➥ sīlabbata:

• for sīlabbata:
  • [noble] observances and practices
  • observances and practices
• for subbata:
  • one with noble practices

Sīla

The long description of sīla in the Brahmajāla Sutta shows that sīla wholly involves the refraining from practices. The sutta’s opening and closing sentences related to sīla are included in this quotation:

• What are the mere trifles, the mere trivialities, the mere matters of virtue, that the common man would speak of when speaking in praise of the Perfect One? The ascetic Gotama abandons and refrains from killing… And whereas some ascetics and Brahmanists, living off food given in faith maintain themselves by such base arts and wrong means of livelihood as… practising surgery, practising as a children's doctor, administering medicines, and treatments to cure their after-effects, the ascetic Gotama refrains from these kinds of base arts and wrong means of livelihood.

Katamañca taṁ bhikkhave appamattakaṁ oramattakaṁ sīlamattakaṁ yena puthujjano tathāgatassa vaṇṇaṁ vadamāno vadeyya? Pāṇātipātaṁ pahāya pāṇātipātā paṭivirato samaṇo gotamo… yathā vā paneke bhonto samaṇabrāhmaṇā saddhādeyyāni bhojanāni bhuñjitvā te evarūpāya tiracchānavijjāya micchājīvena jīvikaṁ kappenti seyyathīdaṁ… sallakattiyaṁ dārakatikicchā mūlabhesajjānaṁ anuppadānaṁ osadhīnaṁ paṭimokkho. Iti vā itievarūpāya tiracchānavijjāya micchājīvā paṭivirato samaṇo gotamo ti. (DN i 4-12)

Vata

Vata, by contrast, involves both the undertaking of and refraining from practices, as this illustration shows:

• At one time there was a naked ascetic living in Vesāli called Kaḷāramaṭṭhuka … He had undertaken seven rules of practice (vatapadāni):

Tena kho pana samayena acelo kaḷāramaṭṭhuko vesāliyaṁ paṭivasati… tassa satta vatapadāni samattāni samādinnāni honti:

1) For the rest of my life I will be a naked ascetic and will not wear clothes;

Yāvajīvaṁ acelako assaṁ na vatthaṁ paridaheyyaṁ.

2) For the rest of my life I will remain celibate and abstain from sexual intercourse;

Yāvajīvaṁ brahmacārī assaṁ na methunaṁ dhammaṁ paṭiseveyyaṁ.

3) For the rest of my life I will subsist on liquor and meat, abstaining from boiled rice and junket;

Yāvajīvaṁ surāmaṁseneva yāpeyyaṁ na odanakummāsaṁ bhuñjeyyaṁ.

4-7) I will not go beyond the Udena Shrine to the east of Vesāli, the Gotamaka Shrine to the south, the Sattamba Shrine to the west, nor the Bahuputta Shrine to the north.

Puratthimena vesāliṁ udenaṁ nāma cetiyaṁ taṁ nātikkameyyaṁ dakkhiṇena vesāliṁ gotamakaṁ nāma cetiyaṁ taṁ nātikkameyyaṁ pacchimena vesāliṁ sattambaṁ nāma cetiyaṁ taṁ nātikkameyyaṁ uttarena vesāliṁ bahuputtaṁ nāma cetiyaṁ taṁ nātikkameyyanati. (DN iii 9)

Sīlabbata: pluralising

Sīla and vata together become sīlabbataṁ (singular case), which, like others do, we pluralise (‘observances and practices’):

• Norman: ‘virtuous conduct and vows’ (Snp 231).
• Bodhi: ‘rules and vows’ (SN v 118).
• Bodhi: ‘behaviour and observances’ (AN i 225)

Discarding religious practices

Religious practices that are not in accordance with the Noble One’s training system (ariyassa vinaye) are abandoned by disciples when they first take refuge in the Buddha, when they see that these practices are ineffective or spiritually unwholesome, as the following stories show:

1) Fire veneration: a stain

When Kassapa of Uruvelā and his group of matted-hair ascetic disciples decided to take ordination under the Buddha, they flung into the river their hair, braids, bundles on carrying poles, and fire-venerating implements (Vin.1.32-3). Kassapa explained this action as follows:

‘Brahmanic sacrifices glorify sights and sounds, also flavours, sensuous pleasures, and women.

Rūpe ca sadde ca atho rase ca
Kāmitthiyo cābhivadanti yaññā

‘Recognising that this was a spiritual stain amidst objects of attachment I lost my taste for sacrifices and offerings.’

