The Chapter on Lifting Restrictions
Glossary
Toh 1-3
Degé Kangyur, vol. 1 (’dul ba, ka), folios 221.b–237.b
Imprint
First published 2024
Current version v 1.0.10 (2024)
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Table of Contents
Summary
The Chapter on Lifting Restrictions is the third of The Chapters on Monastic Discipline’s seventeen chapters. It recounts the origins, timing, and procedures for a rite—held at the end of the rains retreat as an adjunct to the Rite of Restoration (poṣadha)—known as the Rite of Lifting Restrictions (pravāraṇa). During this rite, monastics invite other monastics who have passed the rainy season with them to speak of any unconfessed offenses they have seen, heard, or suspected the inviting monastic of committing during the rains retreat. If a monk thus prompted recalls an offense, he must make amends before the members of the saṅgha can communally verify their purity. This rite helps to ensure harmony in the saṅgha by providing monks with a forum in which they may air and address concerns about their fellow monks’ conduct before they disperse, either to wander the countryside or go to another monastery. This semi-public affirmation of the saṅgha’s purity would also help preserve its reputation among the laypeople. At the conclusion of the rite, goods that have been offered to the saṅgha during the rains are distributed to those monastics who are entitled to a share, that is, those who stayed on site for the duration of the rains.
The Rite of Lifting Restrictions is the second of the “Three Rites,” along with the Rite of Restoration and the Rite of Pledging to Settle for the Rains, as set out in The Chapter on the Restoration Rite and The Chapter on the Rains respectively. The regular observance of the “Three Rites” at an officially demarcated monastic site is considered a crucial component in ensuring the integrity of the monastics living there and nearby.
Acknowledgements
This text was translated from Tibetan and checked against the Sanskrit original and Yijing’s Chinese translation by Robert Miller. Matthew Wuethrich served as style and editorial consultant to the translator. Paul Thomas reviewed the translation against the extant Sanskrit. Ven. Hejung Seok, Dr. Alex von Rospatt, and Dr. Sally Sutherland Goldman all provided useful insight into the term pravāraṇā.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Nathaniel Rich and John Canti edited the translation and the introduction, and Ven. Konchog Norbu copyedited the text. André Rodrigues was in charge of the digital publication process.
Text Body
The Chapter on Lifting Restrictions
Bibliography
Kangyur and Tengyur Sources
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Sanskrit Sources
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Chinese Sources
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————. The Chapter on the Restoration Rite (Poṣadhavastu, gso sbyong gi gzhi, Toh 1 ch. 2). Translated by Robert Miller. Online publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024.
————. The Gaṇḍī Sūtra (Gaṇḍīsūtra, gaN+DI’i mdo, Toh 298). Translated by Annie Bien. Online publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
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——— (1997b). “The 17 Titles of the Vinayavastu in the Mahāvyutpatti. Contribution to Indo-Tibetan Lexicography II.” In Bauddhavidyāsudhākaraḥ Studies in Honour of Heinz Bechert on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday. Edited by Petra Kieffer-Pülz and Jens-Uwe Hartmann, 339–45. Swisttal-Odendorf (Indica et Tibetica, 30), 1997.
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Glossary
Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding source language
Attested in source text
This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.
Attested in other text
This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.
Attested in dictionary
This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding language.
Approximate attestation
The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.
Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.
Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.
Source unspecified
This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.
after quashing and suppressing
- bsgo zhing rab tu bsgo nas
- བསྒོ་ཞིང་རབ་ཏུ་བསྒོ་ནས།
- āmardayitvā pramardayitvā AS
at ease in pledging to settle for the rains
- bde ba la reg par dbyar gnas par dam bcas
- བདེ་བ་ལ་རེག་པར་དབྱར་གནས་པར་དམ་བཅས།
- sukhasparśaviharaṇa AS
contradicts his own account
- gnas nas gnas su sbed
- གནས་ནས་གནས་སུ་སྦེད།
- sthānāsthānaṃ saṃkrāmati AS
hurl curses
- spar thabs su skur pa sgrogs
- སྤར་ཐབས་སུ་སྐུར་པ་སྒྲོགས།
- —
lifting of restrictions as an assembly
- tshogs kyi dgag dbye
- ཚོགས་ཀྱི་དགག་དབྱེ།
- gaṇapravāraṇā AS
Mahāprajāpatī
- skye dgu’i bdag mo chen mo
- སྐྱེ་དགུའི་བདག་མོ་ཆེན་མོ།
- mahāprajāpatī AS
make an oath professing he is a householder
- dbyar gyis ’che
- དབྱར་གྱིས་འཆེ།
- āgārikatvaṃ pratijānāti AS
monk crier
- sgrogs par byed pa’i dge slong
- སྒྲོགས་པར་བྱེད་པའི་དགེ་སློང་།
- udghoṣako bhikṣuḥ AS
monk who directs the lifting of restrictions
- dgag dbye byed pa’i dge slong
- དགག་དབྱེ་བྱེད་པའི་དགེ་སློང་།
- pravārako bhikṣuḥ AS
monk who has taken a support
- gnas ’cha’ ba’i dge slong
- གནས་འཆའ་བའི་དགེ་སློང་།
- niśrayagrahaṇo bhikṣuḥ AS
monk who receives a lifting of restrictions
- dgag dbye len pa’i dge slong
- དགག་དབྱེ་ལེན་པའི་དགེ་སློང་།
- pravāraṇāgrāhako bhikṣuḥ AS
Mūlasarvāstivāda
- thams cad yod par smra ba’i sde
- ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོད་པར་སྨྲ་བའི་སྡེ།
- mūlasarvāstivāda AS
pledge to settle for the rains
- dbyar gnas dam bcas pa
- དབྱར་གནས་དམ་བཅས་པ།
- varṣopagata AS
Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park
- rgyal bu rgyal byed kyi tshal mgon med zas sbyin gyi kun dga’ ra ba
- རྒྱལ་བུ་རྒྱལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚལ་མགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིན་གྱི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བ།
- jetavanam anāthapiṇḍadasyārāmaḥ AS
rules of customary conduct
- kun tu spyod pa’i chos
- ཀུན་ཏུ་སྤྱོད་པའི་ཆོས།
- āsamudācāriko dharmaḥ AS
seven means to quell disputes
- rtsod pa zhi bar byed pa’i chos bdun
- རྩོད་པ་ཞི་བར་བྱེད་པའི་ཆོས་བདུན།
- —
should properly make amends
- chos bzhin du gyis
- ཆོས་བཞིན་དུ་གྱིས།
- yathādharmaṃ pratikartavyā AS
silence
- kha rog
- ཁ་རོག
- —
simple atonement
- ltung ba ’ba’ zhig pa
- ལྟུང་བ་འབའ་ཞིག་པ།
- śuddha-prāyaścittika AS
someone denied the common living
- gnas par mi bgyi ba
- གནས་པར་མི་བགྱི་བ།
- asaṃvāsika AS
someone living under false pretenses
- rku thabs su gnas pa
- རྐུ་ཐབས་སུ་གནས་པ།
- steyasaṃvāsika AS
someone outside the common living
- tha dad du gnas pa
- ཐ་དད་དུ་གནས་པ།
- nānāsaṃvāsika AS
transgression requiring forfeiture
- spong ba’i ltung byed
- སྤོང་བའི་ལྟུང་བྱེད།
- naiḥsargikapātayantika AS
under normal conditions
- rnal du gnas pa’i gnas skabs
- རྣལ་དུ་གནས་པའི་གནས་སྐབས།
- samāvasthā AS