The Rain Retreat: Early Monasticism
as a Catalyst for Holistic Well-being and Mental Health
Dr. Manjiri Bhalerao*
Shri Balmukund Lohia Centre of
Sanskrit & Indological Studies, Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune,
Maharashtra, India
manjirib24@gmail.com
Abstract: The Rain Retreat (traditionally known as Vassa
or Vassa-Vasa) represents a pivotal transition in early Buddhist history
from a nomadic, wandering lifestyle to a settled, communal existence during the
monsoon season. This period of "structured seclusion" served as a
foundational catalyst for both the institutional complexity of Buddhism and the
development of sophisticated systems for mental health and holistic well-being.
Keywords: Vassa,
Hinayana, Mahayana, Buddhism, vihara
INTRODUCTION
The Rain Retreat (known as Vassa in Pali) is one of
the oldest traditions in Buddhist monasticism, dating back over 2,500 years.
While it originated as a practical solution to the monsoon season in India, it
evolved into a sophisticated psychological and communal framework for holistic
well-being. In the time of the Buddha, monks were generally mendicant, travelling
year-round to preach. However, during the three-month monsoon season, travel
became difficult. This shift from a nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary community
for three months created the first "monastic" settings, allowing for
deep, uninterrupted practice.
Monsoons
are the main source of water for India. The cycle of monsoon is characterised
by the rainy period spanning the months of June to mid-September, and
especially heavy rains around the month of July. This period of heavy rains
coincides with the month of Ashadha according to the traditional Indian
calendar. It is called vassa-ritu (Skt. Varsha Ritu). Although the rains are known as the life giver, they
are also known to create many obstacles in the normal functioning of the daily
life of the people.
It was more so in past and in the
case of the wandering ascetics. Many samnyasi
(ascetic) communities existed in ancient India; it was probably believed that
one had to renounce his home and relatives in his search for the Ultimate
Truth. This act was technically called Parivrajya (i.e. Going forth). It was
practised in India for many centuries, even before the birth of the
Buddha. The cannons of those wandering
communities had prescribed some regulations for the rainy season. The Buddhists called it the vassa, the
Jainas called them the Pajjusana and
the Brahmanical wanderers labelled it as the Dhruvashila, i.e. to have a fixed residence during
the rainy season. (Dutt, S. 1962:53)
The wanderers of sects other than
the Buddhists could stay at any place they wished. They could even live alone
if they liked; there was no obligation on them to live in an ascetic community.
On the contrary, Buddha had permitted Bhikkhus to stay only in the
company of the fellow monks. Actually the period of the vassa began with
the full moon day of Ashadha or a month later and was continued for the three
following months, ending on the full-moon day of Kartika (Mahavagga, III.2.2)
The keeping of the vassa, i.e. residing at a certain place during the
rainy season, served two purposes. (1) The vegetation that grew on roads was
not trodden by the feet of the wandering Bhikkhus, and (2) the Bhikkhus
would be saved from the dangers and troubles, which they encountered in their
journey from one place to another (Bhagwat, 1939:137). Initially, the Bhikkhus
were not allowed to stay in the residences. They were expected to wander around
and not to stay at one place for more than a night, except during the rainy
season. They, therefore, used to take shelter in the woods, under the trees, on
hillsides, in mountain caves, in cemeteries, in open plains, etc. However, this
proved to be very inconvenient in the rainy season and, eventually, a rich
merchant from Rajagriha expressed his willingness to construct residences for
the monks. For the first time, then, Buddha allowed the Bhikkhus to use
five kinds of abodes viz. viharas, Addhayogas, storied dwellings, attics
and caves. It is believed that this merchant constructed sixty dwelling places
in one day (Chullavagga VI.1.3). Buddha asked him to donate those cells to
the present and future Sangha of the four quarters. Buddha is believed to have
said that he is a wise man who builds pleasant dwellings and lodges learned men
there (Chullavagga VI.2.3). This speech of Gautama Buddha probably inspired
many lay followers, who came forward on their own wishes and offered many viharas
for the use of the Sangha of the four quarters.
Along with the residence came many
other liberties, which the Buddha himself had not expected when he initiated
this life style of a Bhikkhu, e.g. the begging of the food. When the Bhikkhus
started staying at one place, the donors came forward with offers of daily
meals for the Sangha. Buddha himself had accepted some such. donations in his
lifetime. The earlier ideal of a wandering ascetic, whose subsistence depended
on the alms given by the laity gradually faded away.
The resting places in which the vassa
was kept were fixed by natural boundaries like streams, lakes, hills, ridges,
anthills etc. These locations were neither too near nor far removed from the
habitation, so that the Bhikkhus would easily get alms. Mahavagga
mentions that the vassa should not be kept at the place where a majority
of people were non-believers in the religion; because there the Bhikkhus
would not get enough support from the laity (Bhagwat 1939:137-138).
Two types of residences were constructed
for the vassa-vasa.
(1)
Avasa
These were located in the countryside, and were built and organised by the
monks themselves.
