Abstract
Enduring social groups must be strong along two dimensions: A “vertical” dimension that motivates the individual and a “horizontal” dimension that coordinates the group. Even the most enlightened individual, who has become thoroughly compassion-minded, needs the horizontal dimension to translate intentions into action. I illustrate this general point with an analysis of Engaged Buddhism, a branch of Buddhism founded by the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Thay (for teacher), as he is called by his admirers, has written many books on the cultivation of the inner life and one book on the rules and regulations that govern Plum Village, the monastery that he founded in France, and other 21st century monasteries. This book shows that the monks and nuns of a monastery, who might seem to need rules and regulations the least, actually need them the most. Furthermore, the monastic rules nicely illustrate eight core design principles that are needed to govern all cooperative groups. This example is therefore relevant to all groups that seek to be strong along both dimensions.
Introduction
Imagine someone who has reached an advanced stage of spiritual development. Not only is she at peace with herself, but she is highly motivated to become a bodhisattva—a person who devotes her spiritual gifts to alleviate the suffering of others.
Now imagine an entire community of such people. What could such an enlightened group do together? The answer to this question is “very little” without a set of rules and regulations that govern their interactions. Good intentions by themselves, no matter how enlightened, are not enough.
The terms “vertical” and “horizontal” are sometimes used to refer to an inner dimension of religion and spirituality, which highly motivates the individual, and an outer dimension, which governs social interactions.1,2 However, the distinction goes far beyond religious and spiritually oriented groups. It can be argued that all groups must be strong along both dimensions to function as cooperative units.
The vertical dimension is highly diverse because human behavior can be motivated in so many different ways, such as a religion, a political ideology, an environmental ethic, or consumerism. The horizontal dimension is more uniform because a core set of design principles is needed to orchestrate collective action in all its forms. The implementation of the design principles can be diverse, but the functional principles themselves are very general.
The core design principles (CDPs) are listed and described in Table 1,3 based on the work of the political scientist Elinor Ostrom, who received the Nobel prize in economics in 2009.4
Ostrom derived the principles for groups that draw upon common-pool resources such as forests, pastures, fisheries, and the ground water. She showed that groups implementing the CDPs were able to sustainably manage their resource, avoiding the so-called “tragedy of the commons”. My collaboration with Ostrom and her postdoctoral associate Michael Cox showed that cooperation itself can be regarded as a common-pool resource, vulnerable to exploitation and failures of coordination and therefore in need of the same CDPs.5
In this essay, I use the religious and spiritual tradition of Engaged Buddhism to illustrate the general point that all groups need both a vertical and horizontal dimension to function well as collective units. Engaged Buddhism is a branch of Buddhism founded by the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022), who achieved worldwide prominence during the Vietnam War and wrote prolifically for a western audience. He also founded Plum Village, a monastery in France that is part of a worldwide network of monasteries and lay Sanghas.
Most of the books written by Thay (for teacher), as he is called by his admirers, are about cultivating the inner life, but one titled Freedom Wherever We Go describes the monastic code of Plum Village and other 21st century monasteries as the current generation of a tradition dating back to the Buddha himself. This book shows unequivocally that no amount of spiritual training along the vertical dimension substitutes for the horizontal dimension. The monks and nuns of a Buddhist monastery don’t require fewer rules and regulations than less spiritually advanced communities. They require more of them. Furthermore, the rules and regulations implement the very same core design principles needed by all groups to function as cooperative units.6
The History of the Horizontal Dimension in Buddhism
The rules governing monastic life are contained in a basic book of training called the Pratimoksha, which is part of a “vast and rich body of literature (p vii)” called the Vinaya that monks and nuns must study for five years to become fully ordained.7 The Vinaya is so important that Thay calls it “the foundation for the survival of the Sangha (p vii-viii)”. It dates back to the ministry of the Buddha himself, who stressed its practical nature. As Thay puts it, “Monastics study the Vinaya not as professors or specialists, but as practitioners (p vii)”.
Due to their practical nature, the precepts8 listed in the Pratimoksha must be periodically updated. Here is how Thay puts it:
Buddhism should remain a living tradition. Like a tree, the dead branches need to be pruned in order for new shoots to grow. The new shoots are the teachings and practices that respond to the needs of our present time and culture (p ix).
As examples, classical versions of the Vinaya advise monastics to travel only by foot. This made sense when traveling in a vehicle was unusual and generally a mark of high status and wealth, but it is unworkable in modern times. Modern precepts must regulate the use of cars, computers, television, mobile telephones, email, and the Internet, which didn’t exist in earlier times.
