Toh 336Translated by the Sarasvatī Translation Team under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha Konchog Norbu Zhuo Siyu Dr. Shenghai Li Nathaniel Rich Zhuo Siyu Laura Goetz Dr. Andreas Doctor Steven Rhodes v 1.1.3 2021 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a global non-profit initiative to translate all the Buddha’s words into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone. This work is provided under the protection of a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution - Non-commercial - No-derivatives) 3.0 copyright. It may be copied or printed for fair use, but only with full attribution, and not for commercial advantage or personal compensation. For full details, see the Creative Commons license. An early mistake in the assigning of UT numbers within the 84000 project means that these ids diverge slightly from the standard logic. 2020-11-17 Toh 336 Degé Kangyur, vol. 72 (mdo sde, sa), folios 274.a–275.a 18/01/2023 14:48:50 Automated version increment 2.d 2.h 2.d 2.b 2.a v 0.1.1 2 intro lines about rattle staff edited according to Nate's suggestions changed "rattling" to "ringing" staff Added link to Toh 335 Auto (update-contributors) Auto (update-contributors) 1 First Published Version added ref pending tag minor changes ref pending tag for toh 335 removed A few minor fixes. Auto (TEI migration 2.0.0) Auto (TEI migration 2.1.5) Updated colophon and intro to Bandé fixed bad link added @xml:lang tag to a few Chinese strings that were missing it, removed namespace prefix "tei:" from some of the elements Added mention of Chomden Raltri & Khotan to intro, with biblio entries to match. Auto (script-increment-version-published) Auto (removing-tid-from-back-list-items) Summary The Rite for the Protocols Associated with Carrying the Ringing Staff

Summary

The Rite for the Protocols Associated with Carrying
the Ringing Staff is a short text that deals with the practical
matters relating to the use of the mendicant’s staff known in Sanskrit as a
khakkhara, or “rattling
staff.” It begins with a simple ritual during which a Buddhist monk
ceremoniously takes up the ringing staff in front of his monastic teacher. The
text then provides a list of twenty-five rules governing the proper use of the
staff. The rules stipulate how a Buddhist monk should or should not handle it in
his daily life, especially when he goes on alms rounds and when he travels.

Acknowledgements

This translation was produced by the Sarasvatī Translation Team. Its members
acknowledge the help of Peter Skilling, who provided copies of several
publications related to the ringing staff and made helpful comments on an
earlier version of this translation. They are grateful for the help provided by an
anonymous reviewer, a vinaya scholar. They also acknowledge with love and gratitude
the privilege of having had, as team editor, Steven Rhodes, who passed
away in 2017.

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

Introduction

The renunciant’s staff is a religious implement shared by the ascetic
cultures of Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jainism, and other Indian traditions. The practice of ascetics carrying a
staff when they wander about must be very old. Pāṇini’s Sanskrit grammar
(ca. fourth century bce) already mentions
maskarin, a staff
bearer, as a name for a renunciant. Makkhali Gosāla, the founder of the
Ājīvikas and a contemporary of the Buddha, is known by the epithet maskarin.
The Buddhist saṅghas in India developed a staff, called a khakkhara
in Buddhist Sanskrit texts, that, as far as we know, is
unique in conception and design. Consisting of a metallic head, a long
shaft, and a lower tip, it is included among the eighteen requisites of a
Buddhist monastic. The canonical Vinaya texts of the
Sarvāstivāda tradition, such as the Vinayavastu
and the Vinayasūtra of Guṇaprabha, mention the
ringing staff in passing as one of the regular items in a Buddhist monk’s
possession.
These texts provide neither a focused discussion of the staff
nor a list of rules governing its use.

Two sūtras in the General Sūtra section of the Kangyur are focused
on the single subject of the ringing staff. The

Sūtra
on the Ringing Staff
(Toh 335) is the longer of the two and
concerns itself with the religious significance of the staff and the
benefits to be gained from its use. It also describes the staff’s symbolism
and its constituent parts. The Rite for the Protocols
Associated with Carrying the Ringing Staff (Toh 336), which is
translated in the following pages, sets forth a simple ritual for a monk to
receive a ringing staff along with twenty-five dharmas (chos), or rules, stipulating how
the staff is to be properly utilized.

In most modern Buddhist cultures, the ringing staff has been reduced
to a mere ritual artifact. From the contents of the twenty-five rules, it
appears that the use of the staff was once associated with several practical
purposes: (A) protection against animals (no. 1), (B) a walking aid (no. 2),
(C) collecting alms (nos. 3, 6, 13, 14, 15, and 20), and (D) travel (nos.
21, 23, and 24). The predominance of alms collection and, to a lesser
extent, travel in the list perhaps indicates the ringing staff’s main
functions. Many of the twenty-five rules, therefore, show the occasions of
the staff’s use. In addition, many items in the list are rules prescribing
how the staff should and should not be used. We find in these rules a
concern for the positive image of the Buddhist saṅgha, as they also define
proper behavior surrounding a religious instrument that is recognized as
symbolically powerful.

