Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.10

c10.10

The ancient compilations of the laws of the Order share to the fullest extent in all those peculiarities which cause some sections of Buddhist dogmatics to appear to us to be a so very pathless waste. The same subtlety here as there, the same inexhaustible capability of enjoying long abstract series of notions purely for their own sake. Here we have, not rules drawn from life for life, but scholastic lucubrations, unpractical and, strictly speaking, not even clear. The form in which they are usually introduced is most simple. In every case the same outline: At this time, when the exalted Buddha was staying in such and such a place, this and that irregularity occurred. The people who came to know of this were irritated, murmured, and complained: How can monks, who follow the son of the Sakya house, commit such offences, like wanton worldlings—or: like unbelieving heretics, as the case in point has occurred. The spiritual brothers hear the whisperings of the people; they too are irritated, murmur and complain: How can the venerable N. N. be guilty of the like! They mention the matter to Buddha; he calls the disciples together, delivers to them an admonitory address, and then issues the order: I order, O disciples, that so and so shall or shall not be done. Whoso does this is liable to such and such a punishment. Stereotyped like this narrative itself, which recurs thousands of times, are also the figures of the culprits who appear in the narrative, and by their actions afford occasion in every instance for Buddha’s interference. A specific brother turns out to be the culprit, if the matter be an inordinate exaction of pious beneficence. If offences of a lascivious description occur, the actor, as a rule, is the venerable Udâyi. But the longest catalogue of crimes attaches to the Chabbaggiyas, six monks associated together in all mischievous artifices. Whatever Buddha may prescribe, the Chabbaggiyas always find a way of circumventing the law, or, while they comply with it, of mixing up some evil with their performance. When Buddha declares that the twigs of certain plants are to be used for cleaning the teeth, the Chabbaggiyas take long and massive twigs, and beat the novices with them. If a transgressor is to be censured before the Order, the Chabbaggiyas raise objections and thereby defeat the enforcement of discipline. On one occasion when the nuns had dirty water poured over them, the Chabbaggiyas were the actors, and so on through the long texts of the Rules for the Order the Chabbaggiyas figure everywhere as the arch-criminals, whose new discoveries in all regions of mischief the spiritual legislation enacted by Buddha follows up step by step. There is in these narratives undoubtedly many an authentic memory of the evil deeds of this and that black sheep of the flock. But, taken as a whole, it needs scarcely to be said, a picture of what was wont to occur within the Order, based on these cases of spiritual discipline, would only be correct to the same extent as if, for example, one were to admit Stichus, the much renowned slave of the Digests, to pass for an illustration of Roman slaves in general.