A Theravada Code of Conduct for Good Buddhists: The Upasakamanussavinaya (Critical Essay‪)‬

The purpose of this article is to provide a description of the Upasakamanussavinaya, a Pali text noted with interest by several scholars but not yet described in any detail in the secondary literature. (1) On the basis of this, I shall also make some observations on the issue of upasaka versus monastic practice in Theravada literature, a topic currently under reconsideration in Buddhist studies. Theravada texts dedicated to lay practice have received relatively little attention in Buddhist studies, although that situation is changing. (2) Stephan Hillyer Levitt ascribed that lack of attention to the paucity of material composed specifically for the laity, and assessed the value of the Upasakamanussavinaya accordingly when cataloguing the copy held in the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania (1975: iii): "In the context of recent discussions, such as that of James P. McDermott, 'Nibbana as a Reward for Kamma,' in Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 93 (1973), pp. 344-47, which describe the absence of material in Buddhism on the laity, and in the context of recent discussions in Buddhist countries themselves, this text takes on importance."