四分戒本疏卷第一．第二．第三 2.56

2.56

"If a bhikṣu, when two householders or householders' wives prepare a price for the bhikṣu, [intending to] take such a price, buy such a robe, and give it to so-and-so; and this bhikṣu, without previously having received an open invitation from the householders, goes to the homes of the two householders and speaks thus: 'Excellent, householders! Prepare such a price of a robe for me, and together make one robe for me, so that it will be good [quality]'; if he obtains the robe, it is a niḥsargika-prāyaścittika." This precept also has four clauses: 1. The offender; 2. The determination of the offering of robes; 3. 'This bhikṣu', down to disdaining it as too little and encouraging them to increase it; 4. 'If he obtains the robe', down to the conclusion of the offense upon acquisition. The explanation of the clauses is as in the previous precept. The Mahīśāsaka Vinaya states that even encouraging a husband and wife to join together to make one robe constitutes an offense. In the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya, if one who is content is offered fine cloth and says, "I am a forest-dweller who observes dhūta practices," and demands coarse cloth, all such cases constitute an offense, because one's own mouth recounts one's own virtues. Question: Why is there no [precept against] encouraging three householders? Answer: Encouraging two can cause harm; encouraging three causes slight annoyance, so there is none. Question: If so, if one encourages three householders to discard cotton cloth and make silk, is there no meaning of harm? Answer: This is subsumed under the precept on begging for robes. Now, this encouragement to increase must be an increase upon the original substance itself to constitute an offense. Therefore, the exceptions and permissions for this precept are entirely as in the previous precept.