Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.89

c10.89

For a monk to dwell alone, without having other brethren in his neighbourhood, is quite the exception, even in the case of those who have chosen a forest-life. The provisions of the laws of the Order are wholly based on the supposition that small knots of brethren living near each other come together, who depend on each other to unite for confession, to instruct one another, to strengthen one another in doubt and temptation, to care for one another in sickness, and to keep up spiritual discipline among themselves. “For,” says the old confessional formula, “the band of the disciples of the Exalted One is so bound together that one exhorts the other and one stablishes the other.” Especially on the young monk is it enjoined as a duty to seek the company of the older and more experienced brethren, to be instructed in the doctrines of the faith as well as in the external rules of conduct, even down to the directions for the wearing of clothes and carrying of the almsbowl. During the first five years, which every monk passes in the Order, he is required to place himself under the guidance and instruction of two able monks,* who shall have belonged for at least ten years to the Order. These he accompanies in their wanderings and begging excursions; he looks after the cleaning of their cells, and serves them at their meals. “The teacher is to look upon the scholar as a son; the scholar is to look upon the teacher as a father. Thus both are to permit respect, attachment and unanimity of life to prevail between them, that they may be able to grow, progress, and stablish themselves in this Doctrine and this Law.”† “He who has left his home for the faith, he who has come hither in early years and is young, let him attach himself to noble friends, to unwearying persons of pure walk. He who has left his home for the faith, who has come hither in early years and is young, a monk who is intelligent, let him abide in the Order and practise the rules.”‡