Etaṁ malan ti upadhīsu ñatvā
Tasmā na yiṭṭhe na hute arañjin ti. (Vin.1.36)

2) Sacrifice: demeritorious, spiritually unwholesome

A brahman brought hundreds of bulls, goats, and sheep to the sacrificial post for slaughter and burning. When he asked how to perform the sacrifice so it would be of the greatest benefit, the Buddha said that even in preparing for such a sacrifice, thinking one is making merit, one makes demerit; thinking one is doing what is spiritually wholesome, one is doing what is spiritually unwholesome; thinking one is on the path to heaven, one is on the path to woe.

So puññaṁ karomī ti apuññaṁ karoti. Kusalaṁ karomīti akusalaṁ karoti. Sugatimaggaṁ pariyesāmī ti duggatimaggaṁ pariyesati. (AN iv 43)

On becoming a lay follower, the brahman released his 2,500 sacrificial animals, saying, ‘May they eat fresh grass, drink cool water, and be cooled by a fresh breeze!’

3) River cleansing: not purifying

The brahman Sundarika Bhāradvāja said “the Bahuka River is reckoned by many to be liberating, it is reckoned by many to be meritorious, and many wash away the demerit they have created in the Bahuka River.”

Mokkhasammatā hi bho gotama bāhukā nadī bahujanassa puññasammatā hi bho gotama bāhukā nadī bahujanassa bāhukāya pana nadiyā bahujano pāpakammaṁ kataṁ pavāhetī ti.

The Buddha replied, “a fool may bathe there forever, yet will not purify himself of accumulated demerit.”

Niccampi bālo pakkhanno kaṇhakammo na sujjhati. (MN i 39)

On hearing this, the brahman requested ordination as a bhikkhu.

4) River cleansing: not purifying

A brahman told the bhikkhunī Puṇṇikā that whoever, young or old, does a demeritorious deed (pāpakamma pakubbatī) is released from the accumulated demerit by water ablution (dakābhisecanā sopi pāpakammā pamuccati). Puṇṇikā replied that in that case, they’d all go to heaven: all the frogs, turtles, reptiles, crocodiles, and anything else that lives in the water. She said that if rivers could carry off one’s accumulated demerit (pāpaṁ pubbe kataṁ vahuṁ), they would carry off one’s accumulated merit as well (puññampimā vaheyyuṁ). She advised the brahman to stop doing whatever it was that made him always need cleansing (yassa brāhmaṇa tvaṁ bhīto sadā udakamotari tameva brahme mā kāsi) and added “Don’t let the cold hurt your skin (mā te sītaṁ chaviṁ hane).”

The Brahman agreed that he had been following the wrong path, and now had been shown the noble path (kummaggaṁ paṭipannaṁ maṁ ariyamaggaṁ samānayi) (Thi 236-251). On becoming a bhikkhu, and being enlightened, he exclaimed:

• Formerly I was Brahmā’s offspring, today I am a true Brahman, a master of the three final knowledges, endowed with profound knowledge, fully versed in profound knowledge, spiritually cleansed.

Brahmabandhu pure āsiṁ ajjamhi saccabrāhmaṇo
Tevijjo vedasampanno sottiyo camhi nahātako ti. (Thi 251)

Noble observances and practices

The terms ‘noble’ or ‘Noble One’s discipline’ are constantly associated with exalted types of observances and practices, as the next paragraphs show. This justifies us sometimes rendering sīlabbata as ‘[noble] observances and practices.’

1) Self-mortifying practice: no attainment of noble discernment

Before his enlightenment, the Buddha practised various ascetic practices. For instance, nakedness; remaining standing when eating, urinating and defaecating; licking his hands clean instead of washing them. He tortured himself by either standing continuously, rejecting seats; or by maintaining the squatting position; or by using a bed of spikes; or by bathing in cold water three times daily including the evening. He survived on very small amounts of food, and reached a state of extreme emaciation.