Deciding which precepts to remove and which to add is not done lightly or by decree. Here is how Thay describes the most recent revision:
The Dharma Teacher Council of Plum Village has consulted extensively with Vinaya teachers and other monks and nuns in Vietnam and elsewhere over the past five years. In addition, we have drawn upon our experience of monastic life in the West over the past two decades (p ix).
This inclusive decision-making process, both within and between monasteries, is in keeping with the third core design principle.
Thay stresses the need for the right number of rules, “without being too austere or too relaxed (p 14)”. That said, the right number of precepts is large: 250 for monks and 348 for nuns. Thay explains the larger number for nuns this way:
In the Buddha’s time admitting women to the ordained community was a revolution. In order to allow women to become nuns, they were asked to follow certain guidelines to maintain the customary relations between men and women of that time, such as showing respect to all monks regardless of ordination age, not criticizing monks, and requesting teachings and guidance from monks. In addition, the nuns received all of the precepts for monks (except for a few that are not relevant to women) as well as additional precepts created for the nuns. For this reason, in the Classical Pratimoksha, there were more precepts for nuns than for monks.
The Revised Pratimoksha for Bihikshunis has been created with the guidance and support of many senior nuns in Vietnam and it was their request to maintain the traditional number of precepts for nuns, so as to respond adequately to the needs of the nun’s community. It will be up to the current and future generations of bhikshus and bhikshunis to continue to make the monks’ and nuns’ precepts a true reflection of their needs and aspirations (p 19).
Once again, if we take this passage at face value, it reflects a high degree of consultation and lack of coercion in the decision-making process (CDP3).
Not only are the precepts learned, but they are recited twice a month and the monks and nuns are required to confirm that they have been kept.9 Recall that monitoring agreed-upon behaviors is the fourth core design principle in Table 1. There is also an elaborate system for responding to violations of the precepts (CDP5), which will be described in more detail below.
First, however, it is important to understand the attitude to the precepts that the monks and nuns are expected to cultivate. The precepts are not to be regarded as restrictions on behavior, but as forms of freedom and liberation. A precept against alcohol provides freedom from becoming drunk. A precept against stealing provides freedom from going to prison. Practicing the precepts leads to a form of mindfulness that in turn leads to concentration and insight. This correct stance is contrasted by Thay with the mere performance of rites and rituals.
There are spiritual traditions based on forbidding certain things and performing certain rites and rituals. The followers of these traditions believe that, thanks to these rites and rituals and these prohibitive rules, they will become enlightened. But in fact, often they become slaves to these rites and regulations and never attain freedom…When studying the precepts and putting them into practice, we need to be careful not to fall into the fifth kind of wrong view,10 by being caught in the outer form of practicing the precepts (p 6).
Here is a specific example of what Thay regards as the right view.
As a young novice nun, if our elder sister tells us that according to the precepts we have to stop listening to romantic music, we may suffer because we may be caught in this kind of music. When the young novice listens to this kind of music, it may make her feel joyful and when she is forced to stop, she suffers. If she feels this way, she is caught in the wrong view of rules and regulations. On the other hand, if she understands that listening to romantic music will water the seeds of romantic love in her and she doesn’t want these seeds to be watered, she can easily give it up without being angry. She is aware that listening to sentimental music has an unwholesome influence on her practice as a monastic and therefore she is very happy to be able to let go of it. That is mindfulness. That is practicing the substance of the precept, and not being caught in the outward form of regulations (p 7-8).
The Substance of the Precepts
All monks and nuns are expected to attend the twice monthly recitation of the precepts, which begins with the following introduction (p 32-33).11
Venerable Bhikshus, I am about to recite the Buikshu Pratimoksha. Please listen attentively and examine yourself with care. If you know that you have broken one of the precepts, you should admit your offense. If you have not broken a precept, you should remain silent. If you are silent it means that your precepts’ body is clear. If anyone asks you at a later time, you should reply as you have replied today. During this recitation if you have broken a precept and, having been asked three times, you do not say so, you commit the offense of deliberately telling a lie. According to the teaching of the Buddha, deliberately lying is an obstacle to the realization of the path of liberation. If you are aware that you have broken a precept and you wish your precepts’ body to be clear again, you need to admit your offense, express regret, and begin anew, and after having done so you will be at peace.
Venerable Bhikshus, I have finished reading the introduction to the Pratimoksha.
Now I am asking you: In our community of bhikshus, is everyone’s precepts’ body clear?
[The question is asked three times]
The Venerable Mhikshus have remained silent. Therefore we know that in the Sangha everyone’s precepts’ body is clear. Let us be aware of this, recognize it, and give it our approval. [Bell]
Despite having affirmed conformance to all of the precepts, each one is still listed in turn. They are grouped into four categories that differ in the magnitude of the offense and the severity of the response to transgression.
