The Bhikkhus Rules

A Guide for Laypeople

by Bhikkhu Ariyesako | 1998 | 50,970 words

The Theravadin Buddhist Monk's Rules compiled and explained by: Bhikkhu Ariyesako Discipline is for the sake of restraint, restraint for the sake of freedom from remorse, freedom from remorse for the sake of joy, joy for the sake of rapture, rapture for the sake of tranquillity, tranquillity for the sake of pleasure, pleasure for the sake of conce...

In the Buddhas time a bhikkhu went to bathe in the river and found a purse of money lost by a brahman. The owner returned and, to escape having to pay the customary reward, pretended that some of the money was suspiciously missing. The rule (Paac. 84) therefore prohibits a bhikkhu from picking up lost valuables.

However, there is an exception to this rule. The qualification is that if the bhikkhu finds valuables in the monastery or in the place where he dwells, he is required (and falls into an offence if he fails) to pick them up and keep them safe for the owner. This shows that it is not the object as such that is the problem — as if by not touching it one is free of it — but the care one must take that ones greed and attachment are not drawn in to contaminate the object, and that one is not the victim of other peoples greed.

The Commentary also prohibits bhikkhus from touching unsuitable objects, which includes gold, silver, and valuable things.[1]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The list also mentions: women, articles of womens dress, and representations of women; various kinds of weapons; instruments for trapping animals; all kinds of musical instruments. (See EV,II,p.73)

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