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"Vows are not everywhere the same promise." Monastic Vows is formally linked to three religions in this atlas, Buddhism, Christianity and Jainism, and its own description gives each one a structurally different transfer.

A Rule That Can Be Given Back

"Buddhist higher ordination is not a vow but an acceptance of a training rule, 227 clauses for a Theravada monk and 311 for a nun, and it may be given back: in Thailand and Burma ordaining for a season and returning to lay life is normal and carries no stigma."

A House and a Rule, Told Differently by Denomination

"Benedict asks for stability, obedience and conversatio morum, a phrase usually rendered as fidelity to monastic life and never satisfactorily translated; the familiar triad of poverty, chastity and obedience belongs to the later orders." Christianity's own link is itself split across twenty-two denomination-level positions: Roman Catholicism professes "poverty, chastity and obedience... in the religious institutes of this church, under a rule approved by the Holy See," while the Oriental and Eastern Orthodox families trace "the oldest continuous monastic observance in Christianity" back to the Egyptian desert, professed "in degrees, the rassophore, the stavrophore and the great schema, rather than as a single set of three vows."

Absolute Vows and a Renunciant Who Plucks Out Their Own Hair

"Jain initiation takes the five great vows in their absolute form, without the exemptions allowed to laypeople, and the renunciant plucks out their hair by hand rather than shaving." "What the vow does in every case is transfer a person from one legal category to another within their own tradition, with different food, dress, property and obligations on the far side."

Where To Read More

• Monastic VowsLifecycle RitualsOne legal transfer, three religions counted, each structuring it differently
• BuddhismDharmic (Nontheistic)A training rule, not a vow, reversible, seasonal ordination normal in Thailand and Burma
• ChristianityAbrahamic (Monotheistic)Split across twenty two denomination level positions, from the Benedictine triad to the Egyptian desert tradition
• Roman CatholicismChristianityPoverty, chastity and obedience professed under a rule approved by the Holy See
• Coptic OrthodoxyChristianityMonastic profession descending directly from the Egyptian desert, the oldest continuous observance in Christianity
• JainismDharmicThe five great vows in absolute form, hair plucked out by hand rather than shaved