No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
In May, 1872, I was invited by my learned friend and pandit Kewiṭiyágala Unnánsé, of the Malwatté Monastery in Kandy, to be present at an ordination service, held, according to custom, on the full-moon day of Wesak, (May, June), being the anniversary of the day on which Gautama Buddha attained Nirváṇa, B.C. 543. I gladly availed myself of this opportunity of witnessing the celebration of a rite of which Englishmen have but little knowledge, and which has rarely, if ever, been witnessed by any European in Ceylon.
a Nissayo, Without the consent and promise of assistance of a priest of ten years' standing, the candidate cannot obtain ordination. Nissayo involves mutual assistance and association for at least five years. The elder who gives nissa becomes the spiritual superior or preceptor (upajjháyo), and the one who receives nissa becomes his co-resident or pupil (nissantevásiko). The relative duties of the two are laid down in detail in the Vinayapiṭaka. Briefly the superior is to advise and instruct his co-resident, and to perform towards him all the duties of a parent in sickness and in health. The co-resident is to treat his superior with all the respect due to a father, and to perform for him all the duties of a personal attendant. Buddha directs that fluent-speaking and well-informed priests shall remain as pupils for five years. They who are not fluent-speaking1 shall remain as pupils as long as they live.
b Tutors (Kammaváeáriṇo). The tutors represent the assembly, and conduct the examinations on its behalf. Compare the relations of the proctors at Oxford to Convocation.
c Saṅgháṭi. Stole. This part of the dress is a large double robe folded to about five inches in breadth, which is thrown over the left shoulder, and fastened close to the body by a waist-belt. This robe is used by a priest when travelling as a cloak.
d Lift me up (ullumpatu). The meaning of this is explained in the commentary to be, lift me up from the slough of demerit (akusala) to the dry land of merit (kusala), or lift me up from the lower order of a deacon (sámaṇéra) to the higher order of a fully ordained priest (upasampadá).
e The hour, day and month are carefully recorded, to settle the order of seniority among the newly ordained priests.
f The four nissayá or requisites are all that are necessary for an ascetic; but the exceptions under each head, which were allowed in early times only occasionally, have now been generally adopted as the rule; and the ascetic principle is, in fact, destroyed. Still the priests live strictly by rule, and with the utmost simplicity.
g Saláka, by lot or tally. The practice is occasionally for several householders to agree together to give food to the priests of a monastery. Each householder writes his name on a piece of ola or palm-leaf; all the names are put into an alms-bowl, and each priest draws a lot, and goes to the house thus indicated, whether it be rich or poor.
h Bhaṅgam, In Childers' Páli Dictionary this is given as “hempen cloth,” and in Monier Williams' Sanskrit Dictionary bhangá is given as hemp (Cannabis sativa); but the commentary explains it as cloth made of the five materials mentioned in the text.
i A quarter of a pagoda, somewhat less than two shillings. It is a sin to take even a blade of grass, but a priest must be guilty of theft to the value of about two shillings to be expelled from the priesthood.
k Kunthakipillikam, lit. a large-black-ant, and the-smallest-kind-of-ant. To take life at all is a sin; but to take human life even by procuring abortion is a sin involving expulsion from the priesthood.
l Jhánam, abstract or mystic meditation. The following explanation is taken from Childers' Pali Dictionary, S.V. “Jhána is a religious exercise productive of the highest spiritual advantage, leading after death to re-birth in one of the Brahma heavens, and forming the principal means of entrance into the four Paths. The four Jhánas are four stages of mystic meditation, whereby the believer's mind is purged from all earthly emotions, and detached as it were from the body, which remains plunged in a profound trance. The priest desirous of practising Jhána retires to some secluded spot, seats himself cross-legged, and shutting out the world, concentrates his mind upon a single thought. Gradually his soul becomes filled with a supernatural ecstasy and serenity, while his mind still reasons upon and investigates the subject chosen for contemplation; this is the first Jhána. Still fixing his thoughts upon the same subject, he then frees his mind from reasoning and investigation, while the ecstasy and serenity remain, and this is the second Jhána. Next, his thoughts still fixed as before, he divests himself of ecstasy, and attains the third Jhána, which is a state of tranquil serenity. Lastly, he passes to the fourth Jhána, in which the mind, exalted and purified, is indifferent to all emotions, alike of pleasure and of pain.”
m Vimoitkho (from muñcati, to loosen). The term is thus explained in the Paṭisambhidápakaraṇaṁ of the Khuddakanikáya. Paṭhamena jhánena nívaraṇehi muccatiti vimokkho arahattamaggena sabbakilesehi muccatiti vimokkho. It is a loosening of the bonds formed by the elements of existence, and hence freedom from the ten evil passions. It is discussed under sixty-eight heads, of which the three principal are, 1. Suññato vimokkho, the regarding the body as mere emptiness; the contemplation of the Void, i.e. a state which has no self. 2. Animitto'v., the freedom from passion which results from the contemplation of the unconditioned, or from regarding the perishable nature of the elements of existence. 3. Appaṇihito v., the freedom from longing or desire resulting from a contemplation of the sorrow attaching to the elements of existence. By these three the four paths and the four phala are attained by those who have vipassaná, or the power of supernatural sight.
n Samádhi, a state of meditation in which the mind, shut up in itself and insensible to that which is passing around, contemplates only the virtues of Buddha, etc. The following illustration is taken from the Mahávansa (see Turnour, 's translation, pp. 261, 262)Google Scholar: “The usurper stripped the king naked, and casting him into iron chains, built up a wall, embedding him in it, and exposing his face only to the East, and plastered that wall over with clay. Thus the monarch Dhátusena was murdered by his son in the eighteenth year of his reign. This rája, at the time he was improving the K´lawápi tank, observed a certain priest absorbed in the samádhi meditation, and not being able to rouse him from that abstraction, had him buried under the embankment he was raising by heaping earth over him. This was the retribution manifested in this life for this impious act.” The six kinds of Samádhi are 1. Buddhánussati s., 2. Dhammánussati s., 3. Sanghánussati s., 4. Sílánussati s., 5. Cágánussati s., 6. Devatánussati s.; abstract meditation on Buddha, the Law, the Church, moral duties, alms-giving, the Gods.
o Samápatti is of eight kinds, 1. Pathamajjhánasamápatti, 2. Dutiyajjhánas., 3. Tatiyajjhánas., 4. Catutthajjhánas., 5. Ākásánañcáyatanas., 6. Viññanañcáyatanas., 7. Āktiñcaññáyatanas., 8. Nevasaññánasaññáyatanas; the perfect accomplishment of the state of abstraction resulting from the practice of each of the four jhánas (vide suprà note1), and from 5. mastering the idea that space is infinite, 6. that thought only exists, 7. that nothing exists, 8. that there is neither consciousness nor unconsciousness.
p Phala, the higher stages of the four paths, the fruition of the four paths. There are thus eight grades of sanctification in the road to Nirváṇa, viz. sotápattimaggo, sotápattiphalaṁ, sakadágámimaggo, sakadágámiphalaṁ, anágámimaggo, anágámiphalaṁ, arahattamaggo, arahattaphalaṁ. Arahattnphala necessarily ends in Nirváṇa, with which it is all but identical, and it is sometimes called simply nibbánaṁ. See Childers' Dictionary, s.vv. maggo, nibbánaṁ.