Vinaya Texts Translated from the Pali, Vol. 3 : The Kulavagga IV-XII
Vinaya, the Vibhaiiga1. The Patimokkha the meaning of the name will be dis cussed later on seems to have owed its existence to the ancient Indian custom of holding sacred two periods in each month, the times of the Full Moon and of theN ew Moon. The Vedic ceremonies of theD arjapurwamasa sacri fice, and of the feast or sacred day (U pavasatha) connected with it, are known to have been very old, and the custom of celebrating these days would naturally be handed on from theB rahmans to the different Samawas, and be modified and simplified (though, as it seems, sometimes increased in number) by them, in accordance with their creeds and their views of religious duty. According to Buddhist tradition2 and we see no sufficient reason for doubting the correctness of the account the monks of other, that is, of non-B uddhistic sects, used to meet together at the middle and at the close of every half-month, and were accustomed then to proclaim their new teaching in public. At such times the people would crowd together; and the different sects found an opportunity of increasing their numbers and their influence. The Buddhists also adopted the custom of these periodical meetings, but confined themselves to meeting twice in each month3. And the peculiarity which gave to these meetings among theB uddhists their distinguishing character seems to have been borrowed by them neither from theB rahmans nor from other dissenters, but to have been an original invention of theB uddhists themselves. The Brethren andS isters made use of these half-monthly gather ings to confess to the assembled Order the sins and faults which each of them had committed ;and to take upon him self, or herself, the penance which the transgressor had thereby incurred. It would be unnecessary to dwell here upon the details of these penitential meetings, as we can 1T he opening sentence only is found in thrn(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
0000622 | BL 1411 .V5 E55 2003 V.3 | Research Library (อาคาร 1 ชั้น 4) | พร้อมให้บริการ |