1. Now at that time Vesâlî was well provided with food, the harvest was good,
alms were easy to obtain, one could very well get a living 1 by gleaning, or
through favour.
p. 118
And when the Blessed One had retired into solitude this consideration presented
itself to his mind: 'The things which I have prescribed for the Bhikkhus in a
time of scarcity, when the harvest is bad, and alms are difficult to
obtain--keeping food indoors, cooking it indoors, cooking it of one's own
accord, taking what they can pick up, eating food brought from within, or
received before meal-time, eating things found in woods or in pools 1, those
things the Bhikkhus enjoy also now.'
And the Blessed One, in the evening, when he had left his solitude, said to the
venerable Ânanda: 'The things which (&c., as above, down to:) or in pools--do
the Bhikkhus enjoy those things now also?'
'They enjoy them, Lord.'
2. Then the Blessed One, in that connection, and on that account, after having
delivered a religious discourse, said to the Bhikkhus:
'The things which I have prescribed (&c., as in § 1, down to:) or in
pools--those I do not allow from this day forth. You are not, O Bhikkhus, to eat
food kept indoors, or cooked indoors, or cooked of your own accord; nor to take
things (to eat) which you have picked up. Whosoever shall do so, is guilty of a
dukkata offence. And you are not, O Bhikkhus--after you have once finished
eating, and have refused food still offered--to eat food brought from within, or
received before meal-time, or found in the woods or pools, even if it be food
which is not the leavings of the meal of one who has eaten on invitation.
Whosoever shall so eat, shall be dealt with according to law 2.'
Footnotes
117:1 Literally, 'keep oneself going.' Compare the use of yâpetum at
Mahâ-parinibbâna Sutta II, 32.
118:1 For these rules, see above, VI, 17-19.
118:2 See the 35th Pâkittiya Rule, and our note upon it.
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