Wikivinaya:Goal and content
From Wikivinaya
The goal of WikiVinaya is to create a free online resource of information on the Buddhist monastic discipline – 'Vinaya'. The two Buddhist monastic Orders (Saṅghas) for monks (bhikkhus) and for nuns (bhikkhunīs) each have a Pātimokkha in which the major rules are summarised; and this Pātimokkha is recited every lunar fortnight on the Uposatha day.
The Patimokkha is the essence of the Vinaya, but WikiVinaya is to eventually cover not only the rules in the bhikkhu and bhikkhunī Pātimokkhas, but also the other information contained in the Vinaya Pitaka. More specifically, this refers to the chapters of the Khandhakas and Parivāra (and cognates). Since the various Vinaya-recensions also come with traditional commentaries and manuals from later periods than the canonical texts, this information will be added to the WikiVinaya as well. WikiVinaya will also contain some synoptic examinations of topics that are spread out throughout the texts.
It is hoped that WikiVinaya will be more closely based on the earliest texts than current manuals in English (using direct translations of essential passages), with a more acutely historical analysis of 'what comes from where', accurately distinguishing root texts, commentaries and later traditions. Hopefully WikiVinaya will gradually grow into a comprehensive and well organised library. Now, however, we are just beginning and we invite you to help if you can.
There are very similar but slightly different recensions of the earliest Vinaya texts in other Indic dialects, including Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Prakrit and Gandhāri, and in Chinese and Tibetan translations, belonging to various extant Vinaya recensions. It is not yet fully understood in what way these 'schools' were seperate and on what grounds. Initially the focus of WikiVinaya will probably be directed towards the Pāli Vinaya recension, because it is the mostly widely practiced, and the initial contributors are more familiar with it. However we would welcome contributors who can help us learn more about the other language recensions. The other language recensions will exist next to the Pali recension, so that the other recensions can also be worked on.
These early texts are so similar in content and structure that there can be no reasonable doubt that they stem from a common source. The Vinaya texts must therefore have initially been compiled before the sectarian period. The Canon was probably re-edited several times, most likely between the 2nd and 3rd Councils (according to the Pāli chronology), and more or less closed after that.
The Buddhist monastic Order is the oldest monastic Order in the world (the Jaina monastics apparently do not have a communal ideal so they are not reckoned as an 'Order', although the Jaina monastic tradition is contemporary or slightly older). In its two and a half thousand year history Buddhism has faced many challenges and adapted to them as well as the Buddhist community could. The two most crucial periods of change in Buddhist history are probably the move out of India and the move from traditional Asian cultures to modern Western cultures. Adaptation is natural and necessary but if the essence is not to be compromised clear and thorough understanding is essential.
For full understanding a non-judgemental attitude is a prerequisite part of the methodology, or in other words analysis should come before evaluation. The interaction between the meaning and the expression of Buddhist monastic ideals, or between the essential principles and the not-intrinsically-essential means of establishing those principles needs to be understood. It may be that in a different cultural context the same essential principle has to be inculated in different ways.
An antihistorical bias, the definining characteristic of fundamentalism, is one of the attitudes not welcome at Wiki Vinaya. The academic method is useful for avoiding a priori assumptions in studying Dhamma & Vinaya, but the purpose of WikiVinaya is not merely academic. The initial contributors to Wiki Vinaya are all practicing Buddhist monks from the Theravāda forest tradition, so for us Vinaya is a devotional practice also, something that helps us maintain mindfulness of our highest aspirations throughout our daily lives. Dhamma & Vinaya is the only valid authority for the monastic community allowed by the Buddha after his death. So our practice of Vinaya is for us a devotional offering to our founding Teacher, the foundation of the communal ideal of the Saṅgha and also for our own personal benefit.
