The History of Buddhist Thought c10.74

c10.74

The Pātimokkha gives the rules of life for the monk, not for the man who may come into active association with any form of social life. For the monk some of these activities are entirely cut off, not on the ground that they are sinful in themselves, but that they are a hindrance to the attainment of the ideal at which he aims—the knowledge of the Truths. They become sins for anyone who has deliberately renounced them on the ground that they conflict with progress on the Noble Eightfold Way.