This may be of interest:

The Pali Text's Society
11th I.B. Horner Memorial Lecture

The 11th I.B. Horner Memorial Lecture will take
place on 16 September 2005 at 5.30 p.m., Room G3,
School of Oriental and African Studies,
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H
OXG.

Dr Petra Kieffer-Pülz will speak on "Stretching
the Vinaya Rules and Getting Away With It".

The rules of the Vinaya (the book of law for
Buddhist monks and nuns) regulate the life of the
fully ordained in detail and are valid to this
day. Today, life according to these rules is
regarded as being ascetic and a look at life in
Buddhist monasteries shows us that reality is far
distant from the life prescribed by the book of
law. According to the Vinaya for example, monks
may possess one robe only, consisting of three
garments. They therefore would not even be able
to change after returning to the monastery after
an alms round. More recent text layers as well as
contemporary practice show that monks do indeed
change their clothes, hence they have more than
one robe. How is this possible without
transgressing the respective Vinaya rule? Also,
the ordaining of individuals, who according to
rules of the Vinaya are not eligible, is in some
cases possible, yet they hold their validity in
others. Such divergence can be observed in all
aspects of Buddhist monastic life. With the help
of a few examples, I wish to illustrate how, by
means of defining terms employed in the Vinaya
and the re-interpretation of regulations found
therein, the commentaries enable the monks to
lead a more comfortable life than originally
prescribed by the Vinaya, without this
constituting a transgression of the rules.

-------------------

Dr Rupert Gethin
University of Bristol
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
3 Woodland Road
Bristol BS8 1TB, UK

E-mail: Rupert.Gethin@...


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