Rosemary & Steve Knowledgebase

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Source / Teacher
Day
Index
Question
Special Retreat Germany September 2003
Steve
3
6
Usually it takes some time to understand the necessity of rules and requirements that protect Morality and other Buddhist principles in a community, in other words selflessness. But sometimes it is also necessary to break or relax a certain rule or precept to avoid greater damage or harm, as is illustrated in the story of the two monks who came to a ford where one decides to carry an elder woman to the other side because she couldn't cross the river by herself. Question, could you please give some advice how I can decide whether it is appropriate to follow a rule or relax it? Does the fetter "attachment to rites and rituals" also mean attachment to blind obedience of rules and requirements?
Ref: 2003.09.x.03.06
Written answer