Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.t1.12

c10.t1.12

Now the enumeration of the transgressions which are to be confessed begins. The most serious stand first, those four sins, of which every newly entering brother is already warned at ordination, that whoever commits them, can no longer belong to the Order (p. 351). "If a monk," the leader begins, "who has chosen the exercises and the fellowship of the monks, has carnal intercourse with any creature whatever, down even to a beast, without renouncing these exercises† and without admitting his weakness, then this involves a defeat (by evil) and expulsion from the Order." Similar terms deal with the three other gravest sins, theft, murder, and the false assumption of spiritual perfections. At the close of this