Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-7tdvq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-17T01:29:14.679Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - The role of the Buddhist layman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2010

Jane Bunnag
Get access

Summary

The ceremony of Dharma, on the contrary,

is very fruitful. It consists in proper

treatment of slaves and servants, reverence

to teachers, restraint of violence toward

living creatures, and liberality to priests

and ascetics. These and like actions are

called the ceremonies of Dharma.

Other ceremonies are of doubtful value.

They may achieve their purpose, or they

may not. Moreover the purposes for which

they are performed are limited to this

world.

The ceremony of Dharma, on the other

hand, is not limited to time. Even if it does

not achieve its object in this world, it

produces unlimited merit in the next

world. But if it produces its object in this

world, it achieves both effects: the purpose

desired in this world and unlimited

merit in the next.

Taken from Rock Edict no. IX in The Edicts of Asoka edited and translated by N. A. Nikam and Richard McKeon (1966)

No originality can be claimed for the idea that religious commitment varies as between individuals, though students of Thai society have so far tended to take at its face value the frequently expressed belief that to be Thai is to respect the Buddha, and have assumed that differential religious commitment is completely expressed by the division of society into monk and lay sectors.

Type
Chapter
Information
Buddhist Monk, Buddhist Layman
A Study of Urban Monastic Organization in Central Thailand
 , pp. 142 - 179
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×