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 2, Chapter 2
At that time the Bhikkhus, considering that the Blessed One had ordered them to assemble on the fourteenth &c. day of each half month, assembled on the fourteenth &c. day of each half month and sat there silent. The people went to them in order to hear the Dhamma. They were annoyed, murmured, and became angry: 'How can the Sakyaputtiya Samaṇas, when they have assembled on the fourteenth &c. day of each half month, sit there silent, like the dumb, or like hogs? Ought they not to recite the Dhamma, when they have assembled?' Some Bhikkhus heard those people that were annoyed, murmured, and had become angry; these Bhikkhus told this thing to the Blessed One. In consequence of that and on this occasion the Blessed One, after having delivered a religious discourse, thus addressed the Bhikkhus: 'I prescribe, O Bhikkhus, that you recite the Dhamma, when you have assembled on the fourteenth &c. day of each half month.'