On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c15.48

v1.c15.48

This story is related in several of the Buddhist Scriptures with some variations of detail. According to the Vinaya, and some other authorities, the Buddha and Ānanda one day going the rounds of the Jetavana establishment found a Brother lying in a chamber apart from all the others, and suffering from a troublesome and unpleasant malady. The sick man, who was apparently quite helpless, explained to Buddha that the Brethren left him to himself because he had been useless to them. This means that he had been a selfish lazy man refusing to help others or do his proper share of work. In the Vinaya the incident is made the occasion of the Buddha drawing up rules for the care to be taken of a sick bhikshu by the Brethren.¹ In one book the Buddha is represented as telling the neglected sick Brother that his present misfortunes were the result of ill conduct in a previous existence.² In two treatises the scene of the incident is laid at Rājagaha, and these have other differences of detail.³