世人の非難を受けて制定された律規定 -- パーリ律比丘分別を参照して=受世人非難而制定的律規定 -- 參考巴利律典「比丘分別」=The Rules of Discipline Enacted to Deal with Criticisms from Lay People in the Bhikkhuvibhaṅga of the Vinayapiṭaka
As is well-known, the Buddhist monastic community (samgha) aspires to distance itself from mundane world. However, it only continues with support from that mundane world. Even though they are world-renunciants (sramana), monks and nuns depend on lay people to a large extent in many aspects of life. This presents something of a paradox, which seems to cause a considerable impact on the formation of the rules of discipline (vinaya) that regulate the life of monks and nuns. For a brief overview of Buddhist monastic literature, therefore, we should notice not only the rules of discipline related exclusively with the supramundane world but also the rules of discipline related closely with the mundane world, which can be classified into two categories: rules of discipline enacted along with suggestions from lay people, and rules of discipline enacted to respond to the criticisms from lay people directed toward the improper acts of monks and nuns. When we examine these two categories of rules of discipline, we can elucidate the relationship between the rules of discipline and the secular world. In this paper, I examine all 220 rules of discipline in the Bhikkhuvibhanga of the Vinayapitaka (Theravada-vinaya), in order to clarify the proportion of rules of discipline enacted to deal with the criticism from lay people. A total of 115 of these rules are identified, accounting for more than a half of the total. This suggests that the social norms of lay people might have been too influential for the editors of the Vinayapitaka to disregard and that one of the crucial roles of the rules of discipline may have been to maintain harmonious relations between the monastic and secular worlds.
