SuttaCentral
In the Buddhist Monastic Code by Thannisaro Bhikkhu, in the “Revoking territories” of the “CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Territories”
Thanissaro writes:
“A territory becomes a non-territory for only two reasons: a transaction statement revoking it or the disappearance of the
Buddha’s teachings.”
Does anyone knows the original source in English or Pali for this?
This makes sense though.
If there are no monastics and no memory of the Buddha’s teaching in the worlds; then what would the purpose of a simā be?
Yes, i do agree on this topic. Recently a fellow bhikkhu of mine got taught by a senior bhikkhu about “the Sīmā of all Buddhas past present and future” (this idea is very popular in our country)
He was taught: “because there are countless sīmā by past buddhas therefore nowhere on earth can we do any Uposatha unless we revoke all the Sīmā first”
The problem is that this directly contradict the Buddha in the vinaya where the buddha allow the forest monks to do Uposatha.
The Buddha never told the forest monks to use supernatural powers to look into the past to see if that forest used to be a “sīmā of Past Buddhas”
<Forest monks can do uposatha without worrying about Sīmā of past buddhas >
So he didn’t agree to do Uposatha out of anxiety. As a result, none of us did uposatha yesterday
It’s in the Avippavāsasīmānujānanakathā in Buddhaghosa’s commentary to the Vinaya’s Mahāvagga.
Here’s the full paragraph with the relevant part highlighted:
Evañca pana bhikkhave ticīvarena avippavāso samūhantabboti ettha samūhanantena bhikkhunā vattaṃ jānitabbaṃ. Tatridaṃ vattaṃ – khaṇḍasīmāya ṭhatvā avippavāsasīmā na samūhantabbā, tathā avippavāsasīmāya ṭhatvā khaṇḍasīmāpi. Khaṇḍasīmāyaṃ pana ṭhitena khaṇḍasīmāva samūhanitabbā, tathā itarāya ṭhitena itarā. Sīmaṃ nāma dvīhi kāraṇehi samūhananti pakatiyā khuddakaṃ puna āvāsavaḍḍhanatthāya mahatiṃ vā kātuṃ; pakatiyā mahatiṃ puna aññesaṃ vihārokāsadānatthāya khuddakaṃ vā kātuṃ. Tattha sace khaṇḍasīmañca avippavāsasīmañca jānanti, samūhanituñceva bandhituñca sakkhissanti. Khaṇḍasīmaṃ pana jānantā avippavāsaṃ ajānantāpi samūhanituñceva bandhituñca sakkhissanti. Khaṇḍasīmaṃ ajānantā avippavāsaṃyeva jānantā cetiyaṅgaṇabodhiyaṅgaṇauposathāgārādīsu nirāsaṅkaṭṭhānesu ṭhatvā appeva nāma samūhanituṃ sakkhissanti, paṭibandhituṃ pana na sakkhissanteva. Sace bandheyyuṃ, sīmāsambhedaṃ katvā vihāraṃ avihāraṃ kareyyuṃ, tasmā na samūhanitabbā. Ye pana ubhopi na jānanti, teneva samūhanituṃ na bandhituṃ sakkhissanti. Ayañhi sīmā nāma kammavācāya vā asīmā hoti sāsanantaradhānena vā, na ca sakkā sīmaṃ ajānantehi kammavācā kātuṃ, tasmā na samūhanitabbā. Sādhukaṃ pana ñatvāyeva samūhanitabbā ca bandhitabbā cāti.
Thank you so much for this 