四分戒本疏卷第一．第二．第三 3.55

3.55

The precept on traveling along the same road with a bhikṣuṇī, the twenty-seventh. This fault is no different from the preceding one, traveling being the distinction. There are six specific conditions: first, she is of the two assemblies of female renunciants (in the Mahīśāsaka Vinaya, traveling with any of the three assemblies incurs an offense, and the underlying principle should indeed be so, as criticism and defilement are no different; the preceding precept is also of this type); second, by mutual arrangement, excepting accidental encounters—those who meet by chance must travel without departing from sight or hearing (the Sarvāstivāda-vinaya-vibhāṣā states that since it is a minor offense, it must be excluded); third, traveling along the same road, excluding different routes as there is no fault; fourth, traveling without departing from sight or hearing (the Sarvāstivāda-vinaya-vibhāṣā says that if both depart there is no fault; if one departs and the other does not, a duṣkṛta; if neither departs, they incur a prāyaścittika); fifth, there is no justifying cause, excluding traveling with a large party of laypeople or having an urgent cause, which do not constitute an offense; sixth, with each boundary crossed, an individual prāyaścittika offense is incurred. The Sarvāstivāda-vinaya-vibhāṣā states that traveling together by both water and land routes falls under this precept; therefore, if a bhikṣu and a bhikṣuṇī board separate boats and travel along the same water route, incurring an offense upon crossing a boundary also falls under this precept, whereas boarding the same boat falls under the subsequent precept. Below is the proper explanation of this precept. This arose because the group of six bhikṣus wandered among the populace with the group of six bhikṣuṇīs; householders mocked them, the bhikṣus reported the fault, and the Buddha then promulgated the precept.