BUDDHIST LAW

BUDDHIST LAW

Several questions need to be answered in the present context

surrounding the notion of Buddhist Law as a religious law. The

first question relates to Buddhism itself as a religion. Most

Buddhists regard the teachings of the Buddha as their religious

guidance and principles to observe. Some consider Buddhism as a

philosophy, a practical way of life. Although Buddhism may be

different from other religions of the world in that the conception

of a supreme being such as God is singularly absent from the central theme 

of the Buddha's teachings,  nonetheless, Buddhism is generally regarded 

as a religion by historians and missionaries alike.

By nature, Buddhists are modest and moderate. There are very

few fundamentalists, fanatics or extremists who truly are not

faithfully practicing Buddhism which advocates moderation and the

middle path, maj ima pada or via media.If Buddhism were not

counted as a religion, then billions of earthlings who are

Buddhists would be deemed without religion. On the other hand, it

is not untrue that a person holding the Buddhist faith can also

learn and appreciate, or tolerate and practice other faiths without

violating any Buddhist principle. Taking into account special

characteristics of Buddhism, we are persuaded that Buddhism is a

religion in human history since 600 B.C. and is likely to remain

with us for the foreseeable future.

The next question to be asked in connection with Buddhist Law

qua law is whether the religious principles derived from the

teachings of the Buddha are truly law in the sense that they are

recognized as binding in the Buddhist community and not as mere

moral precepts.

The teaching of the Buddha as recorded in the TIPITAKA (Pali)

or TRIPITAKA (Sanskrit) or TRAI PIDOK (Thai)  are divided into

three main parts (or baskets or tables as in the Law of the Twelve

Tables of Rome). They are (1) the Vinaya; (2) the Sutta (also

Suttanta) and (3) the Abhidhamma. The records were kept in Pali,

a dialect of Sanskrit, spoken by the Buddha and came to be known as

the Pali canons. The Buddha's use of Pali represents a break from

the Indian Hindu Brahmin tradition. Buddha was born a Hindu prince

and Buddhism has arisen out of Hindu tradition, but since its

inception, Buddhism has followed its own independent direction.

Sanskrit was the classical language of the Brahmins in India.

Its earliest form was Vedic (circa 1500-200 B.C.) and it is in this

language that the ancient scriptures of Hindu laws were recorded.

There is a large body of literature including the Vedas, the RigVedas,

the Upanishads, and the Bagavad Gita and the tales of the

Ramayana and the Mahabarata. After the Pali Sutras were lost in

India, they were rediscovered in Sri lanka and translated into

Sanskrit, returning to India and eventually travelling the northern

route going over Tibet and China, through Korea and Japan. There

are variables between Sanskrit and the original Pali scripts, such as Dharma (Sanskrit) for Dhamma (Pali) and Nirvana (Sanskrit) for

Nibbana (Pali) It will be seen that in the Thai language, both

Sanskrit and Pali renderings are used in the official Thai

language. In the Thai Buddhist temples, however, the chanting and

prayers are all conducted in Pali, the spoken language of the

Buddha, keeping as close as possible to the Teachings of the

Elders, or Theravada Buddhism.

The Vinayapi taka is devoted exclusively to the rules and

regulations formulated by the Buddha for the monastic conduct,

rites and ceremonies to be followed by the Orders of the Bhikkus

(monks) and Bhikkunis (female monks).~ They are divided into five

main sections and are comparable, broadly speaking, to the laws and

social norms of secular society.

True it is that the Vinaya lacks some of the elements in the

modern legal system from the perspective of the Western world.

There is no Court of Appeal, no prison wardens, no bailiffs to

compel or enforce compliance with the verdict of monastic peers,

while the most serious offenses are punishable with a form of

capitis diminutio (defrocking or derobing of a monk) The Vinaya

is nonetheless law, if only for application within the religious

Order, with inevitable repercussion for serious offenses in the

secular world. The Buddhist religious Order is a well-organized

monastic community, self -disciplined, autonomous and law abiding. 

The Suttapitaka is a collection of Sutras and dialogues of the

Buddha with his various disciples, !OJ while the Abhidharmna

constitutes a more purely philosophical elaboration of the sayings

and teachings of the Buddha. llJ They are not law in the sense of

the secular law in force in a given society, but constitute

nevertheless a code of conduct, a model of peaceful living for the

Buddhist community.

Three objects of the highest veneration 1n Buddhism are the

Buddha, the Dharmna and the Sankha, the three constituting the

RATANATTAYA or the Holy Triple Gem comparable in some respect to

the Holy Trinity. 

Source: Sucharitkul, Sompong, "Thai Law and Buddhist Law" (1998),
GOLDEN GATE UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF LAW