Four Degradation Offenses cover 1) sexual intercourse; 2) theft significant enough to be taken to court; 3) murder by deed, word, or intention; and 4) claiming to have attained realizations on the spiritual path that have not, in fact been realized. Violations of these precepts result in immediate exclusion from the community.
Twenty-seven Sangha Restoration Offenses cover the following topics:
• Lesser forms of sexual behavior, such as touching the body of a woman or man, using words to sexually arouse another, or acting as a go-between (1-5).
• Expressions of anger and jealousy such as false accusations to destroy a reputation, the magnification of small mistakes, and using a position of power to threaten other members of the Sangha (6-8).
• Inappropriate relations beyond the Sangha, such as becoming a member of a political party, acting as a spy, or receiving payment from a government, political party, or political organization 9-11).
• Acting in an unhelpful manner within the Sangha. Examples include failing to teach the Dharma to other monks or restricting their legitimate activities, endorsing a method or practice without sufficient expertise, failure to express gratitude (12-14).
• Acting in a self-serving manner at the expense of the Sanga, such as building a hermitage or a temple without permission, earning money, inappropriately using communal resources, and living in a careless and disorderly manner. Even spending too much time and energy in work, to the exclusion of one’s spiritual practice, is a Restoration offense (15-22.
• The formation of factions within the Sangha resulting in splinter groups and the danger of the Sangha splitting (23-25).
• Giving inappropriate advice and instruction to others and refusing to listen to appropriate advice and instruction from others (26-27).
The first nineteen precepts are broken as soon as they have been committed. The last eight are broken when the bhikshu has been warned three times to no effect. Those who violate a precept must practice a “six days of Beginning Anew” process followed by a “Ceremony of Purifying the Offense”. Waiting for a period of time before confessing a transgression results in exclusion from community activities (“Dwelling Apart from the Sangha”) for as long as the offense was hidden. This structure creates a powerful incentive not only to confess transgressions, but to do so immediately (CDP5).
Thirty-two Release and Expression of Regret Offenses cover the following topics:
• The possession and use of tobacco or any kind of illegal drug (1).
• Possession and use of “worldly” and “toxic cultural items” such as novels, horror stories, horoscopes, videotapes, music, electronic games. Also, the possession of equipment such as television, video player, etc. needed to show such material. This includes having an unauthorized email account, owning a car, and owning ostentatious material goods (2-6).
• More rules concerning money, such as keeping a personal bank account, making oneself sole manager of a facet of the monastery without appropriate oversight, using the monastery budget to help relatives and friends, lending money with interest, investing in real estate, and playing the lottery (7-11).
• More rules that restrict the amount and opulence of physical possessions, such as jewelry, antiques, books (even books connected to Buddhist studies, which should be entrusted to the Sangha library for all to use), clothing, slippers and shoes. Everything that even hints at fashion and wealth is forbidden. Even the hoarding of toiletries such as shampoo, soap, and toothpaste is specifically listed (12-30).
• Behaviors that cause conflict and waste within the Sangha, even if not for personal gain (31-32).
Transgressors of these precepts must appear before the Sangha or two or three representatives of the Sangha to give up the materials they have been keeping and express regret to begin anew.
Expression of Regret Offenses and Fine Manners Offenses: Like sanding a piece of furniture with progressively finer grades of sandpaper, these two categories of offenses, covering 132 and 70 precepts respectively, regulate the conduct of the monks and nuns to an astonishing (to an outsider) level of detail.
One category of offense not already listed is nonsexual affiliative relationships such as pairwise friendships, which can potentially disrupt the solidarity of the whole community. It is for this reason that monks and nuns are expected to change their roommates after eight months except with permission. Another category prohibits bringing up past offenses of another person. Once a person has gone through the restoration process, their offense is supposed to be truly forgiven and forgotten.
Those who violate an Expression of Regret Offense must express their regret and begin anew before three or two others. Those who violate a Fine Manners Offenses should be aware that their practice is still weak, giving rise to a feeling of remorse and promise to their mentor to practice more solidly.
Seven Ways of Putting an End to Disputes: After listing all of the precepts and the restoration procedure for each category. Seven time-tested methods of resolving disputes are recited, nicely illustrating the sixth core design principle listed in Table 1. These are worth quoting in full.
1) If a meeting of the Sangha is needed with the presence of those who are involved in the dispute so that they can talk about the injustice and suffering they have experienced, and during this meeting the Sangha can practice deep and compassionate listening in order to relieve the suffering of both sides, then let the Sangha call such a meeting to resolve the dispute.
