Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c22.21

c22.21

**Rules for Renunciation of Monkhood.** Thus the ordination of the Upasampadā was performed in a most rational and business-like way without the use of any mystical symbols and methods indicative of the special solemnity and significance of the occasion to the person taking orders or of his spiritual transformation and re-birth. But if the admission to the Order was so simple in its process, the withdrawal from it was also not more difficult. Infringement of any of the prohibitions is punished by expulsion from the Order, while an ordained monk might seek separation from the Order if he feels the promptings of the flesh, "if his father, mother, wife, or the laughter and the jest, the pleasantry of old days, are in his thoughts." Only he has to declare his weakness before a witness (who need not be a monk), who must hear and understand him to say that he renounces the Buddha, the Doctrine, and the Order. Thus the Order did not try artificial methods to keep themselves together in the interests of their real spiritual growth, which was not a matter to be forced.