Buddhist Nuns - History - The Eight Precepts

The Eight Precepts

Eight Rules for nuns in Buddhism is also known as the Eight Garudhammas:

1) A nun who has been ordained even for a hundred years must greet respectfully, rise up from her seat, salute with joined palms, do proper homage to a monk ordained but that day.

• clarification: The Vinaya recounts the story of six monks who lifted up their robes to show their thighs to the nuns. When the Buddha learned about this, he made an exception to that rule and told the nuns not to pay respect to these monks. A nun, then, does not have to bow to every monk, but only to a monk who is worthy of respect.

• Pajapati's later request: "I would ask one thing of the Blessed One, Ananda. It would be good if the Blessed One would allow making salutations, standing up in the presence of another, paying reverence and the proper performance of duties, to take place equally between both bhikkhus and bhikkhunis according to seniority."

2) A nun must not spend the rains in a residence where there are no monks.

3) Every half month a nun should desire two things from the Order of Monks : the asking as to the date of the Observance day, and the coming for the exhortation .

4) After the rains a nun must 'invite' before both orders in respect of three matters, namely what was seen, what was heard, what was suspected.

• amended: However, practical considerations soon necessitated amendments to these and we see in the revised version of these conditions the sanction given to the bhikkhunis to perform these acts, in the first instance, by themselves.

5) A nun, offending against an important rule, must undergo manatta discipline for half a month before both orders.

• another translation: "(5) A bhikkhuni who has broken any of the vows of respect must undergo penance for half a month under both Sanghas... (by Thanissaro Bhikkhu)

6) When, as a probationer, she has trained in the six rules for two years, she should seek higher ordination from both orders.

• note contradiction: One of the gurudhamma mentions sikkhamanas, probationary nuns who train for two years in preparation to become bhikkhunis. It says that after a probationary nun has trained with a bhikkhuni for two years, that bhikkhuni preceptor has the responsibility to fully ordain her. However, when the Buddha ordained Mahapajapati, there were no probationary nuns. He ordained her directly as a bhikkhuni. So how do we explain that within the eight important rules, one of them states that before becoming a bhikkhuni, a woman must be a probationary nun? Edit: That's easy, in order for there to be seniority verses probationary, one must first have seniority. So Mahapajapati was ordained in order to set up the probationary system, and allow women to learn under another woman, rather than the men who may refuse to teach them or subject them to, as stated above, sexual harassment and other forms of assault that were stated above. "

7) A monk must not be abused or reviled in any way by a nun.

8) From today, admonition of monks by nuns is forbidden.

• note Buddhist lay-women can: This is in contrast to the rules for Buddhist lay-women who can single-handedly accuse a bad monk:

"Equality of Bhikṣunī and bhikṣu, men and women, can be inferred in

several of the rules groupings. The penalties for offenses against those

aniyata dharmas written only for Bhikṣus, for example, point up a landmark

of female-male equality. Here, in a gesture of trust in women most

unusual for the time, a trustworthy female lay follower can bring a charge

against a bhikṣu based only on her personal eyewitness testimony, in order

to force an investigation of that Bhikṣus conduct. Additionally, equal abilities

of men and women are presumed in the regulations for settlement of disciplinary

matters in the seven Adhikaraṇa Śamatha Dharmas, which are

exactly the same, in both numbers and contents, for both the Bhikṣu and the

Bhikṣunī Sanghas."

Nuns were also given the right to select the monk who would be allowed to give counsel to the order of nuns (he had to be acceptable to all the nuns) and the selection criteria was quite stringent:

There seems to be little doubt about his anxiety and his

foresight regarding the safety and well-being of the female

members of his Order. .

These eight qualities were: the teacher of nuns must be virtuous; second, have comprehensive knowledge of the Dhamma; third he must be well acquainted with the Vinaya, especially the rules for nuns; fourth, he must be a good speaker with a pleasant and fluent delivery, faultless in pronunciation, and intelligibly convey the meaning; fifth, he should be able to teach Dhamma to the nuns in an elevating, stimulating, and encouraging way; sixth, he must always be welcome to the nuns and liked by them—that is, they must be able to respect and esteem him not only when he praises them but especially when there is an occasion for reproach; seventh, he must never have committed sexual misconduct with a nun; eighth, he must have been a fully ordained Buddhist monk for at least 20 years (AN 8.52).

Some scholars argue that these 8 rules were added later since:

1) there is a discrepancy between the Pali bhikkhuni Vinaya

2) the fact that these same rules are treated only as a minor offense (requiring only confession as expiation) in the bhikkhuni Payantika Dharmas.

In Young Chung clarifies, "Hae-ju Chun, a Bhikṣunī and assistant professor at Tongguk University in Seoul, Korea, argues that six of the Eight Rules (#1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8) belong to the Bhikṣunī Pāyantika Dharmas, as they are the same as or similar to rules found there. We may compare the differences in the punishment for any offense of the Eight Rules with that for an offense of the pāyantika dharmas. Violation of any of the Eight Rules means that women cannot be ordained. The Eight Rules must be observed throughout the Bhikṣunīs lives. However, the pāyantika dharmas (#175, 145, 124 or 126, 141, 143, 142) require only confession, as there offenses of bhikunis are considered to be violations of minor rules. Based on the differences in the gravity of offenses between the Eight Rules and the pāyantika dharmas, she also asserts the probability that the Eight Rules might have been added later. The first of the Eight Rules does not appear in the Pāli Bhikṣunī Vinaya.

Most of these rules are also found in the Bhikkhuni Payantika Dharmas as minor rules since they only require confession:

Theriya tradition, which at some stage, seems to have accommodated the idea that the Buddha conceded the abrogation of the minor rules .

Other scholars argue that questioning canonical sources is a slippery slope. Buddha's main concern was about the rest of society, which was the main supporter of the Sangha, and how they would view the ordination of women—something quite revolutionary at the time. There were many men who even after the apparent success of the Bhikkhuni Sangha, were opposed to its formation. However, we have Buddha himself admit that the social factors were foremost in his mind when making these rules:

the Theriya tradition attempts to make out that in the organization of the Sasana social considerations, as much as moral and ethical values, loomed large in the mind of the Master. In the Cullavagga he is reported as saying: ‘Not even the Titthiyas who propound imperfect doctrines sanction such homage of men towards women. How could the Tathagata do so?’

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This agrees with the fact that rival sects such as the Jains also had the first rule according to the Svetambara rules.

Ian Astley argues that under the conditions of society where there is such great discrimination and threat to women, Buddha could not be blamed for the steps he took in trying to secure the Sangha from negative public opinion:

In those days (and this still applies to much of present Indian society) a woman who had left the life of the household would otherwise have been regarded more or less as a harlot and subjected to the appropriate harassment. By being formally associated with the monks, the nuns were able to enjoy the benefits of leaving the household life without incurring immediate

harm. Whilst it is one thing to abhor, as any civilized person must do, the attitudes and behavior towards women which underlie the necessity for such protection, it is surely misplaced to criticize the Buddha and his community for adopting this particular policy.

The so called Eight rules of respect (which are vows) are still in force, they are part of the process of full ordination.