SuttaCentral
Bhante Sujato told a story at Anukampa in England that the Buddha doesn’t approve a vow of silence. I couldn’t catch where in the Pali canon Bhante cited. It was something like ‘Pavara’?
Please kindly give me the link to the said discourse.
With mega metta,
Dheerayupa
It’s not a discourse. It’s in the Vinaya.
Thank you so very much, Venerable.
That’s very interesting, Bhante.
How should this be understood vis-a silent retreats now offered by monastics?
My understanding is there’s nothing wrong with reducing your speech to essential speech only for a time. The problem is taking a strict vow of silence, to the point where you e.g. conceal the heavy offenses of others (pli-tv-bu-vb-pc64) or stop confessing your own offenses.
This is Solved but I thought a bit of extra context could be interesting.
Vow of silence was/is a big thing in Hindu and Jain traditions. There is the Maun vrat and even a designated day for it, Maun Ekadashi, for Jains.
Apparently, there is a Jataka story about it as well, in a different context though.
More info on: https://www.wisdomlib.org/concept/vow-of-silence
That background story of the rule is so similar to Culagosingasutta and Upakkilesasutta. However, the 3 venerables would have Dhamma discussion every 5 days and they blended like milk and water.