(2)
Aramas These
were constructed and maintained by the lay
devotees (Dutt, S. 1962:54).
Initially
these structures were strictly temporary in nature, only to last for the three
rainy months (Chullavagga, VI.11.3). However, with this short stay of the
congregations arose a sense of collective life among the resident monks.
Certain institutions, customs and practices were developed, which were of a
congregational character e.g. the recital of the patimokkha, the
ceremonies like pavarana (Invitation) and kathina (distribution
of robes). The earlier requisite of using robes made of rags was conveniently
overlooked and a ceremony called kathina was promoted. In this, the upasakas
or the lay devotees offered robes to the Bhikkhus, but in the name of
the Sangha as the Bhikkhus were not allowed to keep any private and
personal possessions (Mahavagga VIII.5.2).
The pious lay devotees started giving long-term
endowments for the subsistence of the resident monks of the monasteries. Even
the kings patronized these monks by donating the revenues of some villages. All
these developments brought about a change in the bhikkhus monastic
lifestyle. The temporary residences were turned into more or less permanent
abodes. The bhikkhus, who kept vassa at a particular residence,
made it a point to return to the same residence next year. This made the
cenobitical life of the bhikkhus more peaceful, as the like-minded and
those who had habitually lived together gradually settled down at one place.
However, the ancient ideal of the wandering ascetic was never completely given
up by the bhikkhus. The purpose of constructing monasteries was always
put forward as providing residence during the rainy season.
In practice, however, it can be observed
that they hardly remained the bhikkhus who went begging alms from door
to door and surviving on these. The daily bread and butter no more remained a
problem for the monks. Generous donations from the pious lay devotees fulfilled
all their needs. Now the task on their part was to manage, maintain and
organise all the donated money and property. In return they had to satisfy the
spiritual and religious needs of the lay-people. Due to a close contact with the
local laity and an introduction to their popular and folk religious notions,
the monastic community developed many rituals and religions institutions.
Numerous viharas were constructed
and donated for the use of the Sangha; the vihara in the Jivakamravana
at Rajagriha was one of them. Along with the structural viharas,
rock-cut caves for rain retreats were made for the sake of the monks, too. The
basic needs of the Sangha, i.e. an assembly hall, and the quarters for monks
were fulfilled by the earlier plain viharas. However, the later viharas
came to be consisted of storehouses, kitchens, dining halls, wells, bathrooms, cankramana
(wandering) places, etc. Initially no need was felt for having a place for the
object of worship. For the monks, the Buddha vacanas (i.e. the sayings of the Buddha) were the
sacred words. The yoga and meditations were the forms of religious practices of
monks. As for the laity, the religious instructions given by the monks were
sacred. The goal of developing a moral conduct was placed in front of the laity
by the Buddha. For the monks, Buddha was a religious leader, a pathfinder.
However, for the laity, he was the object of devout faith, a saviour and an
almost superhuman being. The laity might have tried to combine the popular
religious practices with their reverence for the Buddha. From this attempt,
started the worship of the stupas. The already existing cult of the stupas was
unconsciously applied by the lay Buddhist followers for the worship of Buddha.
It is evident from the literature like the Milindapanno that monks did not
initially take this practice very seriously. They believed that it was meant
only for the laity and the monks should rather practice understanding and
contemplation (Dutt. S. 1957:157).
As the time went on, munificent donations
from the lay followers started coming in for construction, decoration and the
maintenance of the stupa. Slowly and gradually, the stupas became big
establishments, which needed complete attention of an organization. Even the
royal personalities like king Ashoka joined hands with the laity in
constructing stupas all over India. The monks could not neglect the importance
of the stupa in the religious life of the majority of the followers of their
religion. At a certain point in the history of Buddhism, the monks themselves
started donating for the construction and decoration of the stupas. Along with
this, the organization and the management regarding the donations for the
creation of the stupas were controlled by the Sangha. The earlier picture of
the stupa cult, being the expression of the popular Buddhism, completely
changed afterwards. It became a monastically dominated cult.
A statistical analysis of the early
donative inscriptions from Bharhut and Sanchi indicates that a considerable
portion of the donors comprised monks and nuns. At Bharhut 40% donors were
monks and nuns. At Sanchi, out of the 437 inscriptions, 163 were monastic
donors. Another interesting fact is that almost all the early stupas, both
structural and rock-cut, were accompanied by huge monastic residential
complexes. Thus, we can see that at a certain point in the history of Buddhist
monastic architecture the monastic community really had a strong hold over the
creation and maintenance of the religious structures.
