Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.80

c10.80

But no one was forbidden to dress himself in the garments, which laymen presented to the monks. "I grant you, O monks, that he who wears clothes given by the laity, may also wear clothes made up from gathered rags. If you have a fancy for both, O monks, I have no objection to it."* Whoever wished, might dwell in the forest or in the caves of the mountains, but no one was forbidden to take up his abode near a village or a town. With sticks gathered in the forests, and grass, every monk could easily construct a hut for himself, and laymen not unfrequently even lent their assistance or caused building operations to be carried on at their expense for the Order, so that monks' houses (vihâras), detached buildings or a complex whole, with assembly-rooms, council-chambers, dining-halls, structures for warm baths and ablutions, as well for the Order in its entirety as for the members individually, were at their disposal.* On the whole we have undoubtedly to picture to ourselves monks, those even who had chosen a life in the forests,† dwelling rather in huts or houses than under the open sky, perchance under the shade of a tree. Even wanderers had as a rule a shelter at their disposal. Novices and scholars used generally to go on ahead and see that quarters were prepared for their teachers among the communities, whose places of residence they passed through. The younger brethren went out to meet the older monks, who came on their wanderings; they took their overalls and almsbowls from them, got water ready for them to wash their feet and showed them to their quarters for the night. During the three months of the rainy season in which itinerating ceased, the monks were expressly forbidden to resort to a place of rest in the open, at the foot of a tree. Thus the tradition of the Singhalese represents Mahinda, the converter of the island, and his spiritual companions, before the rainy season sets in, dwelling near the capital in a park, which the king had placed at their disposal, “with a good view and rich in shade, adorned with flowers and fruit, truly lovely . . . there is a beautiful lotus pool, covered with lotuses, white and blue; there is fresh water in beautiful springs, scented by sweet flowers.” But when the rainy season comes round, when in India damp weather sets in—in Ceylon itself these are the finest months of the whole year—Mahinda leaves the park and goes with the other monks to the mountain of Missaka, there to provide himself accommodation in the holes of the rocks. The king hears of this and hastens out: “Why hast thou left me and mine and come to this mountain?” And Mahinda replies: “Here we wish to pass the rainy reason, three months long. Near a village or in the forest, or in a dwelling-place, the door of which can be shut, has Buddha commanded the monks to dwell, when the rainy season comes.”* Then the king gives an order for eight and sixty cells to be hollowed out in the rock for the monks—cells such as throughout the whole of India and Ceylon, lying often several stories one over the other, still mark indelibly to-day the old rallying points and centres of monastic life.