The Chapter on Lifting Restrictions
The Chapter on Lifting Restrictions (Skt. Pravāraṇāvastu; Tib. དགག་དབྱེའི་གཞི།, Wyl. dgag dbye'i gzhi) is the third of the seventeen chapters in The Chapters on Monastic Discipline. It recounts the origins, timing, and procedures for the rite of lifting restrictions, held at the end of the rains retreat as an adjunct to the rite of restoration. Although in practice the rite of lifting restrictions is performed at the end of the rains, months after the rite in which monastics pledge to undertake the rains retreat, the chapters on these two rites appear in reverse order in The Chapters on Monastic Discipline,1 with The Chapter on Lifting Restrictions first, followed by The Chapter on the Rains.
During the rite of lifting restrictions each monk invites the other monks to prompt his recollection of any offenses he has not confessed. If one of the monks has seen, heard, or suspects the first monk of an unconfessed offense, the second monk may prompt the first’s memory by narrating the circumstances in which the offense allegedly occurred. The proper procedures for conducting this delicate affair—accusations of improper conduct may easily cause a schism in the saṅgha—provide the main content of the present chapter. The Chapter on Lifting Restrictions does not, however, explain how to deal with disputes that arise from these invitations and the responses they prompt. A complete picture of the Mulasarvastivadin protocols for handling denials, disputes, punishments, and their rescissions must be pieced together from at least seven of The Chapters on Monastic Discipline’s seventeen chapters. The rite of lifting restrictions described here proceeds from the premise that participating monks either willingly confess their offenses from the start or willingly acknowledge them when their memory is prompted. [1]
Text
The Tibetan translation of this sutra can be found in the Chapters on Monastic Discipline section of the Tibetan Dergé Kangyur, Toh 1-3
- English translation:
The Chapter on Lifting Restrictions
References
- ↑ 84000 Translating the Words of the Buddha.