise such virtues as are compatible with this unholy desire.
The Jewish religion, in certain of its phases, reveals in like manner unmistakable traces of the influence of the religion of the Buddha. ”

“ Early Bengali works by the Buddhists.The Çunya Purāṅa by Rāmāi Pandit, Chāryāchāryaviniçchay by Kānu Bhatta, the poems known as Dharma-mangal, and ballads and songs in honour of some of the Pāl Kings of Bengal bear distinct stamps of Buddhism on them. The ballads of the Pāl Kings, who were great patrons of Buddhism, indicate the marvellous power wielded by Gorakṣanāth and Hāḍisiddha, the great Buddhistic saints. ”

“ Even in the Br [=a] hmanas occur the termini technici of the Buddhist priesthood, notably the Çramana or ascetic monk, and the word buddha, 'awakened' (pratibudh) . The 'four orders' are those enumerated as the householder, student, ascetic, and forest-hermit. If one live in all four orders according to rule, and be serene, he will come to peace, that is, salvation ( [=A] pastamba, 2. 9. 21. I, 2) .
According to this later legal writer, who belongs to Southern India, [24] it is only after one has passed through all the preceding stadia that he may give up works (sacrifice, etc.) ”

“ We have thought it much more important to give a fuller account of early Buddhism, that of Buddha, than a full account of a later growth in regions that, for the most part, are not Indic, in the belief that the P [=a] li books of Ceylon give a truer picture of the early church than do those of Kashmeer and Nep [=a] l, with their Çivaite and Brahmanic admixture. For in truth the Buddhism of China and Tibet has no place in the history of Indic religions. It may have been introduced by Hindu missionaries, but it has been re-made to suit a foreign people. ”

“ Every Hindu is in a manner born to a certain line of life, virtuous or vicious, honest or dishonest and his Dharma, or religious duty, consists in conforming to the practice and the worship of his profession. The “Thug,” for instance, worships Bhawani, who enables him to murder successfully ”

“ The conception of the all-comprehending impersonal Brahma has, indeed, lost vitality; for the educated also the externals of the popular religion have lost their significance and become puerile. But for them also, the objects of popular bhakti, Ram and Krishna, are as much epical as religious heroes. Hinduism needs an object of bhakti for her educated people. The fact explains several of the novel religious features of the past half-century. The great jogi, Buddha, although not a brahman, was rediscovered as a religious hero for Hindus ”