The Rite for the Protocols Associated with
Carrying the Ringing Staff does not contain the common framework
expected of a text belonging to the sūtra genre. Rather, it looks like a
supplementary text dealing with practical matters. One single text in the
Taishō edition of the Chinese Tripiṭaka includes materials found in both Toh
335 and Toh 336. The De daoti cheng xizhang
jing (得道梯橙錫杖經, Taishō 785) was translated in the Eastern Jin
Dynasty (317–420 ce). It contains a Chinese
version of the Sūtra on the Rattling Staff that
concludes with the rejoicing of the teaching’s audience. It
then proceeds to present additional materials, among which a list of
twenty-five rules related to the way of carrying the ringing staff is found.
For the purpose of clarity, we will call this “the list in the Chinese
sūtra.” After the end of the sūtra, the translator adds an appendix that
gives a second list of twenty-five rules. We will call this “the list in the
Chinese appendix.” The list of twenty-five rules in the appendix is said to
be “translated based on the Indian Tripiṭaka to make the future reader aware
of its origin.” The Chinese translation
indicates that there was an opinion that regarded the twenty-five rules and
the Sūtra on the Rattling Staff as belonging to
the same text. At the same time, the translator of the Chinese version also
tells us that an independently circulated version of the twenty-five rules
enjoyed canonical status.

Between the two lists of twenty-five rules in the Chinese, the list
in the appendix is closer to the list in the Tibetan translation. Although
significant differences remain, the list in the Chinese appendix and the
list in the Tibetan translation follow the same order with just one
exception. There is a Dunhuang Tibetan manuscript that contains a
portion of The Sūtra on the Rattling Staff and
The Rite for the Protocols Associated with Carrying
the Ringing Staff.
The colophon of this manuscript states that these two Tibetan texts were
translated from the Chinese by the chief editor-translator Bandé
Chödrup. This
information indicates that both texts may have been translated from the
relevant portions of De daoti cheng xizhang
jing (Taishō 785), with
The Rite for the Protocols Associated with Carrying
the Ringing Staff most likely based on the list in the Chinese
appendix. More research on the available Tibetan textual witnesses is
required before we can speak more conclusively about the nature of that
dependence and the transmission of the Tibetan text.

Indeed, a different perspective comes from an inventory of early translations compiled by the thirteenth century
Tibetan scholar Chomden Rikpai Raltri (bcom ldan
rig pa’i ral gri, 1227–1305), who lists the present text and Toh 335, which he calls “the longer and shorter ringing
staff sūtras” (’khar sil gyi mdo che chung gnyis) among twenty-one canonical
texts translated from Khotanese. This seems to contradict the evidence from the Dunhuang colophon, and may possibly
be a reference to alternative translations that have not been preserved. Whatever the case, the general notion that these
texts may have evolved in Khotan from earlier material brought from India, before being transmitted to both China and Tibet,
seems by no means unlikely.

The list in the Chinese sūtra has an order and a structure of its
own, and several of its rules
are different in substance from the other two lists. Our translation only
records the significant differences between the list in the Chinese appendix
and the list in the Tibetan translation by providing the Chinese and its
English translation when an item in the Chinese appendix differs in its
sense from its Tibetan parallel. The list in the Chinese
sūtra is discussed only when it sheds light on the interpretation of the
items in the other two lists.

The present translation is based on the Degé Kangyur, with reference
to variants in other versions noted in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma).

The Translation

The honorable one then says, “Pay attention. Venerable one, after
generating the mind aspiring for unsurpassed awakening, will you take up the
ringing staff and utilize it properly?

“Do not hold it with dirty hands. When entering a dwelling of the
saṅgha, do not rest it with its head and lower tip removed. When entering the homes of householders, point the lower
tip behind you.

“In the morning, when conditions are right for you to go to the
home of a householder to beg for alms, rattle the staff three times at their
door. If no one responds when you rattle it three times, you should rattle
it five times. If no one responds when you rattle it five times, you should
rattle it seven times. If no one responds when you rattle it seven times,
you should proceed to another household and rattle it seven times. If you
are satisfied after having gone to seven households, then in that case say
three times, ‘I shall eat.’

“There are twenty-five rules associated with carrying the rattling
staff:

1. “Carry it to guard against snakes on the
ground.

2. “Carry it because you are elderly.

3. “Carry it to collect alms.

4. “Should you see a buddha image when entering or
exiting, make some sound with it.

5. “Do not go among the saṅgha while carrying a rattling
staff.

6. “Do not walk about carrying a ringing staff after
noon.

7. “Do not rest it on your shoulders hanging on to its two
ends.

8. “Do not carry it on your shoulders.

9. “Do not turn it around with your hands.

10. “Do not go into toilets carrying a rattling
staff.

11. “Do not follow the preceptor or other
ordination masters when they are carrying ringing staffs.

12. “Do not take up a ringing staff and then follow a
group of four or more persons carrying ringing staffs.

13. “Do not let your ringing staff be away from your body
when visiting the home of a patron.

14. “Go to the door of a patron and rattle the staff three
times. If no one responds, you should rattle it five times. If no
one responds when you rattle it five times, you should rattle it
seven times. If no one responds when you rattle it seven times, you
should proceed to another household and rattle the staff there.

15. “When the patron answers the door, lean the rattling
staff against your right arm and rest it there.

16. “Do not let it touch the ground when put in a
dwelling.

17. “Always put it by your bed.

18. “Clean it from time to time.

19. “Keep the head of the ringing staff
straight.

20. “During alms rounds, do not allow it to be taken away
from you by novice monks or householders.

21. “Take the ringing staff with you when spending the
night in a place of sick people.

22. “Take the ringing staff with you when you go to see
someone off on a long journey.

23. “Take the ringing staff with you when you go off to
welcome someone from a long journey and you might need to go and
stay there with them.

24. “Take the ringing staff with you when you need to go
to places unknown.

25. “In order to draw another person close to you, touch
that person with it and make designs on the ground.”

This completes “The Rite for the Protocols Associated with
Carrying the Ringing Staff.”

Notes

Bibliography

Tibetan Texts

Chinese Texts

Secondary Literature