Dear Nina,

Sorry, I have just come back from a trip hence this late reply.

You wrote:

> We are bound to be distressed about an unpleasant experience such as
> an insult or a loss of dear people, but when we begin to develop
> pa~n~naa we can gradually learn from such an experience. Sometimes,
> when there are conditions, we may even be glad and full of confidence
> in the Triple Gem, as we also read in this sutta:
> < Tassa ce aavuso bhikkhuno eva.m Buddha.m anussarato eva.m Dhamma.m
> anussarato eva.m Sa"nga.m anussarato
> But if, when a bhikkhu recollects the Enlightened One, the Teaching
> and the Community,
> upekhaa kusalanissitaa sa.n.thaati, so tena attamano hoti...
> equanimity with the beneficial (kusala dhamma) as its support,
> becomes established in him, then he is satisfied.>
>
> Chapter I of the Visuddhimagga deals with siila, and passages on the
> fourfold purification of siila can also be partly applied by a
> layfollower in his own situation. We read in the Visuddhimagga (I,
> 100, 101), that restraint of the sense faculties should be undertaken
> with mindfulness, and <When not undertaken thus, virtue of Patimokkha
> restraint is unenduring: it does not last, like a crop not fenced in
> with branches...>
> Also laypeople can remember that without satipa.t.thaana one is bound
> to give in to akusala in thought, speech and action, there will be
> impatience and intolerance.
> We read in Vis. I, 49-51:
> <Proper resort as support: a good friend. Proper resort as guarding.
> Proper resort as anchoring:<It is the four foundations of mindfulness
> on which the mind is anchored; for this is said by the Blessed
> One:'Bhikkhus, what is a bhikkhu's resort, his own native place? It
> is these four "foundations of mindfulness" (S.V, 148).>
> These are like an anchor both for monks and laypeople.
>
> The following text of the Diigha Nikaaya, Mahaaparibbaanasutta (80)
> shows clearly the impact of aniccaa sa~n~naa and anattaa sa~n~naa on
> siila, good morality as to thought, speech and action. This
> encouraging text that refers to the Order of monks is also beneficial
> for laypeople:
>
> <So long as the brethren shall exercise themselves in the realization
> of the ideas of the impermanency of all phenomena, bodily and mental,
> the absence [in them of any abiding principle] of any "soul", of
> corruption, of the danger of wrong thoughts, of the necessity of
> getting rid of them, of purity of heart, of Nibbaana- so long may the
> brethren be expected not to decline, but to prosper.>

I agree with your comments and conclusions. All the sources you have quoted are from the Sutta Pi.taka, where we can meet the Buddha as a guide, as a patient teacher. However, in Vinaya we see the Buddha as an enforcer of law who practiced the policy of "carrot or stick". All Paatimokkha precepts, for example, are in the format of "Don't do this or else".

I agree that meditation like satipa.t.thaana can really help individual monks to observe Vinaya rules but there is no rule to force monks to meditate. I sometimes wonder why the Buddha has not made meditation compulsory for monks.

with metta

Ven. Pandita