Venerable Pandita,
Op 4-jan-2010, om 12:14 heeft ashinpan het volgende geschreven:

> 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.

--------
N: As to satipa.t.thaana, it would not be possible to enforce this.
The aim is to see anattaa, no person or self who can beforced, since
whatever arises is dependent on conditions.
From your paper I see that you are concerned about the order of
monks, while you wrote: <if the monastic code can be maintained free
from the whims and fancies of the Order, at least a minority of good
monks would be able to follow it and get benefits even if the
majority is corrupt beyond all repair.>
Not sure whether the idea of carrot or stick helps. I am inclined to
see the unity of the teaching of the Tipi.taka and would not separate
the teaching of Vinaya as being different, with a different approach.
You wrote to Lennart: <For us, monkhood will help us to do good deeds
more easily while make it more difficult for us to do bad deeds. (At
least it is the common motive for us to become monks.) For that
privilege, we have to pay a price---we must observe the Vinaya rules. >

Doing good deeds, restraint from bad deeds, I think that one has to
know and be aware of the different cittas that arise in a day and
motivate deeds. Lobha comes in disguise; it seems we are doing good,
but how many akusala cittas arise without being noticed. The clinging
to self is in the way all the time.
The monk who has become a sotaapanna has eradicated the wrong view of
self and he cannot return to worldly life.

We read in the Kindred Sayings (V, Mah�-vagga, Book I, Ch VI, � 12,
The river) that the Buddha spoke by way of simile about the monk who
will not return to the layman�s life; he said that the river Ganges,
tending towards the east, cannot be made to change its course and
tend towards the west. We read:

Just so monks, if the r�jah�s royal ministers or his friends or boon
companions or kinsmen or blood relatives were to come to a monk who
is cultivating and making much of the ariyan eightfold way, and were
to seek to entice him with wealth, saying: �Come, good man! Why
should these yellow robes torment you? Why parade about with shaven
crown and bowl? Come! Return to the lower life and enjoy possessions
and do deeds of merit�� for that monk so cultivating and making much
of the ariyan way, return to the lower life is impossible. Why so?
Because, monks, that monk�s heart has for many a long day been bent
on detachment, inclined to detachment, turned towards detachment, so
that there is no possibility for him to return to the lower life...
-----------------
Nina.




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