四分比丘戒本疏 2.30

2.30

Twenty-sixth: the precept on keeping medicine beyond seven days. The text has five clauses: First, the person capable of offending. Second, an illness as the condition for keeping medicine. Third, the remaining medicine: "ghee, oil, honey, and rock sugar" sets forth the substances of the five types of medicine. According to the Vinaya, bear fat and the like, when filtered clear like oil, are included under oil. Fourth, "one may consume it within the limit of seven days" refers to adding verbal reception to permit the time limit for consumption. Fifth, from "if it exceeds" onward, the assignment of the offence. When the mark of dawn appears on the eighth day, one immediately commits the offence, without waiting until consumption; at the time of consumption, one further commits the offences of consuming impure medicine, [holding] leftovers, [improper] contact, and so forth. Since the text is not explicit, it says "consumes". Regarding the phrase "remaining medicine": just as in the discussion of extra robes in contrast to the three robes, here this "remaining medicine" refers to that which is left over from one dose and planned for several more doses; it is called "remaining". If verbal reception is added, there is no fault in it being leftover up to seven days; once seven days have passed, the leftover becomes an offence. Taking this occasion, we comprehensively analyze the meanings of the four medicines—timed, untimed, seven-day, and lifetime—distinguishing them through two sections: first, explaining the names and determining their essential natures; second, the method of formal reception and retention. First, to explain the names and determine the essential natures: What is called "timed medicine" is restricted to before noon; it is called "timed" because it cures primary illnesses, supports the life faculty, relieves hunger, and nourishes the physical recompense. The scriptural intent regarding "timed and untimed" is based on this meaning. What is called "untimed [medicine]", such as grape juice and the like, cures thirst, dispels cold, and simultaneously treats both primary and secondary [ailments]; it is called "untimed" because it may be drunk between the afternoon and the return of dawn. What is called "seven-day [medicine]" applies when the force of illnesses such as wind and phlegm is somewhat stronger, requiring seven days of continuous treatment for the medicine's efficacy to take effect; hence it is called "seven-day". When chronic congestion, abdominal masses, or kidney ailments take accumulated days to subside, long-term consumption is permitted; hence it is called "lifetime [medicine]". However, the circumstances of the other three medicines are easy to know; only lifetime medicine is often consumed indiscriminately by people. Therefore, to determine its essential nature against this medicine, four conditions must be met: First, the body has a qualifying illness (hunger, thirst, and the like are natural and ordinary, called primary illnesses). Therefore, the Vinaya states that regarding lifetime medicines, one who consumes them without the cause and condition of illness commits a duṣkṛta. (Paramārtha says: Consuming ghee and the like without illness constitutes the offence of eating at the wrong time.) Second, it must be required by a medical recipe: even timed foods, if required in a medical recipe, are permitted to be included, not to mention other things. Thus the Vinaya states: "A monk begging for food saw rock sugar being prepared by mixing it with kaṇi [rice powder]; having doubts, he did not eat it. The Buddha said: 'The procedure should be thus.'" Moreover, as the sixth volume of the Sarvāstivāda-śāstra states: "Whether using timed medicine or seven-day medicine to form a lifetime medicine, consuming it entails no fault." Third, it is universally recognized by the world as being medicine by nature. For instance, poria, dried rehmannia root, and the like: no one in the world fails to recognize that their nature is medicine, and they are also mostly required in all recipes. If one were not permitted to consume them, it would deeply contravene the Sage's intent. (Vinaya Master Nanshan says: "Nowadays there are foolish men who at untimed hours mistakenly devour powders of dried rehmannia and poria, which are not only salty and bitter to the palate but also entirely issue from their own minds; this is not as good as eating rice." On careful examination now, this is a grossly erroneous judgment.) Furthermore, as the origin of the seven-day medicine states: "There are five kinds of medicine recognized by people of the world; they serve as food and serve as medicine, provided they do not appear coarse." When even those that coarsely serve as food were permitted by the Buddha to be consumed, why would the Buddha not permit poria, which is solely medicine? Fourth, it must be free of the characteristics of timed food. Following the rule for seven-day [medicine] not to let it appear coarse, how could lifetime [medicine] possibly be otherwise? I once heard of people who, after midday, made dough-drop soup from powder of mu-yu, poured tea broth over it as a hot stew, and further used ginger and vinegar as cold noodles; this