Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.65

c10.65

a mystic transformation which comes over and permeates the person of the ordained. The consequence of this conception, as rational as it is bare, is that there is nothing to prevent the breaking off of the relation thus established, either on the part of the Order* or on the part of the ordained. If the latter be guilty of any serious transgression, especially if he infringe the four great prohibitions, imposed on him at ordination, it becomes the right and the duty of the Order to renounce him. On the other side, to the monk, who has a lingering fondness for a worldly life, the exit from the Order is always open: the Order makes no effort to detain him. It is better for him "to renounce monastic practice and to admit his weakness," than, remaining in the spiritual state, to commit sin. Whoever says: "My father is in my thoughts," or "my mother is in my thoughts," or "my wife is in my thoughts," or "the laughter and the jest, the pleasantry of old days is in my thoughts," may return to the world. He can do so silently—the Order permits him to depart—; but the proper way for him is to declare before a witness, who hears and understands him,† his resolution, that he renounces Buddha, the Doctrine, and the Order. He departs without enmity; if he desires again to re-establish his connection as a lay-brother or as a novice with the comrades of his quondam spiritual life,