Key Terms/Prātimokṣasaṃvara
Basic Meaning
In the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya that was preserved in Tibet, this refers to a set of seven types of vows of individual liberation that constitute formal ordination according to the precepts of the Vinaya, or disciplinary code, of the fundamental vehicle. This set of seven is divided by gender and includes the vows for fully ordained monastics, novice monastics, and lay people, as well as specific vows for novice nuns actively training for full ordination. Sometimes included as an eighth type of vow are the single-day lay vows associated with the practice of sojong (gso sbyong), "mending and purification," which is observed twice a month.
Has the sense of
Moral-ethical disciplinary rules that act as a restraint on one's behavior due to their requirements to abide by a specific code of conduct.
Until very recently the highest level ordination available to nuns in the Tibetan was that of a śikṣamāṇā (dge slob ma) as the lineage of the vow for fully ordained nuns bhikṣuṇī (dge slong ma) in the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya was never established in Tibet and therefore had fallen out of use and was lost. It has since been revived
See page 667: In Sanskrit, “restraint proffered by the disciplinary code” (prātimokṣa); one of the three types of restraint (saṃvara) mentioned in the Vaibhāṣika school of Sarvāstivāda abhidharma, which are associated with “unmanifest material force” or “hidden imprints” (avijñaptirūpa)... The restraint inherent in the disciplinary code creates a special kind of “force field” that automatically protects and dissuades monks and nuns from unwholesome activity, even when they are not consciously aware that they are following the precepts or when they are asleep. This specific type of restraint is what makes a person a monk or a nun, since just wearing robes and following an ascetic way of life would not in themselves be enough to instill in him or her the protective power offered by the prātimokṣa.
The seven sets of precepts one of which should be kept by a Hinayana practitioner
There are seven types of pratimoksha vows, the vows of:
- a fully ordained monk (Skt. bhikṣu; Tib. དགེ་སློང་, gelong)
- a fully ordained nun (Skt. bhikṣuṇī; Tib. དགེ་སློང་མ་, gelongma)
- a novice monk (Skt. śrāmanera; Tib. དགེ་ཚུལ་, getsul)
- a novice nun (Skt. śrāmanerikā; Tib. དགེ་ཚུལ་མ་, getsulma)
- a female novice in training for full ordination (Skt. śikṣamāṇā; Tib. དགེ་སློབ་མ་, gé lobma)
- a male lay practitioner (Skt. upāsaka; Tib. དགེ་བསྙེན་, genyen)
- a female lay practitioner (Skt. upāsikā; Tib. དགེ་བསྙེན་མ་, genyenma)
There are sometimes said to be eight types of pratimoksha vows if you add the one day lay vows. More on RigpaWiki
