Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.63

c10.63

as the fourth of the major sins, this entitles us to infer, with what offensive preference this branch of religious swindling must have been cultivated already even in that age in Indian monastic circles. The sacred texts (“Vinaya Piṭaka,” vol. iii, p. 87, seq.) narrate as an illustration to Buddha’s ruling on this point, that a community of monks in the Vajji territory once endured great distress by famine. It was proposed that they should take service with the laity to obtain the means of living; a more quick-witted monk, however, advised that every brother should attribute the highest spiritual perfections to the other brethren in the hearing of the laity: “This monk has attained such and such a degree of abstraction”—“this monk is a saint”—“this monk possesses the threefold knowledge”—and more of the like. The suggestion is accepted, and the laity say in astonishment: “It is lucky, very lucky for us that such monks are spending the rainy season in our midst. Never in days gone by have monks come to us for the rainy season such as these monks are, rich in virtue and noble.” Naturally then the liberality of the laity corresponds in full to the high opinion which they entertain of the spiritual merit of their guests, so that the latter survive the period of famine, “blooming, well-fed, with healthy complexion and healthy skin.”