緇門警訓 3.30

3.30

The Yeshu says: When the capacity of women was aroused (in the vinaya, the Buddha's maternal aunt, the bhikṣuṇī Mahāprajāpatī, together with five hundred women, resolved to leave home under the Buddha), they deeply loathed saṃsāra and sought to leave home under the Buddha. Because there was no benefit of broadly propagating the Way and converting beings afar, he restrained and did not permit them. Later they returned to Śrāvastī, shaved their own hair, donned robes, and stood leaning against the monastery, praying to be permitted to receive the precepts. At that time, three requests were made, and he bestowed the rules of respect to be followed and practiced completely, whereupon they received the full precepts. The Ji says: Female nature is base and weak, and people have little respect and faith in them; thus there is no benefit of broadly converting beings. On the contrary, it would further demean the saddharma, diminishing it by half. Because the Buddha did not permit it, they returned to the city, changed their appearance on their own, and came again to the Jetavana, standing leaning against the gate. Ānanda pleaded on their behalf. The Buddha instructed the teaching to be transmitted: if she can practice the Eight Rules of Respect, she is permitted to leave home. Mahāprajāpatī and the others heard this and immediately generated the full precepts. The Jieshu also says: Receiving them before twenty saṅgha members is to clarify that the female retributive body has deep delusion, shallow wisdom, and easily gives rise to arrogance and negligence. If they must receive the full precepts, there must be ten monks and ten nuns before they can generate the superior mind. It also says: If relying on the Divine Province (China), from the Song dynasty and earlier, an investigation of monastic histories reveals that nuns received from a single saṅgha (meaning they received from the single saṅgha of great monks). As in the various vinayas, receiving through the Eight Rules of Respect applied solely to Mahāprajāpatī; the remaining five hundred nuns received from the saṅgha of eleven. Therefore the holy one Guṇavarman (translated as 'Armor of Merit') said: If there are not two saṅghas, receiving from only one saṅgha, like the conditions of Mahāprajāpatī, is permissible. How is this known to be so? In discussing the original dharma, it was only a preliminary expedient, not yet completed; it required the karmavācanā in the saṅgha of monks to obtain [ordination]. Later, when Tessarā and eleven other nuns from Siṃhala learned the Song language and became proficient, they then received from the two saṅghas.