The Precept of Not Adorning with Flowers and Perfumes in the Eight Precepts

Original text of Volume 16 of the Ekottara Āgama, the Gaochuang Chapter (Chapter of the High Banner): 如阿罗汉。不着香华．脂粉之饰。我今亦当如是。尽形寿不着香华。脂粉之好。

Explanation: Like an arhat, who does not adorn himself with fragrant flowers or rouge and powder, I too should be like this: for the entirety of this life, I will not wear fragrant flowers, will not be fond of rouge and powder, and will not adorn myself.

Fragrant flowers, rouge, and powder as adornments—including all items used to decorate the physical body—apart from necessary clothing, are all extra ornaments. Men have men's ornaments, women have women's ornaments; all are for embellishing and beautifying the physical body, or for displaying one's status, position, and social class. Wearing them on the body increases the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), fosters self-conceit, makes the mind impure, and is detrimental to cultivating the Path; they should all be removed, regardless of whether one upholds the precepts or not.

On the day of the eight precepts (aṣṭa-śīla), not wearing fragrant flowers and garlands also includes not wearing all kinds of splendid, luxurious clothing adorned with gold, silver, and other decorative ornaments, various high-end formal attire, as well as women's various clothes that reveal the figure and charm. Wearing such clothes fosters self-conceit, increases the view of self and the view of the body, arouses people's desires, and is detrimental to cultivation. The clothing worn by monastics is all loose and ample, does not reveal the figure, covers the body thoroughly, and its colors are all dull, muted colors rather than bright ones. Even when the Buddha was in the world, His attire was very simple and plain, not much different from what the bhikṣus wore. When no one offered robes, He would also go to the charnel forest to pick up cloth used for wrapping corpses, bring it back, dye it, patch it up, and wear it on His body.

The Buddha was, after all, the supreme venerable one of the three realms; in the world there is no one more honored than the Buddha, yet His life was so simple and low-key. By comparison, those worldly people wearing gold and silver are simply too extravagant, displaying their desires and attachments everywhere. How can they thus be liberated from the suffering of birth and death?

"How excellent, the robe of liberation, the paṭa robe for repentance and prostration; I now receive it upon my crown, and in every life to come I shall wear it." This is the verse recited when receiving the precepts and donning the robe (the plain robe, manyi). What does this verse mean? The plain robe is a single rectangular piece of cloth, not shaped like a garment; it is draped over the body and fastened at the shoulder with buttons so it does not fall off. This cloth is also called the robe for repentance and prostration, worn when receiving precepts and repenting before the Buddha, and worn when reciting sūtras and during Dharma ceremonies. Putting on this robe represents having obtained the essence of the precepts; with the essence of the precepts one can uphold the precepts, and because of upholding the precepts, one can in the future attain the fruit of liberation and enjoy the meritorious benefit of liberation. Therefore, only by receiving and upholding the precepts can one eradicate the view of self and attain liberation; without receiving and upholding the precepts, one cannot eradicate the view of self and cannot attain liberation. If one cannot eradicate the view of self, it also means one cannot see the mind and see the nature; neither the Great Vehicle nor the Small Vehicle can achieve any accomplishment. This is precisely the importance of the precepts.

This issue should be considered from the reverse direction: why do so many people like to adorn their bodies with fragrant flowers? What is the meaning of adorning the body? For what do men and women decorate and dress themselves up? Because sentient beings lack an awakened mind, they do not reflect on or question their own and others' daily behavior; they follow their own habits and tendencies, follow all their own mental states, without knowing what kind of mental states these are. All the mental states of sentient beings are, in the final analysis, the view of the body and the view of the mind, which together constitute the view of self. Because the view of self is deeply entrenched, it manifests at all times and in all places; there is no thought of concealing it, nor the ability to conceal it, nor the ability to restrain it. They do not know that this is a wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi), that it is mistaken, that it can plunge one into the pit of birth and death with no way to extricate oneself, and even when the Buddha comes to save and draw one out, it is very difficult.

Taking the body as self is called the view of the body. Sentient beings subconsciously and unconsciously, at all times and in all situations, always attend to their own physical bodies, concerned with how others see them, how others evaluate them, how to make others accept them, like them, and revere them, and thus unconsciously want to attract others' gaze and attention. People who pay great attention to their appearance all do so because of the view of the body: they like to pose and preen, their behavior is affected, they wear professional smiles, from time to time they fiddle with their hair and hands, touch up their faces, adjust their clothes—myriad small gestures—all displaying a person's view of the body. The feeling of the body cannot be neglected for even a minute; at no time can they forget the body. One can see how heavy sentient beings' view of the body is.

If you know what the view of the body is, you can observe whether others have the view of the body and how severe it is, and then you will know whether this person has eradicated the view of the body, whether they are a good teacher (kalyāṇamitra), and whether what they teach can lead you to eradicate the view of self and walk the path toward liberation. Because sentient beings are generally ignorant and unwilling to study the Buddhist sūtras, they lack correct judgment, are easily deceived, mistake the false for the true, and waste enormous amounts of time and energy on wrong paths. Not knowing what mental and physical state, what mental and physical manifestations, accompany the eradication of the view of self—whether one is the one teaching the Dharma or the one listening to it, one cannot conceal one's own view of the body and view of self, nor does one know how to conceal it; one cannot even fake it convincingly.

Those who teach the Dharma also know that sentient beings are ignorant and do not understand, so they do not deliberately disguise or conceal; thus it is the foolish delivering the foolish, and no one can climb out of the pit of foolishness. The reason swindlers flourish in the world is that the soil of the world is suitable—suitable for their survival, suitable for their breeding—and the suitable soil is precisely the ignorance of sentient beings. Thus it is sentient beings' karmic power that summons and attracts the hypocrites.

Now, returning to the main topic: the reason the Buddha established the precepts and Vinaya to restrain sentient beings' bodily, verbal, and mental actions is so that sentient beings can subdue their incorrect bodily, verbal, and mental actions, subdue their view of the body and view of self, laying the foundation for eradicating the view of self, laying the foundation for seeing the mind and seeing the nature, and also laying the foundation for meditative concentration (samādhi). Therefore, if a person is unwilling to receive and keep the precepts, does not abide by the precepts, then meditative concentration will not arise, they will not subdue their own mind or reduce the view of self, will not eradicate the view of self, and will not see the mind and see the nature.

Those who have no meditative concentration and do not keep the precepts, yet claim to have attained the fruit, seen the mind, and seen the nature—what fruit did they attain, what mind did they see, what nature did they see? So it is not surprising that some who guide people toward attaining the fruit and seeing the mind call upon their followers to comply with afflictions, to abandon the marks of the precepts, and to no longer keep the precepts with marks. This is because their own afflictions are very heavy. To treat all sentient beings as fools and deceive them is a very unwise move, for the Sahā world is, after all, the Buddha's land, and sentient beings are the Buddha's children. With the Buddha's great compassion, how could He give up caring for and delivering sentient beings, how could He fail to support sentient beings, how could He allow sentient beings to be maliciously deceived?