Physical Exercise and Sporting Activities in Contemporary Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese Buddhist Monasteries

Abstract

According to the monastic code (Vinaya) as compiled in India and transmitted to China, Buddhist monks and nuns should pay attention to their external behavior. This includes rules on how to properly walk and move: for example, avoiding sudden gestures and exposing of the body. In an attempt to protect the good reputation of the monastic community, normative Vinaya texts encourage monastics to control their bodily movements and to strictly remain ‘decent’ in all situations. Still, bodily movement is not totally regulated. On the contrary, walking, for example is warmly recommended for health reasons, since it strengthens the body and the mind. This utilitarian aspect is not unimportant; indeed, it is even essential. However, as soon as physical activities are linked to ‘useless’ leisure, they are no longer allowed within the framework of monastic rules. Moreover, it is regarded as an even more serious transgression when monastics engage in various kinds of physical games or sports as public entertainment. This practice is strongly rejected, all the more since the community risks the loss of support from donors. Apart from this economic reasoning, however, it is also very clear that Buddhist disciplinary masters consider this behavior to be morally wrong since it ridicules monastic life and the teachings it symbolizes. In recent decades, some ‘modernist’ monks (e.g., Ven. Hsing Yun) have promoted swimming or basketball for the sake of good health or even as part of monastic training. This has given rise to much debate in Buddhist communities. For some critics, swimming seems not to be in accordance with the Vinaya rules, and though the concepts of sports or physical exercise have undergone significant changes throughout the many centuries of Buddhist disciplinary history, playing basketball is thought to stand in contrast to the dignified behavior expected from monks. Contemporary Buddhists’ viewpoints and practices concerning sporting activities are set in a totally different context, but most often have remained related to traditional monastic sources. This implies that bodily movement, sports, and the benefits that could potentially derive from them need to be carefully balanced against the monastic community’s need to maintain its own social standards and remain in harmony with lay society; this has led to numerous controversies. This chapter investigates what the framework of social control and morality surrounding sport and bodily movement has implied and continues to imply for Buddhist monastics in China, particularly nuns. How were Indian normative texts on these topics interpreted, and what aspects of them have become emphasized or de-emphasized in the modern context of Chinese Buddhism? Furthermore, how are Chinese normative guidelines of the past implemented today?