Vinaya Studies
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The practical study of the monastic code, primarily by and for monastics seeking to hone their discipline.

Courtesy of Mary Reinard, BY-SA 3.0
Table of Contents
- Articles (12)
- Audio/Video (5)
- Booklets (5)
- Canonical Works (11)
- Essays (10)
- Monographs (1)
- Reference Shelf (2)
Articles (12)
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A spiritual community is nothing if it cannot take care of its most vulnerable.
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🥇 Featured
This paper introduces a new distinction between the ‘formal’ and the ‘practical’ canon[…] in medieval Sri Lanka. I show that few monks encountered the [Vinaya] in anything close to its full form.
[Rather,] Monastic leaders considered the Anumāna, Dasadhamma and (Karaniya)metta Suttas to be [the important sources] for monastic education. -
the saṃgha is a collective body of people who wish to live doing only what they love to do—that is, Buddhist practices.
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the relevant Pāli data about [ten technical] terms occurring in the Vinaya, [its commentaries] and in secondary literature
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⭐ Recommended
Vinaya narration like the Sudinna tale does not function in a way comparable to a record of case law precedents in modern judicial proceedings. Instead, the stories need to be understood in terms of their teaching function
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If the frustrated zombie turns back on the instigator and kills him, the monk incurs a heavy fault. I do not know whether there are any other cases of posthumous penalties in the monastic codes, but here we have at least one.
Audio/Video (5)
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⭐ Recommended
Textual fundamentalism requires texts.
Booklets (5)
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Slightly less conservatively preserved than the monks’, the Bhikkhunī Pātimokkha should be studied comparatively to get a sense for what their original rules might have been: a scholarly process which continues to this day.
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In the 1970s, Ajahn Brahm began writing his own translation of and commentary on the Vinaya in order to support his fellow, Western monks who, at the time, lacked such a resource in English.
Canonical Works (11)
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Bhikkhus, there are these three authorities. What three? Oneself as one’s authority, the world as one’s authority, and the Dhamma as one’s authority.
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A dispute about livelihood or about the Pātimokkha would be trifling, Ānanda. But should a dispute arise in the Sangha about the path or the way, such a dispute would be for the harm and unhappiness of many
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The present compilation brings together in English translation the most important Pali Vinaya texts dealing with the first rule in the Sanghādisesa section of the Bhikkhu Pātimokkha: the training rule on intentional emission of semen — one of the disciplinary rules most fundamental to [a bhikkhu’s] training.
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The Buddha tells a short fable about a turtle to warn the monks about infatuation with fame.
Essays (10)
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⭐ Recommended
A short essay on what the path is to become a Theravada Monastic.
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Paying money to this teacher I came to an understanding of the values of “This World.”
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the owners of the monastery are the worldwide and “timewide” community of monks and nuns
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An overview of some of the Vinaya rules regarding communally owned property according to the Theravada Tradition.
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Sangha decisions are always made locally. The Vinaya doesn’t countenance centralized, monastic authority.