VINAYA AND LAY PEOPLE : DISCIPLINARY GUIDELINES FOR RIGHT UNDERSTANDING

Abstract

The four kinds of Buddhist assemblies were generally allowed to become the Buddha’s successors of Buddhism. Among them, the monks (Bhikkhu in Pali), the female monks (Bhikkhuni in Pali), were direct successors while lay people, both female and male, were regarded as indirect successors. In charge of responsibility, all the four Buddhist assemblies had to study and learn what was called the Doctrine and Discipline (Dhamma and Vinaya in Pali), followed it strictly and assist to propagate it and to resolve when there was any problem. It was also necessary for lay people to understand the monk’s discipline, accept and follow properly to prevent any mistake. The objective of the academic article was to explain some parts of the Discipline (Vinaya in Pali) that lay people should treat with the monks. The content of the Discipline was involved with the significance of the Discipline, lay people’s duties on Buddhism, some topics involved with lay people, lay people’s misunderstanding of the Discipline and the guidelines on prevention and resolution of offences on lay people. The significance of the Discipline was useful to give rise to faith and belief for lay people and to observe and sustain the Buddha’s teaching.