This book suggests that previous critiques of the rules of Buddhist monks (Vinaya) may now be reconsidered to deal with some of the assumptions concerning the legal nature of these rules and to provide a focus on how Vinaya texts may have actually operated in practice. Malcolm Voyce utilizes the work of Foucault and his notions of 'power' and 'subjectivity' in three ways. First, to examine the Buddha's role as a law maker to show how Buddhist texts were a form of law making that had a diffused and lateral conception of authority. While law makers in some religious groups may be seen as...