Yet by such conduct and self-mortification he admitted that he did not attain any superhuman attainment of knowledge and vision that was truly noble (uttarimanussadhammā alamariyañāṇadassanavisesaṁ), because he did not attain noble discernment (ariyāya paññāya) which leads to the complete destruction of suffering (sammā dukkhakkhayāya, MN i 81). Later, he was to reflect:

“I am indeed freed from that unpleasant self-mortifying practice. It is good indeed that I am freed from that useless, unpleasant, self-mortifying practice. It is good that, steady and mindful, I have attained enlightenment”

mutto vatamhi tāya dukkarakārikāya. Sādhu mutto vatamhi tāya anatthasaṁhitāya dukkarakārikāya. Sādhu ṭhito sato bodhiṁ samajjhaganti. (SN i 103)

2) Going upwards: Noble One’s discipline

There is a brahman practice called ‘going upwards’ (udayagāminiṁ nāma paṭipadaṁ) in which a disciple is told to get up early and walk facing east, and told not to avoid a pit, a precipice, a stump, a thorny place, a village pool, or a cesspool, and told to “expect death wherever you fall. Thus, good man, with the demise of the body at death, you will be reborn in the realm of happiness, in the heavenly worlds.

Yattha pateyyāsi tattheva maraṇaṁ āgaccheyyāsi. Evaṁ tvaṁ ambho purisa kāyassa bhedā parammaraṇā sugatiṁ saggaṁ lokaṁ uppajjissasīti

The Buddha called this a foolish and stupid practice (bāla gamanametaṁ mūḷhagamanametaṁ) and instead proclaimed the way of going upwards in the Noble One’s training system (ariyassa vinaye udayagāminiṁ paṭipadaṁ paññāpemi). This involves having unshakeable faith in the [perfection of the] Buddha’s [enlightenment]… in the [excellence of the] teaching… in the [excellent qualities of the] community of disciples, and being possessed of the virtues dear to the Noble Ones.

idha bhikkhave ariyasāvako buddhe aveccappasādena samannāgato hoti…Dhamme aveccappasādena samannāgato hoti… Saṅghe aveccappasādena samannāgato hoti… Ariyakantehi sīlehi samannāgato hoti. (SN v 361)

3) Purifying rites in the Noble One’s training system

Cunda was a silversmith whose purifying rites involved him touching the ground, cowdung, or grass; venerating fire or the sun; and bathing three times a day. The Buddha said that this was different from the purification in the Noble One’s training system (ariyassa vinaye soceyyaṁ) which, at Cunda's request, he explained meant practising the four ways of right speech, the three ways of right conduct, and being free of greed, ill will, and wrong view [of reality]. He said:

• These ten paths of spiritually wholesome conduct are purified and purifying.

Ime cunda dasa kusalakammapathā suciyeva honti sucikaraṇā ca

• If one who follows these ten paths of spiritually wholesome conduct, gets up early and strokes the ground from his bed, then he is spiritually purified, and if he does not stroke the ground, he is still spiritually purified.

Imehi kho dasahi kusalakammapathehi samannāgato kālasseva uṭṭhahantova sayanambhā paṭhaviṁ cepi āmasati suciyeva hoti. No cepi paṭhaviṁ āmasati suci yeva hoti. (AN v 263-268)

4) Venerating and serving: according to the Noble One’s discipline

One early morning, the Buddha met a young brahman named Sigālaka, who, with joined palms, was venerating (namassati) the six directions. The Buddha told him:

• But, young man, that is not how the six directions would be venerated in the Noble One’s training system.

Na kho gahapatiputta ariyassa vinaye evaṁ chaddisā namassitabbā ti.

When Sigālaka asked the Buddha to explain this, the Buddha explained, not how to ‘venerate’ the six directions, but how to ‘cover’ them (paṭicchādī), which he explained meant ‘serving’ the people in one’s life (paccupaṭṭhātabbā) because it is likely that ‘venerating’ was a term that he felt should be used exclusively in relationship to the Buddha, the teaching, and the community of the Blessed One’s [noble] disciples. He told Sigālaka how to properly serve six groups of people: one’s parents, teachers, spouses, friends, servants, and ascetics and Brahmanists, and if one does so, they will tenderly reciprocate (anukampanti). The Buddha said that if one follows this advice, then each direction is made safe, free of fear (khemā appaṭibhayā). This is presumably because one is not developing danger and fear within any relationship. Instead, one is developing three qualities that might summarise the Buddha’s advice to Sigālaka: respect, kindness and dutifulness (DN iii 180). At the end of the discourse Sigālaka became a lay disciple.

