Knowing the rules that monastics should follow is essential for lay people. The lay community has a role in holding monastics to the high standards of behaviour expected by the Buddha as contained in the vinaya. Without knowing the rules how could lay people know what was appropriate conduct or not?
The story in the Culla Vagga of the badly behaved monks at Kitagiri shows the important consequences of lay people being unable to distinguish between good and bad behaviour, their ignorance being exploited by unscrupulous monastics. The effect of the bad behaviour was that the faith of the lay people was greatly diminished and that good monks left the city and only bad monks remained. They were termed corrupters of families, and banished from the sangha!
Having knowledge of the rules and encouraging monastics maintain them is a source of faith and inspiration in the lay people, to see monastics practicing well, in line with the vinaya. But they firstly need to know what these rules are…
Here’s what can happen when lay people are ignorant of the rules:
At one time Assaji and Punabbasuka were the resident monks at Kīṭāgiri. They were bad and shameless. They were misbehaving in this way:
They planted flowering trees, watered and plucked them, and then tied the flowers together. They made the flowers into garlands, garlands with stalks on one side and garlands with stalks on both sides. They made flower arrangements, wreaths, ornaments for the head, ornaments for the ears, and ornaments for the chest. And they had others do the same. They then took these things, or sent them, to the women, the daughters, the girls, the daughters-in-law, and the female slaves of good families.
They ate from the same plates as these women and drank from the same vessels. They sat on the same seats as them, and they lay down on the same beds, on the same sheets, under the same covers, both on the same sheets and under the same covers. They ate at the wrong time, drank alcohol, and wore garlands, perfumes, and cosmetics. They danced, sang, played instruments, and performed. While the women were dancing, singing, playing instruments, and performing, so would they.
They played various games: board games with eight and ten rows, imaginary board games, hopscotch, spillikins, dice games, tip-cat, painting-with-the-hand games, ball games, toy-pipe games, toy-plow games, turning somersaults, toy-windmill games, toy-measure games, toy-carriage games, toy-bow games, letter-guessing games, thought-guessing games, games of mimicking deformities.
They trained in elephant riding, in horsemanship, in carriage riding, in archery, in swordsmanship. And they ran in front of elephants, in front of horses, and in front of carriages, and they ran backwards and forwards. They whistled, clapped their hands, wrestled, and boxed. They spread their outer robe on a stage and said to the dancing girls, “Dance here, Sister,” and they made gestures of approval. And they misbehaved in a variety of ways.
See Section 3 on banishment here:
https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-kd11/en/brahmali
Knowing the rules monastics are supposed to follow would have prevented these lay people from being corrupted and inadvertently supporting bad bhikkhus.
Whilst in many Buddhist countries, the lay people have a general sense of the rules and society is somewhat set up to help the monastics follow them, in places where Buddhism is newer it is even more vital to teach the vinaya rules to lay people so that the community can support monastics to practice in accordance with the vinaya. Otherwise there is the potential for misunderstandings. In addition, monastics may not receive the support they need and cannot flourish, and if they need to break their rules to survive, other lay people will lose faith in the sangha.
