Pāṃśukūlika as a standard practice in the Vinaya

• Main Author: Witkowski, Nicholas
• Other Authors: Andrews, Susan
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: projekt verlag 2021
• Subjects: Humanities::Religions; Buddhist Monastic Legal Codes; Indian Buddhism
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/148321
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

There is a prominent school of thought, both in the academic discipline of Buddhist Studies and in the Buddhist tradition itself, which views the Buddhist monastic lifestyle as either the mean between the two extremes of self-indulgence and asceticism, or, in certain cases, as openly hostile to the ascetic enterprise. However, it is my contention that a careful examination of certain sections from the Vinaya, with its idiosyncratic emphasis on details which illuminate sociological, political, and economic realities, will reveal that the ascetic practice of pāṃśukūlika was regarded as what I will term a standard practice in monastic communities of the middle period in Indian Buddhism.