Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c24.s8.11

c24.s8.11

The roots of monasticism were thus threatened; the Hīnayāna had permitted, perhaps illogically,⁴ the withdrawal at pleasure of the monk from his vows, but this sensible provision becomes transformed into the absurdity by which the monastic vows are formally taken and a few days after the monk admits his inability to keep them and asks acceptance instead as a Buddha to be, forthwith returning to the world. In Nepal, as once in Kashmir, the final step was taken; the idea of monasticism was utterly overthrown and a married community, a caste in itself, filled the convents once devoted to celibate monks or nuns.⁵ The discipline had broken to pieces, and yet it must be said that the result was not incompatible with the doctrines of the Mahāyāna.¹