Vinaya (2): The Mahavagga
by T. W. Rhys Davids | 1881 | 156,382 words
The Mahavagga (part of the Vinaya collection) includes accounts of Gautama Buddha’s and the ten principal disciples’ awakenings, as well as rules for ordination, rules for reciting the Patimokkha during uposatha days, and various monastic procedures....
Mahavagga, Khandaka 8, Chapter 16
1, 2. Now at that time Bhikkhus who had eaten sweet foods went to sleep unmindful and unthoughtful. And they who had thus gone to sleep, dreamed[1] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3 'I allow, O Bhikkhus, for the protection of the body, and of the robe, and of the sleeping-place, the use of a mat.'
4. Now at that time the mat, being too short[2], did not protect the whole of the sleeping-place.
'I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to have a covering made as large as you like.'
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
The remainder of this introductory story scarcely bears translation. The first sentences recur in the Sutta-vibhaṅga, Saṃghādisesa I, 2, I, and Pācittiya V, 1, I.
[2]:
The length of a mat (nisīdanaṃ) was limited by the 89th Pācittiya to two spans by one.