Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.74

c10.74

The simple needs, which in the climate of India belong to the life of a monk, and the common life of a monastic order, are easily satisfied. "Clothing, food, lodging, medicine for the sick"—this is the standing enumeration of what the Order looked for from the pious beneficence of the laity, and seldom looked for in vain. What did not come within the narrow circle of these immediate necessaries of life, could as little constitute part of the property of the Order as that of the individual monk.* Lands, slaves, horses and live stock, the Order did not possess, and was not allowed to accept. It did not engage in agricultural pursuits, nor did it permit them to be carried on on its account. "A monk," as the old confessional formula says, "who digs the earth or causes it to be dug, is liable to punishment.”* But most strictly was the receiving of gold and silver forbidden to Buddha’s disciples, individually as well as collectively. The benefactor, who desires to give a monk not the things themselves which he requires, but their money value, delivers the money to operatives, and the monk then receives from them what is intended for him. The provisions of the rules of the Order to meet the case, where a brother permits gold or silver to be tendered to him in spite of the prohibition, show how lively was the feeling of what was here at stake for the spirit of their common life, and how care was taken with an anxiety which has something touching about it, to guard against the dangerous consequences of such sinful greed. When the guilty monk has penitently confessed his transgression before the assembled monks, if one of the laity attached to the Order be in the neighbourhood, the gold is given to him, with these words: “Friend, take this into thy keeping.” If he wishes, he can then purchase for the monks what they are permitted to receive, butter, oil, or honey. This they may all enjoy; only he who has received the gold, is not allowed to have any share of it. Or the layman may cast the gold away. If it is not possible for the Order to get rid of the dangerous possession in this way, one of the brethren is to be chosen to be the “thrower away of the gold,” who has five qualities: who is free from desire, free from hate, free from infatuation, free from fear, and who knows what casting away and what not casting away means. He is to throw the gold or the silver away, and is to take care that the place where it lies is not to be recognized by any sign. If he makes any signs, he is liable to punishment. Already at an early date severe struggles arose in the Order regarding this prohibition of the receipt of gold and silver,[*] but it was successfully maintained in its integrity for centuries. By nothing so clearly as by this prohibition and by the obedience which it has obtained, is it guaranteed that the ancient Buddhist Order did really remain free and pure from all hankering after worldly power as well as worldly enjoyment. Never could it have so completely surrendered the possession of gold and therewith all possibility of outer action, had it not been in truth precisely that alone which it professed to be, a community of those who sought for peace and deliverance in separation from everything earthly.