四分比丘戒本疏 2.36

2.36

Second, speech disparaging by social class: this refers to using extremely base classes to compare with a monk and abuse him, such as saying 'You are like a butcher,' and so forth. Fourth, sleeping in the same room with a woman: regardless of whether monastic or lay, close or distant, taking one who possesses awareness and whose life-faculty is not severed as the object; thus we know it refers to an adult woman. The eighth fascicle of the Sarvāstivāda-śāstra states: 'If she is incapable of engaging in sexual intercourse, such as a barren woman (ṣaṇḍha) and so forth down to a dove, it is a duṣkṛta. For a human female, with each turning onto one's side, each incurs a prāyaścittika offence.' Now according to the text of the Vinaya, a room has four characteristics: first, having barriers on four sides with a covering above (this means completely screened and completely covered); second, obstructed in front without walls (this means completely covered and mostly screened, namely having barriers on three sides); third, though covered, not completely so (this means completely screened and half-covered); fourth, though covered, having openings (this means completely screened and mostly covered). An ancient Vinaya [commentary] added another phrase: 'having four walls without a covering above'—this is an error. According to the nine configurations that do not constitute a room, this is identical to the fourth room. The nine configurations of rooms are distinguished below. In all four types of rooms, one offends with each turning onto one's side. Furthermore, according to the Sarvāstivāda-śāstra, within a single covering and a single screening there may be various small rooms; though the rooms are distinct, because the hall is shared, it is still treated as one room and incurs a prāyaścittika. Furthermore, according to the Mahāsāṃghika[-vinaya], during a great gathering when preaching the Dharma throughout the night, if wind, rain, cold, and snow cover the ground, one should enter a room and sit upright. If elderly or sick and unable to sit, one should set up a screen; one must not use sparse material. It should be as high as the shoulders and armpits, and reach down to the ground so that a cat cannot pass through. When travelling on the road and entering a village, one should use a separate room; if there is no separate room, one should follow the aforementioned method. Ancient commentators explained: sitting upright requires that there be lamps and multiple people. If setting up a screen, one must stretch a curtain inside the room from the wall, extending from the middle of the doorway out to the front of the house to form the appearance of two rooms; only then is it not an offence. Furthermore, examining ancient authors, they combined sets of three into nine configurations that do not constitute a room based on the Vinaya. Now, upon careful consideration, there are only eight configurations that do not constitute a room; making it nine is an error in the text of the Vinaya. Setting forth the nine configurations, there are three sets of three. The first set of three: 1. completely covered and completely without screening; 2. completely covered and half-screened; 3. completely covered and slightly screened (meaning having a wall on one side). The second set of three: 1. completely screened and without covering (the erroneous phrase added by the ancient Vinaya mentioned before is precisely this); 2. completely screened and half-covered (the Vinaya text containing this phrase is in error; this phrase constitutes a room, but now it has fallen into these non-constituting ones, because it is identical to the third room among the previous four that constitute a room); 3. completely screened and slightly covered (this concludes the explanation of the second set of three). The third set of three: 1. half-covered and half-screened; 2. slightly covered and slightly screened; 3. neither covered nor screened. Among these nine configurations, excluding the second configuration of the second set of three, in the remaining eight configurations walking or sitting within them incurs no offence. The Vinaya does not say that lying down incurs no offence; however, if sick, lying down incurs no offence whatsoever. The characteristics of the various rooms below should all be understood according to this.