2) If a meeting is needed to encourage those involved in the dispute to recall and tell what they have seen, heard, and thought about the dispute in the spirit of deep listening and loving speech, then let such a meeting be called to resolve the dispute.
3) If a meeting is needed to affirm that a person involved in the dispute was going through a mental crisis or illness at the time of the dispute and did not know that he was causing difficulties and making others suffer, and now that the crisis is over he still cannot remember well what happened, then let such a meeting be called to resolve the dispute.
4) If a meeting is needed to give those who are involved in the dispute an opportunity to recognize and acknowledge their own unskillfulness and lack of mindfulness, wherein one person first expresses his unskillfulness, lack of mindfulness, and regrets using loving speech, and then the other person(s) will be encouraged to do the same, helping to de-escalate the conflict, then et such a meeting be called to resolve the dispute.
5) If a meeting is needed to appoint a committee to investigate and study the causes and nature of the dispute, and after investigating this committee should present a report to the Sangha so that they can resolve the dispute, then let such a meeting be called to resolve the dispute.
6) If a meeting is needed to resolve the dispute by means of a majority vote, since the dispute has gone on so long unresolved, and after the decision by majority is made no one can bring the matter up again, then let such a meeting be called to resolve the dispute.
7) If a meeting in the presence of the most respected elders of the community is needed to resolve a dispute and in this meeting the elders will declare a general amnesty, encouraging everyone to use their compassion to put an end to resentment, like laying straw on the mud, then let such a meeting be called to resolve the dispute.
The Pratimoksha ends with a recitation of Four Objects of Refuge, Four Ways of Meeting with Certain Situations, and Inspiring Verses by the Seven Buddhas. I encourage readers of this essay to read Freedom Wherever we Go in its entirety to appreciate its full richness.
General Implications
Learning about the horizontal dimension of Engaged Buddhism is fascinating and important in its own right, but my main purpose for this essay is to make two major points that apply to all groups and cultural traditions.
1) All groups need a vertical and horizontal dimension to function effectively. Modern life is saturated with appeals to behave prosocially toward others and address collective problems such as inequality, global warming, and the loss of biodiversity. Sometimes the appeals are framed in spiritual terms, such as the Buddhist injunction to be mindful and reduce suffering. Sometimes they are expressed in secular terms, such as mindfulness based therapeutic methods and progressive political and environmental movements. These appeals often come with an unstated assumption that once people become prosocially minded, they will proceed to act accordingly. Most of the effort goes into accomplishing the inner transformation and the outer transformation is expected to take care of itself.
Once this unstated assumption is made explicit, its weakness becomes apparent. Acting on good intentions is no easy matter. It’s not obvious what to do as an individual, how to coordinate with other like-minded individuals, or how to contend with individuals who are likely to free-ride or exploit the good intentions of others. Structure is needed for prosocial intentions to lead to prosocial actions. The vertical dimension must be accompanied by the horizontal dimension.
Engaged Buddhism provides a striking illustration of this fact. If prosocial intentions easily led to prosocial actions, then the most spiritually advanced communities, such as a monastery, should require fewer rules and regulations than other communities. As it turns out, they require more of them.
Comparing a human community to a single organism can be used to make the same point. This comparison has been made since antiquity (e.g., Aristotle’s Politics and Hobbes’s Leviathan) and Thay himself described Plum Village as not an organization but an organism. Biological organisms have structure—an anatomy, physiology, nervous system, immune system, and so on. A human community must have comparable structure for the comparison with a single organism to be valid.
Most of the structure of a biological organism takes place beneath its conscious awareness. Thankfully, we don’t need to be conscious of our visual processing, the regulation of CO2 in our blood, our skin tanning, or the amount of our energy budget that we allocate to our immune systems—even though each of these is highly sophisticated and involves feedback loops between the organism and its environments.
Similarly, while the hallmark of Buddhism is to become more mindful about things that we normally don’t pay attention to, the Pratimoksha allocates a great deal to habits learned by repetition and reinforced by rewards and punishments in a way that behavioral scientists can easily understand. Even these are mindfully scrutinized for their utility for the community, as Thay was careful to stress, but as practiced they are followed as routines that thankfully do not require actively reflecting upon them.
While Engaged Buddhism is a striking illustration of the need for both dimensions, the general message applies to all groups. Of course, the specific rules and regulations that govern an Engaged Buddhist monastery are not appropriate for most other groups, but some appropriate set of rules and regulations is required.