Noble observances and practices: parenthesis

Because ‘noble’ or ‘Noble One’s discipline’ are constantly associated with exalted types of observances and practices, if necessary, we parenthesise them as such:

• He who is perfect in [noble] observances and practices, resolutely applied [to the practice], and inwardly collected, with a mind that is mastered, concentrated, and well-collected…

Yo sīlabbatasampanno pahitatto samāhito
Cittaṁ yassa vasībhūtaṁ ekaggaṁ susamāhitaṁ. (AN i 168)

Bhikkhus observances and practices

Bhikkhus observances and practices are divided into

• 1) the Pātimokkha rules (see The Buddhist Monastic Code, Volume One, by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu)
• 2) Khandhaka rules (see The Buddhist Monastic Code, Volume Two, by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu).

Subbata: ‘one with noble practices’

Because we call the arahant’s sīlabbata ‘noble,’ we call subbata ‘one with noble practices’:

• Irrigators channel water. Fletchers straighten arrows. Carpenters shape wood. Those with noble practices tame themselves.

Udakaṁ hi nayanti nettikā usukārā namayanti tejanaṁ
Dāruṁ namayanti tacchakā attānaṁ damayanti subbatā ti. (Tha 19)

• Assuming an outward semblance of those with noble practices, insolent, a corrupter of families, impudent, deceitful, unrestrained, mere chaff, living the religious life in disguise, he is a defiler of the Path.

Chadanaṁ katvāna subbatānaṁ pakkhandī kuladūsako pagabbho
Māyāvī asaṁyato palāpo patirūpena caraṁ sa maggadūsī. (Snp 89)

Noble observances are to be practised without attachment. For example, the stream-enterer is ‘possessed of the precepts dear to the Noble Ones’ (ariyakantehi sīlehi samannāgato hoti) which are perfectly fulfilled, but they are not grasped (aparāmaṭṭhehi). Adherence to observances and practices (sīlabbataparāmāso) is one of the five ties to individual existence in the low plane of existence (orambhāgiyāni saṁyojanāni). ‘Adherence’ has two symptoms:

1) Regarding one’s own practices as true, and others’ as false:

• If I, dogmatically grasping and stubbornly adhering, should declare “This alone is true. All else is false,” I will dispute with those of the other two views.’

ahaṁ diṭṭhiṁ thāmasā parāmāsā abhinivissa vohareyyaṁ– idameva saccaṁ moghamaññan ti; dvīhi me assa viggaho. (MN i 498)

2) Taking one’s virtue personally. Thus the Samaṇamaṇḍikā Sutta proclaims a virtuous bhikkhu who does not regard virtue as endowed with personal qualities (bhikkhu sīlavā hoti no ca sīlamayo, MN ii 27). For discussion on sīlamayo see Glossary sv Atammayo.

➥ vatavantaṁ sīlavantaṁ: (main article see: sīlabbata)

Illustration: vatavantaṁ sīlavantaṁ, [perfect in noble] observances and practices

One who is not ill-tempered, who is [perfect in noble] observances and practices, who is free of conceit, inwardly tamed, and bears his final body, he is what I call a Brahman.

Akkodhanaṁ vatavantaṁ sīlavantaṁ anussadaṁ
Dantaṁ antimasarīraṁ tamahaṁ brūmi brāhmaṇaṁ. (Snp 624)

Comment:

We take vatavantaṁ sīlavantaṁ as sīlabbatasampannaṁ. Norman translates literally ‘possessing vows and virtuous conduct,’ which is not meaningful. Like us, the commentary considers that perfection is implied: Vatantanti dhutavatena samannāgataṁ, catupārisuddhisīlena sīlavantaṁ. The term sīlabbatasampanno occurs at AN i 168. See IGPT sv Sīlabbata.

• He who is perfect in [noble] observances and practices, resolutely applied [to the practice], and inwardly collected, with a mind that is mastered, concentrated, and well-collected…

Yo sīlabbatasampanno pahitatto samāhito
Cittaṁ yassa vasībhūtaṁ ekaggaṁ susamāhitaṁ. (AN i 168)

Also consider:

• A resident bhikkhu is not to be esteemed (āvāsiko bhikkhu abhāvanīyo hoti) if he is imperfect in behaviour and in the practice of observances;

Na ākappasampanno hoti na vattasampanno. (AN iii 261)

• A bhikkhu is virtuous, abides restrained [in conduct] within the constraints of the rules of discipline. He is perfect in conduct and sphere of personal application, seeing danger in the slightest wrongdoing.

bhikkhu sīlavā hoti pātimokkhasaṁvarasaṁvuto viharati ācāragocarasampanno aṇumattesu vajjesu bhayadassāvī. (AN iv 352)