འཕགས་པ་འདལ་བ་རྣམ་པར་གཏན་ལ་དབབ་པ་ཉ་བར་འཁར་གྱས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.4

intro.4

Following this, the eponymous Upāli emerges from meditative seclusion and joins the assembly to address questions to the Buddha about the relationship between the prātimokṣa vows as they are observed by śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, and the conduct of bodhisattvas who follow the Mahāyāna. Upāli is a famous figure in Buddhist literature and is regarded as foremost among the Buddha’s disciples in upholding the monastic discipline detailed in the Vinaya. Such was Upāli’s mastery of the Vinaya that he was selected to recite the Vinaya at the first full assembly of the saṅgha after the Buddha’s passing. As a recurring figure in Pāli literature, Upāli is more generally linked to the rules of monastic conduct of non-Mahāyāna Buddhism; here, however, Upāli’s questions primarily concern the observation of monastic discipline in the context of a bodhisattva’s conduct according to the Mahāyāna tradition. Upāli’s close connection to the Vinaya and the code of monastic conduct thus make him a particularly potent interlocutor in exploring the relationship between these two overlapping but seemingly contradictory modes of Buddhist conduct.¹