Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.t2.17

c10.t2.17

The eight “high ordinances” show clearly enough the subordination in which the Order of nuns is kept to the monks. None of the more important transactions required by the rules of the Order could be completed by the nuns, which did not require to be submitted for confirmation by the chapter of the monks. If a maiden or a woman, who desires to obtain the initiations, has kept the vow of the “six rules”§ through a probationary period of two years, and has obtained ordination from the Order of nuns, she is still regarded as only "ordained on one side," and not fully accredited, as long as she has not appeared before the chapter of monks and in its presence gone through the whole ceremony of ordination anew. In the same way the confessional observances and invitation ceremonies of the nuns' Order, the atonement for transgressions, and the settlement of differences of all kinds, are subject to control and partly to confirmation by the monks' Order. Every half-month the nuns betake themselves to the monk, who has been named to them by a resolution of the brotherhood, to receive his spiritual instruction and admonition. In the presence of another monk, that monk sits waiting the nuns, and when they have made their appearance, bowed themselves to the ground, and sat down before him, he speaks to them of the eight high ordinances, and expounds to them, either by way of sermon or by question and answer, what he deems profitable of the teaching and maxims of Buddha.*