Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.s1.t2.31

c8.s1.t2.31

∗ A close examination of the relations between the monks proper and lay-associates must obviously be reserved for the sketch of "Church Life" (part iii). It will suffice in this place to point out that the idea of lay-members (upâsaka) in Buddhist Church-law cannot be taken in the same sense as a technical term as that of monks (bhikkhu) : in the latter idea there is involved a definite *de jure* relationship, in the former the relationship is rather *de facto* than inherently *de jure*. For anyone to become a bhikkhu a special procedure is necessary on the part of the Church to complete the fact; the case of a person who desires to be considered an upâsaka expresses this, of course, and the texts have in this case also, as for everything that occurs with frequency, a definite formula ("I take, sire, my refuge with the Exalted One, and with the Doctrine, and with the Order of the disciples; may the Exalted One accept me as his votary [upâsaka] from this day forward through my life, me who have taken refuge with him"), but no special procedure follows, no recognition of the upâsaka as such on the part of the Church. Furthermore there were no ties which prohibited the Buddhist upâsaka from being at the same time the upâsaka of another Church (cf. "Cullav.," v, 20, 3), so that it appears in every way impossible to identify the position of the upâsaka with anything we understand to be among the components of a Church.