2) The horizontal dimension must reflect the core design principles that are required for all forms of coordinated action. As a modern branch of a religious and spiritual tradition that stretches back over 2500 years, it might seem that horizontal dimension of Engaged Buddhism would be different from other religious and spiritual traditions, not to speak of secular cultural traditions. To the contrary, the rules and regulations of the Pratimoksha conform strikingly to eight core design principles that the political scientist Elinor Ostrom derived for groups attempting to manage common-pool resources.
This convergence can be explained by the fact that all cooperative endeavors require the same core design principles to define the group (CDP1), regulate social interactions within the group (CDP2-6), and coordinate interactions with other groups (CDP 7-8). Again, a comparison with biological evolution is apt. Organs for seeing (eyes) have evolved independently in over 100 animal taxa, including vertebrates and cephalopods. The structures that evolve in each lineage are different, reflecting their separate historical origins. But they are also similar, reflecting a common set of functional demands for vision. All examples of convergent evolution share the same combination of historical differences and functional similarities.
This leads to the bold prediction that all cooperative human endeavors require the same core design principles, no matter what their specific purpose or historical origins. In my book This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution (Ch 6) I review examples for schools, neighborhoods, religious groups, and business groups. More recently, I have recorded podcasts with experts on two prosocial business movements, Conscious Capitalism12 and the B-Corp movement.13 Both have strikingly converged upon the core design principles, just as has Engaged Buddhism.
While all cooperative groups need the same core design principles, their implementation can be highly contextual. This is true even for groups attempting to manage common-pool resources, which was Elinor Ostrom’s original focus. Every group had to experiment with its own arrangements, just as Thay encouraged experimentation for the precepts of the Pratimoksha.
Consciously Evolving the Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions for Your Groups
A monastery is an extreme example of a community that provides an identity and coordinates the activities of its members in all respects. Most of us participate in many different groups that are only loosely coordinated with each other—our families, neighborhoods, schools, businesses, workplaces, recreational groups, and volunteer activities. At a larger scale, we take part in a nested hierarchy of political units—our towns, cities, counties, states, nations, and international agreements. Each of these groups applies to only a limited context in our lives. Amazingly, we have the ability to recognize the context and behave appropriately in each group. This is how it has always been, all the way back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. In some respects, our ability to function in multiple groups is even more impressive than becoming a member of a single all-encompassing group.
Each grouping requires a vertical and horizontal dimension to provide psychological uplift and coordinate action. In the best functioning business corporations described in the aforementioned podcasts, the sense of meaning and the implementation of the core design principles are as strong as for the Plum Village monastery. All of our groups deserve to be so strong.
Exactly how the two dimensions are constructed for any given group is up to its members. As Thay advised for the Pratimoksha, the precepts must strike a balance between being too austere and too relaxed. A continuous process of experimentation is required with the welfare of the group in mind, both internally and as a prosocial actor in a larger cultural ecosystem. This is part of the wisdom of Engaged Buddhism, which can also be understood scientifically as a process of conscious multilevel cultural evolution.14
Notes:
- See: https://disciplerofself.com/discipleship-training/biblical-expressions-of-the-vertical-and-horizontal-dimensions-of-the-christian-faith/
- Thich Nhat Hanh uses this terminology in his book Interbeing.
- The nonprofit organization ProSocial.World uses the core design principles and other tools to help “consciously evolve a world that works for all.”
- See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom
- For more, see Wilson, Ostrom and Cox 2003, Atkins, Wilson, and Hayes 2019, and Wilson et al. 2023.
- This essay complements an earlier print conversation with Br. Phap Linh, a senior monk at Plum Village, titled Spirituality, Science, and Action.
- All page numbers refer to Freedom Wherever We Go.
- A precept is defined as defined as “a general rule intended to regulate behavior and thought.”
- According to Thay (p 23), the custom of meeting twice a week to receipt the precepts was borrowed from Hindu tradition.
- The five wrong views are: 1) Thinking that you are only your body; 2) Being caught in an extreme or dualistic view; 3) Being caught in a misperception; 4) Being stuck in a particular point of view or doctrine; 5) Being caught in the outer form of rites and rituals (p 5).
- The monks and nuns meet separately. The format is the same for both but cover a larger number of precepts for the nuns. Both recitations are described in Freedom With Every Step. This article is based on the precepts for monks.
- Viewing Conscious Capitalism Through the Lens of a New Paradigm,This View of Life Magazine
- The B-Corp Movement, Viewed Through the Lens of a New Paradigm, This View of Life Magazine
- For more on the comparison between EngagedBuddhism and evolutionary science, see my conversation with Br. Phap Linh titled Spirituality, Science, and Action.
