ORIGIN OF PRECEPTS FOR DECENT CONDUCTS OF MONKS IN THERAVADA BUDDHISM

Abstract

The Discipline was prescribed by the Buddha for the restricting behavior of monks aiming at living together peacefully, consisting of the fundamental precepts and out of the fundamental ones or called the precept for decent conduct of monks. In Theravada Buddhism, the origin of precepts for decent conduct of monks the Buddha prescribed as per geography, society and culture Buddhism reached to. The geographical precepts that the Buddha prescribed such as ordination, bathing, including the keeping of foods in the time of famine; social precepts such as the permission to all men from all walks of life to enter to monastery without discrimination from social status, and the purity of conduct connected with livelihood; cultural precepts such as the culture of receiving alms food, cloth dressing, shelter, medicine etc.