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FIFIELD-DISSERTATION-2017.Pdf (1.593Mb) Discipline and Ethical Formation in the Mahāsā#ghika Lokottaravāda Vinayapi#aka The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:40046555 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Discipline and Ethical Formation in the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda Vinayapiṭaka A dissertation presented by Justin Andrew Fifield to The Committee on the Study of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of The Study of Religion Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2017 © 2017 Justin Andrew Fifield All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Professor Parimal G. Patil Justin Andrew Fifield Discipline and Ethical Formation in the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda Vinayapiṭaka Abstract This dissertation examines the concept of vinaya, or discipline, in the Vinayapiṭaka, or Canon of Disciplinary Texts, of the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda monastic order. Discipline is a process of self-transformation toward salvific ends and a means of organizing the monastic community, illuminating personal and communal aspects of Buddhist monasticism. Although recent scholarship advances the field’s understanding of classical South Asian monasticism, the Vinayapiṭaka of the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda receives little attention. This study is first to consider the entire Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda Vinayapiṭaka and read its component texts against one another, arguing that the Mahāvastu, or Great Chapter, is not only nominally but functionally a vinaya text. This study demonstrates that narratives—mythical stories of the distant past, and biographical stories of the Buddha Śākyamuni and his Great Disciples— function in the Vinayapiṭaka to inculcate personal discipline and communal ethics, examining the disciplinary themes of sexual desire, time, and caste. In this way, it shows the importance of taking narrative seriously as a component of vinaya, and suggests a way to understand how narratives teach discipline. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgments....................................................................................................................... v–vi Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures and Tables .............................................................................................................. viii Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1–21 Chapter One: The Vinaya Texts and Their History .................................................................. 22–69 Chapter Two: Structures of Time and the Origins of Vinaya ................................................ 70–117 Chapter Three: The Goals of Monastic Discipline ............................................................... 118–143 Chapter Four: Sexual Desire and Guarding the Senses ...................................................... 144–185 Chapter Five: Time .............................................................................................................. 186–232 Chapter Six: Human Difference, Caste, and Hierarchy ....................................................... 233–264 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 265–267 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 268–279 Appendix One: Structure and Contents of Mahāvastu ...................................................... 280–284 iv Acknowledgments This dissertation would have been impossible without the support of my dissertation committee. I thank Professor Parimal Patil, my primary advisor, for constant support and advice, not only on academic matters, but on how to live a good life. He was always happy to put down his work when I walked unannounced through his door, and help me work through a problem or draft. My gratitude goes to Professor Anne Monius, who tirelessly commented on multiple drafts and provided valuable feedback throughout the entire process. I am indebted to Professor James Robson, whose insights and advice are appreciated deeply. The Buddhist Studies Workshop at Harvard University—Elizabeth Angowski, Charles Carstens, Gregory Clines, Julia Cross, Catherine Hartmann, Rory Lindsay, Ian MacCormack, Anil Mundra, Eric Swanson, and Davey Tomlinson—provided valuable feedback on multiple chapter drafts, and was instrumental in helping me toward the finish line. The Committee on the Study of Religion and the South Asian Studies Department at Harvard University provided me with resources and institutional support to see this project through to completion. Thanks go to Barbara Boles, Cheryl Henderson, and Kate Bowen. I thank Professor Shanker Thapa of Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal, who generously offered his time to help me navigate the National Archives of Nepal, and made my stay in Kathmandu a comfortable experience. The Asia Center and South Asia Initiative at Harvard University provided the funds for travel. v I thank Professor Oliver Freiberger, Professor Patrick Olivelle, and Professor Joel Brereton at the University of Texas for seeing potential in me as a budding graduate student and teaching me to love Sanskrit and South Asian literature. My deepest gratitude goes to Professor Carol Anderson, my undergraduate advisor and mentor, whose shining example and wonderful teaching led me in the direction of Buddhist Studies in the first place. She has remained a steady support in my life. Special thanks to Professor Brianne Donaldson, whose friendship and kindness are an inspiration to me. She challenges me to aim higher while keeping my feet on the ground. To my dear parents, Jane and Chris, who supported me my entire life, I give my love and heartfelt thanks. They encouraged me to follow my dreams and do whatever makes me happy. My success as an adult is due entirely to their love, for which I will always be deeply grateful. Throughout my entire graduate experience, I have had the steady companionship of my beagle, Jackson, whose love is never-ending and whose happiness is boundless. I see you. vi This dissertation is dedicated to my loving parents, who provided unwavering support, and to my beagle companion, Jackson, who was there every step of the way. vii List of Figures and Tables Figure 1: Linear Causal Effect ........................................................................................................ 72 Figure 2: Delayed Causal Effect ..................................................................................................... 73 Figure 3: Distal and Proximate Causal Effect ................................................................................ 76 Figure 4: Habitual Causal Effect .................................................................................................... 77 Table 1: Structure of the Vinayapiṭaka ................................................................................... 39–40 Table 2: Categories of Offense and Number of Rules ............................................................ 42–43 Table 3: Structure of the Prātimokṣa Commentary ...................................................................... 43 Table 4: The Ten Goals in the Prātimokṣa Vibhaṅga (PrVi) and Prātimokṣa Sūtra (PrSū) ......... 126 viii INTRODUCTION Monasticism is central to Buddhism as an organized religion. According to the canonical texts from classical South Asia, which are the subject of this study, one of the first acts of the Buddha Śākyamuni after his awakening was the ordination of the Great Disciples (mahāśrāvaka-s) and the founding of a monastic order (saṅgha).1 The Buddha’s teachings, laying out a path to salvation, were directed toward his monastic community, and monastic practice formed the basis for the attainment of nirvāṇa, or final liberation. Although it was possible for a layperson to attain sanctified states and even nirvāṇa (the traditions of classical South Asia debated the details of this), the ideal practitioner remained an ordained monastic.2 The basis of monasticism is vinaya, or discipline. John Holt articulates the importance of discipline at the outset of his book on the canonical disciplinary texts of the Theravāda monastic order: Discipline is the ethos of Buddhist monasticism: the trail head of the path of purity leading to nibbāna and the fiber of the community’s soul, a means to salvation and the nucleus of communal identity.3 1 Émile Senart, Le Mahāvastu: texte sanscrit publié pour la première fois et accompagné d’introductions et d’un commentaire par É. Senart, vol. 3 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1897); Hermann Oldenberg, ed., The Vinaya Piṭakaṃ: One of the Principal Scriptures in the Pāli Language, vol. 1, Mahāvagga (London: Williams and Norgate, 1879), 1–44. 2 Oliver Freiberger, “Salvation for the Laity? Soteriological Concepts in Early and Modern Theravāda Buddhism,” Studia Asiatica 2, no. 1–2 (2001): 29–38; Richard Gombrich, Theravāda Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient
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