Tibetan Texts > Bka’ ’gyur > Bka’ ’gyur Master Doxographical Categories > Monastic Conduct Doxcat > Foundations of Monastic Conduct

(1.1.1) Foundations of Monastic Conduct

By Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia, 2009)

The first of the eight works in the Monastic Conduct section is a massive four-volume compendium comprised largely of hundreds of didactic narratives of early Buddhist monastic, social, and cultural life. The Foundations of Monastic Conduct (D.1) is arranged into seventeen sections, in each of which are grouped narratives dealing with related subjects. Some of these are thematically titled, while others are named for a central character of the narratives contained in a given section. The section titles are:

1. Ordination (རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་བ་གཞི་, rab tu byung ba gzhi)
2. Upkeep and purification of vows (གསོ་སྦྱོང་གི་གཞི་, gso sbyong gi gzhi)
3. Removal of prohibitions (དགག་དབྱེའི་གཞི་, dgag dbye’i gzhi)
4. Summer retreat (དབྱར་གྱི་གཞི་, dbyar gyi gzhi)
5. Hides and skins (ཀོ་ལྤགས་ཀྱི་གཞི་, ko lpags kyi gzhi)
6. Medicine (སྨན་གྱི་གཞི་, sman gyi gzhi)
7. Garments (གོས་ཀྱི་གཞི་, gos kyi gzhi)
8. Kaṭhina robes (སྲ་བརྐྱང་གི་གཞི་, sra brkyang gi gzhi)
9. [The City of] Kośāmbi (ཀོ་ཤམ་བིའི་གཞི་, ko sham bi’i gzhi)
10. Activities (ལས་ཀྱི་གཞི་, las kyi gzhi)
11. Pāṇḍulohitaka (དམར་སེར་ཅན་གྱི་གཞི་, dmar ser can gyi gzhi)
12. Persons (གང་ཟག་གི་གཞི་, gang zag gi gzhi)
13. Changing location (སྤོ་བའི་གཞི་, spo ba’i gzhi)
14. Exclusion from the protection and purification of vows (གསོ་སྦྱོང་གཞག་པའི་གཞི་, gso sbyong gzhag pa’i gzhi)
15. Beds (གནས་མལ་གྱི་ཞི་, gnas mal gyi zhi)
16. Disputes (རྩོད་པའི་གཞི་, rtsod pa’i gzhi)
17. Splitting the community (དགེ་འདུན་གྱི་དབྱེན་གྱི་གཞི་, dge ’dun gyi dbyen gyi gzhi).

Literature: A handful of the narratives in the Foundations of Monastic Conduct have been translated in Anton Schiefner, Tibetan Tales, Derived from Indian Sources (London: Trübner & Co., 1882), and in William Woodville Rockhill, The Life of the Buddha (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1884).

See also:

• Schopen, Gregory. “Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya.” In Encyclopedia of Buddhism, edited by Robert E. Buswell, vol. 2, 572-73. New York: Macmillan Reference USA/Thomson/Gale, 2004.
• Tsedroen, Jampa. A Brief Survey of the Vinaya. Hamburg: Foundation for Tibetan Buddha Dharma, 1992.