Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c5.s2.4

v1.c5.s2.4

consisted not of cattle, gold or grains but of learning and purity. They lived on food left at the door by the faithful and used the bed and clothes offered to them reverentially by the well-to-do. They were never harmed nor dominated, protected as they were by the *dhamma*, and their access to any house was never barred. They spent 48 years of their lives as *brahmacārins* in quest of knowledge and good conduct. Even when they married they lived a life of restraint. They held austerities, rectitude, tenderness, love and forbearance in high esteem. They performed sacrifices with rice, beds, clothes, ghee or oil, which they could collect by begging and never killed cows in sacrifices.