For Monks Only: travelling by vehicles

Exploring the Dhamma, as understood from the perspective of the ancient Pali commentaries.
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thang
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For Monks Only: travelling by vehicles

Post by thang »

Dear venerable,

"Na bhikkhave yanena yai tabbam"

The Buddha has allowed travelling by vehicle only for the sick monks.
What exactly does this word 'yana' mean here?
(Normally yana means vehicle)

Ship is allowed.
Cart is not allowed.
Car ??
Plane ??
"Bhikkhus, whatever the Tathāgata speaks, _ all that is just so and NOT otherwise."
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DooDoot
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Re: For Monks Only: travelling by vehicles

Post by DooDoot »

thang wrote: Fri Sep 28, 2018 6:49 am "Na bhikkhave yanena yai tabbam"
Please post the source of this Pali. No search results can be found for it. Thanks
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Nicolas
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Re: For Monks Only: travelling by vehicles

Post by Nicolas »

The Pali is: "Na, bhikkhave, yānena yāyitabbaṃ."

Pali source (Yānādipaṭikkhepa)
English translation (Rejection of vehicles, etc.)
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Polar Bear
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Re: For Monks Only: travelling by vehicles

Post by Polar Bear »

This is one of those rules that basically no Buddhist monk follows anymore. My understanding is the Jains have the same rule but they follow it. There are almost no Jain monks outside of India.

:anjali:
"I don't envision a single thing that, when developed & cultivated, leads to such great benefit as the mind. The mind, when developed & cultivated, leads to great benefit."

"I don't envision a single thing that, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about such suffering & stress as the mind. The mind, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about suffering & stress."
thang
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Re: For Monks Only: travelling by vehicles

Post by thang »

Some says the word 'yana' means only the vehicles which are drawn by a sentient being. (eg: carts)
They say modern cars, air planes are included in ship category because they are not drawn by a sentient being.
water-ships: ships, boats
earth-ships: cars, busses
air-ships: planes, helicopters
"Bhikkhus, whatever the Tathāgata speaks, _ all that is just so and NOT otherwise."
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Dhammanando
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Re: For Monks Only: travelling by vehicles

Post by Dhammanando »

From Ajahn Thanissaro’s Buddhist Monastic Code:
“There are rules forbidding a bhikkhu from riding in a vehicle unless he is ill, in which case he may ride in a handcart or a cart yoked with a bull. In modern times, ill is interpreted here as meaning too weak to reach one’s destination on foot in the time available, and the allowance for a cart yoked with a bull is extended to cover motorized vehicles such as automobiles, airplanes, and trucks, but not to motorcycles or bicycles, as the riding position in the latter cases is more like riding on an animal’s back.”
What the ajahn states here may be the consensus in the Dhammayuttika Nikaya (to which he belongs), but the opinion about motorcycles isn’t widely held. It certainly isn’t shared by most Mahanikaya monks in rural Thailand, for whom riding pillion is actually one of the commonest ways of getting about.

Also there are some monks (though exceedingly few) who don’t accept the prevailing modern interpretation of “ill”. Unless they are too physically sick to do so, they will make a point of going everywhere on foot. This is (or at least used to be) the practice of the monks at Wat Tham Krabok, the monastery-cum-drug-addiction-treatment-centre in Saraburi.

As for bicycles, I’ve never seen a Thai monk riding one in Thailand, but I have seen them doing so when they go to study at the universities in India. It was also my own principal mode of conveyance in Iceland.

The ajahn continues:
There is also a rule allowing a bhikkhu to ride in a sedan-chair, although the origin story to that rule suggests that the allowance is intended specifically for a bhikkhu too ill to ride in a vehicle. In discussing these rules, the Commentary states that the sedan-chair may be carried by women or men, and the vehicle may be driven by a woman or a man (although see the discussion under Pc 67 in BMC1). Even then, though, the Commentary does not extend permission for the bhikkhu to drive the vehicle himself. Thus it is improper for a bhikkhu to drive a motorized vehicle of any sort.
Rūpehi bhikkhave arūpā santatarā.
Arūpehi nirodho santataro ti.


“Bhikkhus, the formless is more peaceful than the form realms.
Cessation is more peaceful than the formless realms.”
(Santatarasutta, Iti 73)
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pitakele
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Re: For Monks Only: travelling by vehicles

Post by pitakele »

Dhammanando wrote: Sat Sep 29, 2018 11:14 am
bicycles

Ajahn Thanissaro continues:
Thus it is improper for a bhikkhu to drive a motorized vehicle of any sort.
I remember in the seventies that a Western Ajahn Chah disciple used a bicycle in Isan. Also, when I visited Chithurst in 1991, Western monks were driving tractors. In the West, it is non uncommon to see Theravada monks driving cars. In India, I regularly see Theravada monks riding motorbikes or scooters. Currently, I am in Bodhgaya and today saw a couple of SE Asian monks in dark brown forest robes walk into a restaurant carrying their motorbike helmets 🙂
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TRobinson465
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Re: For Monks Only: travelling by vehicles

Post by TRobinson465 »

i think the prior posts covered mostly everything. I agree with Ajahn thanissaro that its is improper for monks to drive vehicles. although i repeat a similar argument i made about handling money and say that many monks who ignore this rule of not driving vehicles personally dont do this out of laziness but out of necessity. at the temple i happen to attend all monks follow this no driving themselves rule, but largely because of the large and devoted supporter base my temple is fortunate enough to have.
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