Why Rules Are Important

Why Rules Are Important

by Kinzo Takemura

Another meaning for "rule" is good habits. Bad lifestyle habits can have unexpectedly serious results.

You may be familiar with the varsika (Jpn. uango), a meditation retreat that takes place during the rainy season.

In ancient India, for three months starting in late May or early June, Buddhist monks did not go outside, because they might unwittingly tread on and kill sprouting plants or hatching insects and other small creatures coming to life in the rains. For this reason the monks retreated into their caves or temples and gave their undivided attention to meditation, prayer, and other religious training practices. The need to regulate daily life during those rainy-season meditation retreats originally gave rise to the establishment of precepts and monastic regulations.

For example, rules were made about administering medicine to the sick. Various rules were made about clothing and equipment, such as footwear, as well as rules on how to deal with arguments that ended in an impasse. The number of rules to deal with various situations soon began to multiply.

After the birth of the religious community of followers that gathered around Shakyamuni, the number of monks and nuns joining the group started to grow, and naturally this brought a need for morality and laws to maintain order in the group. We use the words "precepts and regulations" for these kind of rules. The Japanese word is kai-ritsu, which consists of two Chinese characters; kai signifies the inner working of the spirit that makes a person want to follow rules, while ritsu signifies outwardly existing rules and disciplinary laws. The number of precepts and regulations differs in various sects of Buddhism, but basically there are 250 for monks and 348 for nuns. For ordinary laymen, there are the famous Five Precepts. These Five Precepts are: do not kill living beings, do not steal, do not engage in immoral sexual relations, do not lie, and do not drink alcohol.

If we look in the Christian Bible, we find the story of the Pharisees, who tried to trap Jesus with their questions. The Pharisees were scholars of religious law who are often said to have complicated the original Ten Commandments of Moses by adding on detailed regulations. Compounded with detailed rules saying you cannot do this and must not do that, the number of laws regulating Judaism is said to have reached 613, or even well over a thousand, depending on how they are counted.

The same thing occurred in Buddhism, and the number of precepts and regulations multiplied. According to some Buddhist scholars, some sects became caught in the web of their own precepts and regulations, which rendered them immobile and as outdated as the dinosaurs, leading to their eventual degeneration and demise.

One interesting example was the precept of "no digging." When we dig in the earth, we encounter worms, insect larvae, and other creatures, and to take the lives of these creatures would be a sin, so monks were not allowed to dig in the earth. However, holes must be dug in order to build monasteries and convents. To solve this problem while obeying the no-digging rule, monks put their lay servants to work. However, the monks were not allowed to tell them directly to "dig here," but would rather be obliged to tell them, "Take a good look at this spot." When told to "take a good look," the lay servants would know that this was where they were supposed to dig. And they would carry their tools to the site and dig the hole.

There is also the Buddha's threefold rule governing the consumption of fish and flesh that defined the partaking of fish and meat as blameless under three conditions: if it were unseen, unheard, and unsuspected. A monk cannot eat the flesh of an animal when he has witnessed it being killed. He cannot eat meat or fish if he has been told that the animal was killed for his consumption. And, if the cook says nothing but there is a reasonable doubt that the animal was indeed killed to feed the monk, even then he is not allowed to eat the meat or fish. Monks ate meat and fish even during Shakyamuni's time, but they did have this rule.

To return for a moment to the lay servants, digging holes in place of the monks was not their only job; it is also said that they kept things for the monks that were supposed to be inappropriate for monks to possess. What kinds of things were thought inappropriate? Money, perhaps, or precious stones? It makes one wonder.

In any event, in the language of India, the word for rule is sila. Another meaning for this word is custom or habit. Good habits are called su-sila and bad habits are called daut-silya. According to the Buddhist scholar Kogen Mizuno, in everyday speech sila normally refers to good habits or customs. Professor Fumio Masutani agrees that sila indicates good habits.

One result of bad lifestyle habits detrimental to the health is a myocardial infarction, or heart attack; I myself had to undergo bypass surgery as a result of my inability to regulate my actions and stop my habit of smoking more than fifty cigarettes a day. In considering the concept "rules are good habits," all I can do is hang my head in self-reflection.

Kinzo Takemura, now retired, was the director of the Overseas Mission Office (now the International Faith Dissemination Group) of Rissho Kosei-kai and the president of Kosei Publishing Company. He served for many years as chief secretary to the late Rev. Nikkyo Niwano, founder of Rissho Kosei-kai.

This article was originally published in the October-December 2006 issue of Dharma World.


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