The Liberated YELLOW Robe
for Leading Disciples of the Tathāgata
The Blessed One is the good father to four species (born from moisture, eggs, womb and transformation). We are following in the footsteps of the Tathāgata whose disciples have shared the Tathāgata’s ideal and actualized the Tathāgata’s works. Serving beings with gratitude to repay the Tathāgata – there is nothing more important. The Saṅgha or the community of monks and nuns are called the Tathāgata’s disciples by the Blessed One. The Saṅgha offers beautiful words from their boundless loving heart, like a father guiding small children.
The Tathāgata’s leading disciples consist of bhikkhus and bhikkhunīs. The śikṣamāṇā, sāmaṇeri, upāsaka (masculine) or upāsikā (feminine) are considered as the Tathāgata’s next leading disciples who naturally have to rely on senior Dharma sisters and brothers to advance on the enlightened path. The bhikkhunīs are a necessary part of the Buddhist saṅgha system and have received a promoted rank as leading disciples of the Tathāgata. However, to keep this position of honor in the monastic order, bhikkhunīs must have an additional important and valuable element, that is, to keep the Eight Rules of the Bhikkhunīs (Guradharmās or the Eight Respectful Disciplines). These Eight Rules of the Bhikkhunīs not only help nuns qualify as daughters of the Tathāgata, teachers of heavenly and human beings, but also helps them attain the enlightened and liberated path.
The Eight Rules of the Bhikkhunīs are like an indispensable coat for the sincere and determined nun on the way practicing to seek enlightenment and liberation. If the nuns do not wear liberated robes, they will neither be the leading disciples of Tathāgata nor will they go to the destination of liberation. Why? Because the eight laws of the nuns are drawn from the endlessly precious result, the great combination of infinite compassion and the supreme enlightened wisdom of the Blessed One, so that it can bring the nuns to spiritual positions the same as the Buddhas, as well as the monks, in ten directions and three times (past, present and future).
The Blessed One is the unsurpassed physician; his teachings are boundless remedies for sentient beings who have so much suffering. Based on the Mahāyāna ideology of the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Sūtra, the Blessed One appears in the midst of this five-dimensional impure world as if it were heavy rain, the rainfall is equal. Rainwater is just a sweet taste, but the small grass and trees are different, so the uptake of rain is not the same same.
Because beings cannot immediately jump into the land of the Tathāgata, they must carefully practice each step on the path of liberation. The Blessed One gives medicine unique to each person. When instructing a blacksmith, for example, he might teach them to practice breathing in and out, but for a cemetery worker, the Buddha might teach them to think this body is not clean. Ther are different methods but each help practitioners achieve the same results. The karma of a male is not the same as that of a woman, that's why a sāmaṇeri must practice and study to advance to the sikkhamānā stage and then to full ordaination. A bhikkhu has only 250 precepts and a bhikkhuns has 348 precepts that must include the Eight Rules of Nuns.
The Eight Rules of the Bhikkhunīs (Also called the Eight Respectful Disciplines or the Guradharmās):
- 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.
- A nun must not spend the rains in a residence where there are no monks.
- Every half month a nun should desire two things from the Order of Monks: the asking as to the date of the Observance (Uposatha) day, and the coming for the exhortation (bhikkhunovada).
- After the rains (three-months rainy season retreat) a nun must “invite” (pavarana) before both orders in respect of three matters, namely what was seen, what was heard, what was suspected. A revised version allows bhikkhunis to perform pavarana by themselves.
- A nun, offending against an important rule, must undergo manatta discipline for half a month before both orders.
- When, as a probationer, she has trained in the six rules (cha dhamma) for two years, she should seek higher ordination from both orders.
- A monk must not be abused or reviled in any way by a nun.
- From today, admonition of monks by nuns is forbidden.
As we all know, Buddhism is a voluntary religion. Buddhism neither forces any monk or nun to cultivate nor requires them to receive ordination. When we are fully ordained, it seems that we have the full means to cultivate. Like a car, if you want to go from point A to point B, you must have enough gas. Without petrol, we will never reach the destination. Thus, if a monk or nun does not have full ordination, it will be difficult for them to accomplish the liberated path.
In regard the Eight Rules of the Bhikkhunīs, here is a question and answer to encourage reflection and contemplation:
Is it true that the majority of nuns believe that additional precepts are due to the Blessed One's bias for monks or nuns?
Have the nuns ever questioned what monks are thinking about the Eight Rules of the Bhikkhunīs? For example, in the first of the Eight Rules, a bhikkhunī, even if she has been ordained a hundred years, when she meets a newly ordained monk, she must bow down, pay homage and practice all the proper duties with respect to the monk.
If we look at this first rule with the mundane mindset full of fame and high position, it is inevitable that there will be frustion that a one-hundred-year-old elder nun is required to bow down and pay homage to a new young monk.
Hence, if you don't practice the right view with mindfulness, you will think like that. In fact, cultivating is not only going up to the main hall for meditation and chanting, it’s also reflecting on each breath, thought and action. Prostration is a method of practice. Spiritually speaking, when a monk receives a prostration from an elder nun, he gains, loses or reduces his merit. If he does not know the proper way to eliminate the egoness, if he is proud of himself that the bhikkhuni bowed, then surely his merit will be reduced. The bhikkhunī who prostrates to the bhikkhu will certainly have complete benefits, because she takes action exactly as the Buddha taught. No-self is Nirvana – the greater the self, the more suffering. The more afflictions, the deeper the depression. Thus, the Blessed One was completely biased in favor of the nuns, rather than the monks.
