Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.73

c10.73

† More accurately expressed: the monk, who is resolved to remain true to the spiritual life, looks upon his marriage as dissolved, his property as given away. The wife whom he has forsaken, is strictly termed in the texts "his quondam partner" (purâṇadutiyikâ, "Mahâvagga," i, 8, 78; "Suttavibhanga," Pâr. i, 5); he addresses her, like every other woman, as "sister" (Pâr. l.c. § 7). It is in no way inconsistent with this, if the family of a monk, which desires his return to a worldly status, looks upon his marriage and his rights of property as continuing, and if he himself, longing for a worldly life, says to himself: "I have a wife, for whom I must provide"—"I have a village, on the income of which I desire to live"—"I have gold, on it I shall live" ("Suttavibhanga," Pâr. i, 8, 2).—In one direction the spiritual law permitted a noteworthy operation of the old rights of property surrendered by the monk to take effect: in certain cases where the receiving of any new article whatever for monastic house-keeping was forbidden, e.g., a new almsbowl, he was permitted to take the object in question, if it had been made for him "from his own means." ("Suttav. Nissaggiya," xxii, 2, 2; xxvi, 2, seq.) Cf. Mayr, "Indisches Erbrecht," p. 145.