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not possible, then, he must confess to a lay follower who may have acquaintance with the life of a monk and who may be conversant with the rules for atonement. If this is not possible, then, he should confess to a monk who is fixed in equanimity. And when none of these is possible, then, the monk goes to a solitary forest, turns to the east or to the north, bows to the Arihantas or the Siddhas, and keeping them as his witness, he announces his lapses, decries self and courts atonements as per his own idea(41).
Unlike the Jaina method of atonement which is indivi dual and private, in the Buddhist order atonement is given in public in the presence of other monks. The specific form of Buddhist atonement is given below:
On the fourteenth day of the dark half of the month and on the new-moon day, all the monks living at a place must assemble in the uposatha hall. As the Buddha named the whole order as his successor, the Buddhist order has no one who may be called an ācārya. So a senior monk presides over the meeting. Then the pātimokkha is read item by item. At the end of each item, the presiding monk asks,
"In the matter just read, are all the monks pure (i.e., free from lapse)"?
If, on response to that, a monk stands up and desires to discuss his lapse relating to that item, then, the assembly considers his statement and purifies him. Then it is asked for the second time,
"In this matter, are all the monks pure"?
And the same is repeated for the third time. In this manner, by repeating the same question thrice, it is publically ascertained that all are pure. In this manner, all the items are read one after another to give the monks a chance to confess and to ascertain that all the monks are pure). The nuns of the order also read bhikkhuni pātimokkha in the same manner(42).
On the question of Conduct (Ācāra)
Thus the code of conduct of the two orders becomes clear from the prescriptions of the Nisitha and the Vinaya
