When the dispensation of the Gotama Buddha had arisen in the world, people from all walks of life in Jambudīpa (ancient India), that is to say, young, middle-aged and elderly scions of influential or powerful families as well as those of average or poor families, ordained and illuminated the sāsana. This was simply at a time where there were no Vinaya―monastic training rules of virtue―constituted by the Blessed One.

For about 20 years, a multitude of people attained to the bliss of nibbāna without the Vinaya being present. And that was because those venerables had in them mindfulness[i] and the striving energy for extinguishment. At the latter stages, however, due to the emergence of bhikkhus who were weak in mindfulness, the Blessed One had to constitute the Vinaya.

Vinaya was established to create mindfulness in those bhikkhus, who, devoid of mindfulness, had become neglectful of their goal and the paṭipadā; and through which, to sustain the dispensation for the future. When investigating the Vinaya-related matters, it can be seen that Vinaya had to be established because of those bhikkhus who failed to exercise restraint at least in terms of sīla (virtue), let alone samādhi and paññā. Therefore, it is clear for whom the Vinaya was established. Still, if there is in you the scrupulous honesty, striving energy and determination for extinguishment, just as how the bhikkhus of the first 20 years of the sāsana trained with restraint, in the present, too, there is no obstacle for a bhikkhu to train in that same manner. The true path to extinguishment lies in training oneself by naturally establishing restraint in terms of mind, body and speech without the imposing of rules upon oneself. Maintaining mindfulness if you train within the true middle-path, just like in the first 20 years of the sāsana, you too can become an undisputed son of Lord Buddha treading along the Buddha’s path. If you abide resenting Vinaya, it is because of the doubt in you that your sīla is not strong enough. If you abide becoming attached to Vinaya claiming you follow Vinaya-rules in their strictest sense, then that too is a defilement. Here it is natural for conceit (māna) to arise in you. What always lies in both the thought ‘I have conformed [with Vinaya]’ and the thought ‘I have transgressed’ are simply attachment and resentment. This is a subtle point that makes one go astray in the path to emancipation. Being strong in sīla, letting samādhi burgeon in you, you had best cultivate paññā. Then, simply from within you Vinaya will be automatically complied with. Do not seek refuge in Vinaya while deteriorating in sīla. Repeatedly transgressing and correcting oneself could be the way of practice for prolonging the sāsana. But it is not the true path to enlightenment. [Yet] protecting the sāsana by whatever means is a great meritorious act, no question about it. For him who trains in the path to emancipation, if he is scrupulously honest, Vinaya is a phenomenon that develops naturally through worldly-paññā rather than something that needs to be developed with particular effort.

Vinaya and mindfulness are like twins. If mindfulness is with you, what you have with you then is Vinaya. When mindfulness slips away from you, Vinaya, too, will slip away from you. Let me tell you a good example. For a bhikkhu, to shave separately the head and the beard on two separate occasions is not against the Vinaya. One would shave the head once a fortnight or once a month and shave the beard every two or three days. But there is a particular bhikkhu who has let go of those Vinaya and books. That venerable bhikkhu shaves the head and the beard simultaneously once a week. He does not shave them separately. Letting the beard grow for a week could be a problem for someone. But for the said bhikkhu, it is not a problem. Why? Because that bhikkhu trains per the bhikkhu-conduct that existed before the Vinaya-rules were laid down in the sāsana. That venerable bhikkhu states with unshakable certitude that ‘when my Lord Buddha was alive, at no time were the head and the beard shaven separately on two separate occasions’. It is in this very paṭipadā that the true practitioner of the path to enlightenment should train himself. Your beard becomes a problem for you only if you look in the mirror. Let go of the mirror. Then the beard, too, will have been relinquished unwittingly. You too will have exercised restraint even without a Vinaya. For all this, just as mindfulness is, scrupulous honesty, too, is an absolute must.

[i] The venerable Author has often used two Sinhala words back to back― ‘satiya’ and ‘sihiya’, both of which denote ‘sati’ in Pāli. Sati means ‘mindfulness’ at the present moment. More specifically, the use of the word sati is restricted to a kind of (wholesome) bare attention, awareness, present in the here and now. Thus, the translation uses the single term ‘mindfulness’ to translate both these Sinhala words. Resulting adjustments have been made to sentences accordingly.