truly is not as good as eating rice. This serves merely to indulge the root of greed and delusion, not to treat the vessel of the Path, so it must certainly be cut off. Furthermore, for what is universally known by the world to be medicine by nature, if it enters into a medicinal formula, it is clearly permitted; even if one wishes to consume it alone, it is also permitted without fault. However, in the midst of illness, if someone has missed food for an entire day and excessive hunger and thirst threaten to give rise to a secondary illness, consuming medicine is also permitted. With this general principle, the reasoning is fully exhaustive. Next, to explain the method of formal reception and retention: From antiquity, based on the Sarvāstivāda-vinaya where Upāli asked: "Regarding timed medicine, seven-day medicine, and lifetime medicine, is it an offence to hold them overnight or touch them wrongly? May one receive them by hand and receive them by speech?" The Buddha said: "One may." Also, the sixth volume of the Sarvāstivāda-śāstra says: "If a sick monk requires seven-day medicine, and he lacks a pure person of his own so that seeking one is difficult, he should receive it himself from the hand of a pure person. Having received it verbally from a monk, he may place it anywhere, and within seven days take and eat it himself." Now the Prātimokṣa says, "one may consume it within the limit of seven days," precisely because of this. First, to explain untimed juice, distinguishing it by three points: first, the medicine received; second, the person capable of conferring it; third, the actual procedure of ritual enactment. As for the first section: Most are made from fruits, but some are made from roots, or various juices fermented from medicines and the like, as the eight kinds of juices in the Medicine Khandhaka. The seventeenth fascicle of the Samantapāsādikā explains: "All tree fruits may be made into untimed juice, except for grains. All leaves may be made into untimed juice, down to vegetables (tea leaves and the like are untimed juices). All flowers may be consumed at untimed hours, except for madhūka flowers (excluding lotus flowers and the like). Among all fruits, palmyra palm fruits, coconuts, melons, and gourds are excluded." As detailed in that treatise. If it is fermented, such as sauvīraka juice, the twenty-ninth fascicle of the Mahāsāṃghika[-vinaya] states it is "made by fermenting barley." In this Vinaya, the physician instructs consuming steeped barley juice, which is this. These juices must be free from the eight defects: improper touch, cooking it oneself, cooking it indoors, remaining overnight, storing it indoors, alteration of nature (meaning loss of its original flavor and the like), not having been received by hand, and after receiving it, setting it on the ground and leaving it for more than a moment (meaning exceeding a moment during the untimed period; according to the Mahāsāṃghika, the reception is lost). Second, regarding the person capable of conferring it: One must know the method of making juice. For example, in making grape juice, the grapes must be purified by fire; after pressing them into juice, they must be purified with water droplets. If one is not purified, or if both are not purified, according to the twenty-sixth fascicle of the Sarvāstivāda-vinaya, none should be drunk. If it is turbid and not yet clarified, and the pure person wishes to leave, he should have it boiled once so that it can be reheated later, which does not commit [the offence of] cooking it oneself (if drunk raw, it does not need to be boiled). When the pure person confers it, he forms the thought of giving it to the monk. When the monk receives it, fully recognizing the juice before him, he holds his hands palms up and open to complete the reception. According to the Mahāsāṃghika-vinaya, he should say to the monk: "Pure substances are produced herein; I shall receive it" (this is a method of temporary marking, meaning awaiting clarification to receive it according to the rule). If it has already become clear, one simply needs to receive it, without needing to mark it. Third, regarding the actual procedure of ritual enactment: The various schools merely prescribe performing the ritual enactment without providing the text of the ritual; it should be spoken according to the meaning. Possessing the proper deportment, facing one monk, holding the medicine in hand, one says: "Venerable One, with focused mind, pay attention! I, monk named so-and-so, now on account of the condition of thirst illness—this is grape juice; in order to consume it until the night period, I now receive it before the Venerable One." (Spoken three times. If there is a pure person, one receives it by hand and drinks it repeatedly at appropriate times, without needing this procedure.) For all other juices, change the name as appropriate. The newly translated Vinaya-saṃgraha contains the ritual text; for now, we follow the old method. Next, seven-day medicine also has three sections: As for the substance of the medicine, it is the five kinds in the Prātimokṣa. It must also be free from the eight defects. Among these, the distinctive points: For remaining overnight, there are three [aspects]: First, the meaning as before. Second, according to the Sarvāstivāda-śāstra, it cannot be medicine kept beyond seven days by another monk. Third, it cannot be leftover medicine by which one has already committed an offence oneself, up to medicine from the seventh day onward. The other seven are the same as above. Second, the person capable of conferring it: It is cooked and filtered according to the rule, distinct from timed food. If not yet distinct, the marking is the same as before (meaning fat has its dregs removed, and the same for oil and the like). Receiving by hand follows the previous. One must give rise to the intention of consuming it; if one intends to rub it on the feet, etc., the reception is not valid. Third, regarding the actual procedure of ritual enactment: One must not have previously hoarded medicine and committed the offence of excess. If one previously committed the offence of excess and now receives and holds it again, it becomes tainted with the offence. The proper deportment states: "Venerable One, with focused mind, pay attention! I, monk named so-and-so, now on account of the condition of wind illness—this sesame oil is a seven-day medicine; in order to keep it overnight and consume it for seven days, I now receive it before the Venerable One." (Spoken three times. Vinaya Master Nanshan, relying on the Mātṛkā, places it in a pure area to consume within seven days. Now, examining that treatise, all three lower medicines are prohibited from being stored indoors; however, in the Dharmaguptaka-vinaya, lifetime medicine is permitted to be stored indoors, so we know it differs from that treatise.) Other illnesses and other medicines should be understood according to the preceding. Next, explaining lifetime medicine: It must be free from the eight defects, as in the juices above. Second, regarding the person capable of conferring it: Vinaya Master Nanshan, relying on the twenty-sixth fascicle of the Sarvāstivāda-vinaya, states that if food has gone cold, it is permitted to be cooked again; if raw, it is permitted to be cooked after fire-purification. Examining the Sarvāstivāda now, it permits cooking after purification only with respect to raw seeds. As for other grains, flour, and the like that are not raw seeds, would cooking them oneself not apply? Hence we know that merely altering the raw appearance constitutes the offence of cooking it oneself; therefore, it must be changed by cooking [by another] before one does not commit [the offence of] cooking. Marking, receiving by hand, and the like should be understood according to the preceding. Third, the actual procedure of ritual enactment: Both collective and individual receptions are valid. For individual reception, taking for instance the Fourfold Equality Pill: upon obtaining ginseng first, one should say: "Venerable One, with focused mind, pay attention! I, monk named so-and-so, on account of the condition of having weak mental energy—this ginseng is a portion of the lifetime Fourfold Equality Medicine; in order to store it overnight and consume it long-term, I now receive it before the Venerable One." (Spoken twice. The other ingredients follow this.) If all are combined together, one should receive them collectively, saying: "Venerable One, with focused mind, pay attention! I, monk named so-and-so, on account of the condition of having weak mental energy—this Fourfold Equality Pill is a lifetime medicine; in order to store it overnight..." (the remaining words are the same as above). Going to the market to buy medicine: having a pure person settle the price, the monk selects and takes a generous amount himself, and then has it weighed and received in sequence, not setting it on the ground again; then he immediately seeks a monk to enact the ritual reception and retention, which is according to the rule. Because he previously took a large amount and it was not yet fixed as belonging to himself, he does not commit improper touch. Having been weighed, he then receives it, so it becomes pure. The various Dharma masters explain methods for others to sever delusions across the ten grounds, yet though they discourse grandly in vain, they have no personal share in it. Now, with these Vinaya precepts, one's own domain of practice gathers the mind in conformity with the teaching; if every matter is violated, how can one be called a person of understanding? Breaking a duṣkṛta prevents one from crossing the great ocean; why do they not have faith, falsely seeking pleasure in greed and delusion? How lamentable, how lamentable! It is deeply pitiable. These methods of reception and retention mostly guard directly against losing reception (that is, an offence arising from lack of reception), remaining overnight, improper touch, cooking indoors, and storing indoors. With regard to cooking it oneself and the like, although reception is not effected, guarding against wrongdoing does not depend on verbal ritual. The ancients said that untimed and seven-day [medicines] do not guard against cooking indoors, because the Medicine Khandhaka only states that lifetime [medicines] may be cooked indoors; therefore, examining it now according to lifetime [medicine], guarding against it has no error.