Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.t3.10

c10.t3.10

for the uses of the Order, and invited the monks to the dedicatory and opening celebrations. "May it please the venerable ones to come to me," the message ran somewhat thus, which they sent to the Order, "I wish to present a gift and to hear the preaching of the Doctrine and to see the monks." Such invitations the Order is to receive, and even during the rainy season, when otherwise it is forbidden the monks to travel, they are allowed in a case of this kind to be absent from their place of residence for a period of seven days. Or the believers of a township requested the monks to pass the rainy season in their neighbourhood; then they provided lodgings for their guests, and gave them daily food when they made their begging excursions; and before the monks proceeded on their wanderings on the expiration of the rainy season, the lay believers were in the habit of giving them a farewell meal, with which was connected a distribution of clothing, or of stuff for clothing, to the parting spiritual pilgrims. Not unfrequently, too, a circle of laymen clubbed together to establish among themselves a "roster of dinners" for the Order, each taking his turn, and in dear times, when the entertaining of all the brethren would have exceeded the ability of one layman, there were instituted "dinners by arrangement," "dinners by invitation," "dinners on subscriptions," "fortnightly dinners." They promised the brethren to furnish, be it constantly or only for a limited period, the medicines of which they might be in need, or benefactresses of the Order went through the gardens of the monasteries and asked from house to house: "Who is sick among you, reverend sirs? To whom are we to bring anything, and what?" That the monks then, on their part, were not sparing in promising to the givers every heavenly reward, was a matter of course. "To give houses to the Order,” it is said,* “a place of refuge and joy, so that we may there exercise concentration and holy intuition, has been commanded by Buddha as the most noble gift. Therefore let a wise man, who understands what is best for himself, build beautiful houses, and receive into them knowers of the Doctrine. He may give food and drink, clothes and lodging to such, the upright with cheerful heart. These preach to him the Doctrine which drives away all suffering; if he apprehends the Doctrine here below, he goes sinless into Nirvâna.” In another place it is said:† “Well is it for a man always to dispense boiled-rice if he have a desire for joy, whether he seek heavenly joy or long for earthly happiness.” That occasionally the givers, for whom the drafts on a heavenly reward-fund in return for earthly benefaction had so much attraction, must have allowed themselves to be laid very wantonly under contribution by pretentious comrades among the begging stewards of heavenly treasures, is only natural. Certainly those narratives are drawn from life, as they are not unfrequently told of such occurrences in the Vinaya: of the man who had incautiously offered to give to the venerable Upananda whatever he required, and from whom he immediately demanded the clothes he was wearing, or of the pious potter, of whom the monks demanded almsbowls in such numbers that his business was thereby ruined. A long series of statements in the confessional liturgy was directed against this unauthorized exaction of pious charity, and confined within narrow limits the little, which monks receive, and the still less, for which they were allowed to ask. Apparently the criticism was by no means regarded with indifference, which might be practised in lay circles, and which the rival religious orders certainly did not neglect to maintain vigilantly and keenly. Monks who exercised in any way whatever an evil influence upon the laity, or caused them mortification, were most severely discountenanced, and in every way the laity were regarded as an ally on whose friendship they knew how to put a proper value.