Tthe Blessed One placed more and more heavy responsibilities on the shoulders of the monks. Recalling the time when we were still young monastic students, we studied of the Eight Rules of the Bhikkhunīs. We looked at one another with surprised eyes, and lamented why the Blessed One was so biased towardsetowards the nuns. The Venerable teacher responded that the nuns blamed the Buddha of being-in favor of monks (who do not have to keep the eight disciplines) and vice versa, monks blamed the Buddha of having a bias in eing favor of nuns (because they can keep the Eight Disciplines). Your behavior as mundane people who always complain brings suffering forever for yourselves. I narrated this story to show the nuns what the monks think positively about the Eight Rules of the Bhikkhunīs. It helps monks and nuns to understand each other; monks never look down on or avoid responsibility to nuns. Since everyone is the Buddha's disciple, no one dares disobey his teachings. We are all practicing Dharma together.
The “Never Disdain Bodhisattva” in the Mahāyāna Dharma Lotus Sūtra did not study much at all. He devoted his entire life to pay homage to anyone he saw. He often said, “I do not dare to disdain everyone because all of you will become Buddhas, so let me prostrate to you.” No matter how much the Bodhisattva was cursed or beaten, he resolutely persevered in not giving up his practice. This is well-illustrated in the Dharma Lotus Sūtra when he declared, “Enter the Tathāgata's house, wear the Tathāgata’s coat, and sit on the Tathāgata throne.” The great compassion is to build a house (the Tathāgata's house); reflect that all phenomena are empty wear the Tathāgata’s coat), and abandon attachments or unabiding (sit on the Tathāgata’s throne). This is called a religious way to practice.
The Tathāgata gave the nuns the eight wonderful rules that are are also known as the Tathāgata’s liberated coat. Let’s ask what coat in this world is more valuable than the Tathāgata’s coat? Why is it precious? The Tathāgata wears a formless coat, so if we can wear this coat, then we can reach the formless liberation. For a long time, the mundane people have attached to form, high positions, fame, so they need the formless coat to wipe away the dust of fame and fortune andadvance to the emancipation. The nuns who wear the eight-rule coat of Tathāgata can pass through the three realms, out of the six paths and reach the unselfish land of Nirvāna, These nuns are worthy as the Tathāgata's daughters, as well as the heavenly and human masters.
Since ancient times, no sociologists, philosophers or psychologists and even Confucius have shown the parallel between practice-theory to ultimate liberation for women as the Buddha did. Moreover, he elevated the level of female attainment to the same as the Buddhas. He often taught two famous equality logos, "All tears have the same salt” and “All blood is the same color” and “I became Buddha and human beings will become the Buddha.”
Although liberation is equal for everyone, the karma of the mind is not the same, so the path will be either long or short. The achievement comes either sooner or later. But recently, there were a number of articles, as well as a few presentations, that have been transmitted on the internet with the content “struggling for the equal rights for nuns, etc.” I read and found that the speakers, as well as the authors of the theoretical articles, cited methodogy strongly. The theory was used to persuade the audience think that the female victims have been persecuted for more than a thousand centuries and now the modern authors are even better than the Blessed One. They are totally wrong. Reflecting on this, we feel pity for the status of Blessed One and Dharma.
The Buddha spent countless lifetimes of spiritual practice to gain those valuable teachings to dedicate to life, to those whose only wish is that sentient beings follow that guiding map and come out of the world prison of defilemenst. However, some ignorant sentient beings misunderstood the Buddha's mind (as they thought that the Buddha was biased towards women with the eight strict rules). Just like a precious medicine, if you don't want to use it, at least let it be used by other people for treatment. You should not yell and consider it as poison. That makes thousands of the next nun generations dare not to take that medicine because it is rumored to be a bad medicine. Such behavior is a great sin. The Buddhist learners must know that it is better to break the precepts than destroy the truth, because breaking the precepts only harms oneself but destroying the truth is harmful to future generations; sin cannot be measured.
For example, Confucius taught women the three followings:
- At home, daughters follow their father.
- After marriage, daughters follow their husbands.
- If the husband dies, they follow their children and the four virtues (action, speech, appearance, behaviour). The four virtues are nothing to be mentioned here because those are the noble elements that make women become elegant noble ladies.
The three followings are a debate for public matter. Confucius was kind. He was concerned for women because their physical bodies are weaker. If women live alone, they feel miserable when the adversities of life come, so he kindly taught that a father, husband or son must have the responsibility to protect women. It is clear to me that women are protected by their father, husband, son for a lifetime. Yet, some people condemned and criticized Confucius for teaching how to have a protected happy life that they do not want to have. They just wanted to find suffering in argument, but then there is no time for a solid meditation as in the Buddha’s time. Instead, there is a solid period of struggle. If people are interested in practicing, there is no debate of the virtues of the patriarch. Otherwise, if you die and return to life thousands of times, you will have have to struggle forever; you don't know what spiritual practice is.
In short, speaking of the Eight Rules of the Bhikkhunīs, it is impossible not to repeat the statement of Venerable Thích Tuệ Sỹ: “In today's society, with the system of discourse and especially the system of Vinaya, what you can keep, please keep. You should avoid declaring that it is no longer suitable for the era, so do whatever you want. If you have enough power to amend the rules for the monastic sangha to practice in accordance with the scientific age, and you can make sure that it will lead to the liberated goal of the saints, then please do it.”
Although the Eight Rules of the Bhikkhunīs are called a teaching, actually it is a classic statement, the golden rule for those who are really seeking enlightenment and liberation. It is very difficult to have the human body, but it is more difficult to meet Dharma. When we have luckily met the Dharma, but do not practice Dharma owing to doubting everything, then it is so pitiful.
Namo Sakyamuni Buddha!
California, December 27, 2017
Bhikkhu Thích Quảng Thuận
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Please kindly read this article and view all photos: 1.5.Liberation_yellow_robe-_Thich_Quang_Thuan.pdf
