Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c31.60

c31.60

As observed by I-tsing, though a monk could not till land for himself, he could do so for the Saṁgha. But the ideal monk "hates the cumbersome work of a farmer and permanently keeps away from it". Such a one would prefer to sit "still in a place in a quiet forest and takes pleasure in company with birds and deer; being free from the noisy pursuit of fame and profit, he practises with a view to the perfect quietude of Nirvāṇa" (p. 61). In the Tāmralipta monastery, for instance, the monks did not engage in farming themselves. "Thus they live their just life, avoiding worldly affairs and free from the faults of destroying lives by ploughing and watering fields" (p. 62).