Practical Knowledge for Monks to Abstain from Killing and Injuring Living Beings in Everyday Life with Reference to the Vinayapiṭaka and the Samantapāsādikā
The purpose of this article is to examine practical knowledge for monks (bhikkhu) for abstaining from injuring and killing living beings in daily life, with reference to the Vinayapiṭaka of Theravāda and its commentary, the Samantapāsādikā. Manifestly, we cannot completely avoid causing harm throughout our entire lives, and this is also true of monks, who may harm humans and injure or kill other living beings such as animals and insects in everyday life. However, it is not every kind of killing and injuring that the Vinayapiṭaka requires monks to avoid; some do not constitute an offense. The Vinayapiṭaka has its own criteria for determining what is an offense. As is well known, the criteria involve a karmic way of thinking. Intentional injuring and killing is an offense because it creates bad karma, while actions that are unintentional are not offenses because they do not create bad karma and thus hinder the spiritual achievement. Most of us would know that this karmic way of thinking plays an important role in the judgment of criminal deeds, but few of us would precisely know the kind of injuring and killing that constitutes an offense. In actual monastic life, however, this is an important issue. No matter how well monks know the gravity of the karmic way of thinking on a theoretical basis, it does not follow from this that they can successfully discern criminal deeds. In fact, they need practical knowledge in order to avoid intentional injuring and killing. Thus, I would like to examine monastic rules related to killing and injuring as stipulated in the Vinayapiṭaka with close reference to the Samantapāsādikā and reveal practical knowledge for monks to avoid harming humans and injuring and killing other living beings in their daily lives. Specifically, I will look at Paṭhavīkhaṇanasikkhāpada (Pācittiya 10), Bhūtagāmasikkhāpada (Pācittiya 11), Sappāṇakasikkhāpada (Pācittiya 20), Sañciccasikkhāpada (Pācittiya 61), Sappāṇakasikkhāpada (Pācittiya 62), and Pahārasikkhāpada (Pācittiya 74) to show when and how these rules apply to monks and how monks can avoid breaking these rules.
