The Abolition Of Regulations
Khuddānukhuddakapañha (Mil 5.2 1)
‘Venerable Nāgasena, it has been said by the Blessed One: “It is by insight, O Bhikkhus, that I preach the law, not without insight.” On the other hand he said of the regulations of the Vinaya: “When I am gone, Ānanda, let the Order, if it should so wish, abolish all the lesser and minor precepts.” Were then these lesser and minor precepts wrongly laid down, or established in ignorance and without due cause, that the Blessed One allowed them to be revoked after his death? If the first statement had been true, the second would have been wrong. If the second statement were really made, Then the first was false. This too is a double-headed problem, fine, subtle, abstruse, deep, profound, and hard to expound. It is now put to you, and you have to solve it.’
‘In both cases, O king, the Blessed One said as you have declared. But in the second case it was to test the Bhikkhus that he said it, to try whether, if leave were granted them, they would, after his death, revoke the lesser and minor regulations, or still adhere to them. It runs as if a king of kings were to say to his sons: “This great country, my children, reaches to the sea on every side. It is a hard thing to maintain it with the forces we have at our disposal. So when I am gone you had better, my children, abandon the outlying districts along the border.” Now would the princes, O king, on the death of their father, give up those outlying districts, provinces already in their power?’
‘No indeed, Sir. Kings are grasping. The princes might, in the lust of power, subjugate an extent of country twice or thrice the size of what they had, but they would never give up what they already possessed.’
‘Just so was it, O king, that the Tathāgata to test the Bhikkhus said: “When I am gone, Ānanda, let the Order, if it should so wish, abolish all the lesser and minor precepts.” But the sons of the Buddha, O king, in their lust after the law, and for emancipation from sorrow, might keep two hundred and fifty regulations, but would never give up any one that had been laid down in ordinary course.’
‘Venerable Nāgasena, when the Blessed One referred to “lesser and minor precepts,” this people might therein be bewildered, and fall into doubt, and find matter for discussion, and be lost in hesitation, as to which were the lesser, and which the minor precepts.’
‘The lesser errors in conduct, O king, are the lesser precepts, and the lesser errors in speech are the minor precepts: and these two together make up therefore “the lesser and minor precepts.” the leading Elders too of old, O king, were in doubt about this matter, and they were not unanimous on the point at the Council held for the fixing of the text of the Scriptures. And the Blessed One foresaw that this problem would arise.’
‘Then this dark saying of the Conquerors, Nāgasena, which has lain hid so long, has been now to-day uncovered in the face of the world, and made clear to all.’
Here ends the problem as to the revocation of rules.
‘In both cases, O king, the Blessed One said as you have declared. But in the second case it was to test the Bhikkhus that he said it, to try whether, if leave were granted them, they would, after his death, revoke the lesser and minor regulations, or still adhere to them. It runs as if a king of kings were to say to his sons: “This great country, my children, reaches to the sea on every side. It is a hard thing to maintain it with the forces we have at our disposal. So when I am gone you had better, my children, abandon the outlying districts along the border.” Now would the princes, O king, on the death of their father, give up those outlying districts, provinces already in their power?’
‘No indeed, Sir. Kings are grasping. The princes might, in the lust of power, subjugate an extent of country twice or thrice the size of what they had, but they would never give up what they already possessed.’
‘Just so was it, O king, that the Tathāgata to test the Bhikkhus said: “When I am gone, Ānanda, let the Order, if it should so wish, abolish all the lesser and minor precepts.” But the sons of the Buddha, O king, in their lust after the law, and for emancipation from sorrow, might keep two hundred and fifty regulations, but would never give up any one that had been laid down in ordinary course.’
‘Venerable Nāgasena, when the Blessed One referred to “lesser and minor precepts,” this people might therein be bewildered, and fall into doubt, and find matter for discussion, and be lost in hesitation, as to which were the lesser, and which the minor precepts.’
‘The lesser errors in conduct, O king, are the lesser precepts, and the lesser errors in speech are the minor precepts: and these two together make up therefore “the lesser and minor precepts.” the leading Elders too of old, O king, were in doubt about this matter, and they were not unanimous on the point at the Council held for the fixing of the text of the Scriptures. And the Blessed One foresaw that this problem would arise.’
‘Then this dark saying of the Conquerors, Nāgasena, which has lain hid so long, has been now to-day uncovered in the face of the world, and made clear to all.’
Here ends the problem as to the revocation of rules.
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