四分律刪繁補闕行事鈔 2.22

2.22

Question: On what grounds are the five classes and seven categories divided or combined? What was clarified above only spoke of six categories. Answer: As for establishing five classes, that which is clarified by the proper school in the Mahāsāṃghika-vinaya speaks only of five kinds of offenses, five kinds of prohibitions, and five offense categories. The six categories and seven categories are found in the later text of the Dharmaguptaka. Now, to distinguish the difference between seven and five: if three characteristics are fully present, it falls into the five—first, the names are equal; second, the essences are equal; third, the consummations are equal. If these three are not fully present, they are subsumed broadly into the categories. That six and seven differ also has doctrinal significance: in the six, duṣkṛta is combined because the essence is identical; in the seven, bad speech is separated because the faults are numerous. Question: Above, you fully laid out the names and essences of the six categories; please explain the names and characteristics of the five classes and seven categories. Answer: As for the names of the five classes: first, pārājika; second, saṃghāvaśeṣa; third, pāyattika; fourth, prātideśanīya; fifth, duṣkṛta. As for the seven categories: first, pārājika; second, saṃghāvaśeṣa; third, sthūlātyaya; fourth, pāyattika; fifth, prātideśanīya; sixth, duṣkṛta; seventh, bad speech (durbhāṣita). These two sets of names are listed provisionally; they are explained extensively in the Commentary on the Prātimokṣa. Question: In the Vinaya, monks are listed with two hundred and fifty precepts, fully present in the prātimokṣa; nuns are listed with five hundred. Is this statement literal or figurative? Answer: Both lists of fixed numbers are spoken approximately; hence all schools agree that one need not rely strictly on the number. In terms of their precept essence, there is only a single unmanifest karma (avijñapti); explaining their characteristics in relation to objects, they are as numerous as dust and sand—two hundred and fifty are merely pointed to as a guiding path for observance and transgression. In the Vinaya, nuns have three hundred and forty-eight precepts, which may be pointed to as what is guarded against. Now, according to the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa: 'The rules for receiving the precepts for nuns are briefly five hundred, and extensively spoken of as eighty thousand; for monks, they are briefly two hundred and fifty, and extensively identical with the nun's discipline.'