Precept of Buddhism
The Vinaya.
Two hundred twenty-seven rules for monks — the monastic constitution, recited in full twice a month.
What it asks227 rules for monks, 311 for nuns — from the four defeats down to how to eat quietly
Who it bindsThe ordained only; laypeople keep five or eight
Where it bitesThe extra rules on nuns (the eight garudhammas) are the tradition's live argument about whether a 2,500-year-old text can be amended
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held
Every Vinaya rule has a backstory: the texts record the specific incident that prompted each one, which makes the monastic code a strange and readable social history of an early community learning what would not work. The four gravest offenses (parajika) — sex, serious theft, killing a human, falsely claiming attainment — mean permanent expulsion. Everything else is confessable. The Vinaya, not doctrine, is what holds the ordained lineages apart today: schools that share a philosophy may still not ordain together.
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideas
Five vows, twice over.
Jainism
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Ihya Ulum al-Din.
Islam · scripture
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The Covenant of Christian Conduct — and the arguments about it.
The Church of the Nazarene
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The rules of ordinary life, and there are a great many of them.
The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (the Exclusive Brethren)
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No meat, no tobacco, and tithe twice.
The Branch Davidians
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The dharma of one's station.
Hinduism
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