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

(1.1) Scriptures on Monastic Conduct, Belonging to the First Turning [of the Wheel of the Teaching]

By Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia, 2009)

The first of the three “wheels” of the Buddha’s teaching contains the vinaya literature, which treats monastic conduct and institutional life. The eight works here (D.1-D.8) fill thirteen volumes and are arranged according to a system known as the “Four Classes of Vinaya Scripture” (འདུལ་བ་ལུང་སྡེ་བཞི་, ’dul ba lung sde bzhi):

1. The Foundations of Monastic Conduct (འདུལ་བ་གཞི་, ’dul ba gzhi, vinayavastu, containing D.1)
2. The Analysis of Monastic Conduct (འདུལ་བ་རྣམ་འབྱེད་, ’dul ba rnam ’byed, vinayavibhaṅga, containing D.2-D.5)
3. The Section on Minor Issues of Monastic Conduct (འདུལ་བ་ཕྲན་ཚེགས་ཀྱི་གཞི་, ’dul ba phran tshegs kyi gzhi, vinayakṣudrakavastu, containing D.6)
4. The Excellent Scripture on Monastic Conduct (འདུལ་བ་གཞུང་བླ་མ་, ’dul ba gzhung bla ma, vinaya-uttaragrantha, containing D.7-D.8).

These works were translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan in the ninth century. Taken together, this compendium of monastic instruction is the largest of six extant vinaya collections, and is attributed to the Mūlasarvāstivāda School of Indian Buddhism. It is therefore often referred to as the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya, or the “Monastic Code of the Root Group that Teaches that All Exists.”

Literature:

• Clarke, Shayne. “The Mūlasarvāstivādin Vinaya: A Brief Reconnaissance Report.” In Early Buddhism and Abhidharma Thought: In Honor of Doctor Hajime Sakurabe on His Seventy-seventh Birthday, pp. 45–63. Kyoto: Heirakuji shoten, 2002.
• Davids, T. W. Rhys, and Hermann Oldenberg. Vinaya Texts. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
• Kalupahana, David J. Ethics in Early Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1995.
• Kongtrul, Jamgön. The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Five: Buddhist Ethics. Translated by the International Translation Committee. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2003.
• Nietupski, Paul K. “Buddhist Books and Texts: Canon and Canonization—Vinaya.” In Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Lindsay Jones, vol. 2, 1258-1261. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005.
• Nietupski, Paul Kocot. “The History and Development of Buddhist Monasticism.” Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1993.
• Prebish, Charles S. A Survey of Vinaya Literature. Taipei: Jade Scepter Imprint, Jin Luen Pub. House, 1994.
• Schopen, Gregory. “Vinaya.” in Encyclopedia of Buddhism, edited by Robert E. Buswell, vol. 2, 885-889. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2003.
• Weinstein, Stanley, and William M. Bodiford. Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya: Essays Presented in Honor of Professor Stanley Weinstein. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005.