"Ringing Staff" Rites. Audiobook w/text PLEASE SHARE THE DHARMA! Tr. Sarasvatī Team r. Cargill

The Rite for the Protocols Associated with Carrying the Ringing Staff.
PLEASE SHARE THE BUDDHA"S TEACHING WIDELY!
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.
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.
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 ʙᴄᴇ) already mentions
maskarin, a staff bearer, as a name for a renunciant. Makkhali Gosāla, the
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
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.