ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the changes introduced by Thich Nhat Hanh in his revised monastic code, both in light of previous modes of vinaya adaptation and in light of some issues that have been emphasized in secondary literature as particularly troublesome for modern-day Buddhist monastics. Regulating the conduct of individual monks and nuns, as well as the monastic order as a whole, the Buddhist monastic law codes (vinaya) represent an almost 2,500-year-old legal tradition of considerable sophistication. Hanh further states that the monks and nuns in the Plum Village Sangha must spend at least five years studying the vinaya, and that this study includes both "the Revised and the Classical Pratimoksha". According to Hanh, the essence of the precepts is "mindfulness", and clinging to their "outer form" corresponds to the fifth wrong view described by the Buddha, and cannot lead to liberation.