This brings about another shift from the
rules of the Vinaya, i.e. the right over the donations received. It is clearly
mentioned is the Chullavagga that the right of property was completely vested
in the hands of the Sangha. Not a single individual was allowed to possess any
private property, not even any lodging and furniture (Chullavagga XI.I.14). Now
the problem arises, that from which funds did the monks and nuns made such
donations if they were not supposed to possess any private property. This thing
has contributed a lot in increasing the complexities of the religion. One of
them is the beginning of image worship. In the initial stages of the religious
development, the image of the Buddha was worshipped in symbolic forms and not in
his anthromorphic form. However, around first century A.D, images of Buddha
start appearing in the North India and become very popular within no time. A
very interesting feature of this image cult is the donative inscriptions, which
the sculptures carry with them. Out of the 18 kharoshthi inscriptions edited by
Konow, which record the setting up of an image and in which the name of the
donor is preserved, 13 were of monks. Lόders has also noted that from Mathura
such inscriptions account for almost exactly the same percentage, i.e. 18 out
of 28 inscriptions were of monks and nuns. Even in the case of the Western
Indian cave temples, studied by Burgess, the inscriptions connected with images
are almost always associated with monks. On the basis of such statistical data,
scholars like Gregory Schopen have concluded that the image cult was a
monastically initiated cult (Schopen, G. 1985:27). The need of the image of the
Buddha was probably felt more by the monastic community, rather than the laity.
Or the monks had developed this cult to compete with the image worship in other
religious systems. This further led to the development of the Mahayana ideals,
and images.
Be that as it may, in the 3rd
century B.C the structure of the stupa was incorporated
in the monastic
residential complexes, in case of the structural viharas. But in the
case of the rock-out caves, we see that the stupa was placed in a big hall
called as the chaityagriha. This made two separate structures for the
worship and residence. In c. 1st century A.D, the stupa was
placed in the vihara cave, parallel to the chaityagriha, as is
evident at Nasik, caves X, III (Nagaraju, S. 1981:268). It became a regular
feature of the late Hinayana period caves in Western India (Dhavalikar, M.
1984:30-37). This indicates that the monks probably wanted a separate stupa
only for themselves rather than sharing it with the laity. It is quite possible
that they had developed certain rituals, which they wanted to perform secretly
in their own chambers.
As noted earlier, the monks were not
supposed to keep any private personal possessions for them. Whatever they
received belonged to the Sangha. However, this obligation was overruled for
many times in the history of the religions. One such instance could be seen in
the cave no. VIII at Kuda. At one end of the bench in this cave is a hollow (55
cm square, 40 cm deep) with a ledge provided at its mouth for a flat lid
(Nagaraju, S. 1981: 243). Similar instance is also noted in one of the caves in
the Jakhinwadi group of the Buddhist caves at Karad. Such hollows were made
probably to hide certain valuable possessions of the monks living there.
It is important to note that these
peculiarities in the nature of the possession and the property of the monks
really began when they started accepting heavy donations from the laity. This
in turn was the result of the coenobitic lifestyle of the earlier wandering
ascetics. The participation of the laity in the construction or the vassa-residences
had an important role to play in the creation of the forthcoming novel
practices of the Buddhists. Although the ideal of vassa-vasa was
not categorically practised in the later years, the theoretical ideal was
always glorified by the monks. It is also possible that a part of the monastic
community strictly observed this ideal, as we find donations made to the
mendicant, who kept vassa, in a particular cave at Nasik, (Senart,
1905-06:90) in c. 2nd 3rd century AD. Some of
these inscriptions were written in the months other than the rainy season,
indicating that some monks were staying there for the whole year (Senart
1859:71,73 and 1905-06:59, 60, 67, 73, 90, 94).
In this period, i.e. in the 2nd/3rd
cent AD, akshayanivis, the perpetual grants, were made to the Sangha
(Senart 1905-06:88, 89). These became a steady source of income. Different
hierarchical positions were created for monks in the Sangha according to their
seniority and capability to handle various financial and organizational
matters. We find separate residential single or double-celled quarters made in
this period at the cave sites like Nasik, Junnar, etc. Along with the other
religio-economical reasons, this hierarchy among the Sangha could be one of the
reasons for such single celled units, as suggested by Dr. Dhavalikar (1984:79).
The Rain Retreat was not merely a physical
necessity to avoid the rains; it was a psychological laboratory. It transformed
early monasticism into a structured system that prioritized mental equilibrium,
establishing a blueprint for holistic health that remains relevant in modern
mindfulness-based interventions. The Rain Retreat (Vassa) is not merely a historical
religious tradition; it is a profound archetypal framework for what modern
psychology calls intensive mental hygiene. By shifting from an active, nomadic
"doing" mode to a sedentary, reflective "being" mode, the
retreat acts as a catalyst for holistic well-being. Just as the monsoon rain replenishes
the earth, the Vassa replenishes the spirit, ensuring that the practitioner
does not dry out from the heat of worldly demands, The Rain Retreat serves as
an intensive period of "mental hygiene." By removing external
distractions and the "noise" of constant travel, monastics engage in
practices that modern psychology now recognizes as highly therapeutic. This
state of the religion was perhaps achieved after assimilating different
innovative ideas in the simple plain ascetic sectarian movement. This
incorporation of the novel concepts began only after the adoption of a
semi-settled lifestyle of the mendicant community in the rainy season. This
ultimately resulted in the emergence of an advanced complete religion;
witnessing three distinct phases in its development, i.e. Hinayana, Mahayana
and Vajrayana.
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