Cullavagga, Khandaka 6, Chapter 11

1. Now at that time the Sattarasa-vaggiya Bhikkhus made ready a certain large Vihāra in the neighbourhood^[2], with the intention of dwelling in it. And when the Chabbaggiya Bhikkhus saw what they were doing, they said: 'These venerable ones, the Sattarasa-vaggiya Bhikkhus, are getting a Vihāra ready; come, let us turn them out.' Some of them said: 'Let us stay here^[3] whilst they get it ready, and turn them out when it is prepared.' So the Chabbaggiya Bhikkhus said to the Sattarasa-vaggiyas: 'Depart, Sirs; the Vihāra has fallen unto us.'

'Why did you not, Sirs, say so sooner; and we would have got some other one ready?'

Is not, then, this Vihāra the common property of the Saṃgha?'

Yes, Sirs; that is so.'

'Then depart, Sirs; for the Vihāra has fallen unto us.'

It is large, Sirs, this Vihāra. You can dwell in it, and we as well.'

Then, full of anger and displeasure, they repeated, 'Depart, Sirs; this Vihāra has fallen unto us.' And seizing them by the throat, they cast them out. And the others, being ejected, wept.

The Bhikkhus asked, 'Why, Sirs, do you weep?'

Then they told them; and the moderate Bhikkhus murmured, &c., and told the matter to the Blessed One.

'Is it true, as they say, &c.?'

'It is true, Lord.'

Then he rebuked them; and when he had delivered a religious discourse, he said to the Bhikkhus:

'A Bhikkhu is not, O Bhikkhus, to be cast out of a Vihāra, the common property of the Saṃgha, in anger and vexation. Whosoever does so, shall be dealt with according to the law^[4]. I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to allot the lodging-places (common to the Saṃgha to those who have need of them)^[5].'

2. Now the Bhikkhus thought, 'How then shall the lodging-places be allotted?'

They told this matter to the Blessed One.

'I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to appoint as an apportioner of lodging places a Bhikkhu possessed of these five qualifications—one who does not walk in partiality, who does not walk in malice, who does not walk in stupidity, who does not walk in fear (and so on, as in Khandhaka IV chapter 10, down to the end of the Kammavācā).'

3. Now the apportioners of lodging-places thought, 'How then ought the lodging-places to be apportioned?'

They told this matter to the Blessed One.

'I allow you, O Bhikkhus, in the first place to count the Bhikkhus, then to count the sleeping-places, then to apportion accordingly^[6].'

When apportioning according to the number of sleeping-places, some remained unallotted^[7].

'I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to apportion according to the number of apartments (Vihāras):

When so apportioning, some apartments(Vihāras) remained unallotted.

'I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to apportion according to the number of buildings (Pariveṇas)^[8].'

When so apportioning, some buildings (Pariveṇas) remained unallotted.

'I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to give a supplementary share to each Bhikkhu^[9].'

When more than one share had been allotted, another Bhikkhu arrived.

'In that case a share need not be allotted to him, if the Bhikkhus do not wish to do so^[10].'

Now at that time they allotted sleeping-places to a Bhikkhu who was then staying outside the boundary (of the district in which the building was situate)^[11].

They told this matter to the Blessed One.

'You are not, O Bhikkhus, to [do so]. Whosoever does so, shall be guilty of a dukkaṭa.'

Now at that time the Bhikkhus, after the lodging-places had been allotted, kept them to the exclusion of others for all time.

They told this matter to the Blessed One.

'You are not, O Bhikkhus, to do so. Whosoever does so, shall be guilty of a dukkaṭa. I allow you to retain them for the three months of the rainy, but not for the dry season.'

4. Then the Bhikkhus thought, 'What is (it now that constitutes) an allotment of lodging-places?'

They told this matter to the Blessed One.

'There are these three allotments of lodging-places, O Bhikkhus,—the earlier, the later, and the intermediate. The earlier is to be held on the day after the full moon of Āsāḷha (June-July); the later, a month after that full moon^[12]; the intermediate (literally that which involves a giving up during the intervening time) is held on the day after the Pavāraṇā ceremony, with reference to the rainy season of the following year. These, O Bhikkhus, are the three allotments of lodging-places.'

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Here ends the Second Portion for Recitation.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The story in this section forms also the introductory story to the 17th Pācittiya.

[2]:

Paccantimaṃ; perhaps 'in the border-country.' Compare paccantaṃ nagaraṃ, a frontier fort at Dhammapada, p. 56.

[3]:

Āgametha yāva. Compare the introductory story to the 46th Pācittiya.

[4]:

That is, under the 17th Pācittiya.

[5]:

Senāsanam gāhetuṃ. Buddhaghosa has nothing on this idiom, but its meaning is sufficiently clear from the connection.

[6]:

Seyyaggena gāhetuṃ. Buddhaghosa has no special explanation of agga here, but in his explanation of the passage says that this is to be so done that each Bhikkhu receives room for a couch (mañcaṭṭhanaṃ). Agga must here be agra, to which Böhtlingk-Roth give, from Indian lexicographers, the subsidiary meaning of 'multitude.' So below in XII, 1, 1, the Vajjiputtakas divide money amongst themselves bhikkhu-aggena, 'according to the number of the Bhikkhus.' Seyyā is here used in the same meaning as that in which senāsana is used throughout the rest of this chapter and the next. See VIII, 1, 4.

[7]:

Ussādiyiṃsu. Buddhaghosa says ussārayiṃsū ti mañcaṭṭhānāni atirekāni ahesuṃ. His reading is in a copy of his work in Burmese characters, and is supported, both here and in Pācittiya XLVI, 2, where the word recurs, by a Burmese copy of the text. The Sinhalese reading is the correct one, but one may compare the idiom janaṃ, or parisaṃ, ussāreti at Mahāvagga VIII, 1, 22, and Jātaka I, 419, 434. So at IX, I, 3, 4, the reading ussāreti given in the text is corrected at p. 363 into ussādeti, in accordance with the reading of the Sinhalese MS.

[8]:

The relation of the Vihāra to the Pariveṇa is here curious. In the later language pariveṇa means 'cells.' Here it evidently includes several vihāras.

[9]:

Anubhāgan ti puna aparaṃ pi bhāgaṃ dātuṃ (B.).

[10]:

Na akāmā is used here in a sense precisely parallel to that in which it occurs at Mahāvagga VII, 24, 4. See the passages quoted in our note there.

[11]:

Nissīme ṭhitassa. See on this phrase above, Mahāvagga VII, I, 5, and VIII, 2, 3. It is repeated below, VI, 17, 2.

[12]:

These first two dates are the days on which the earlier and the later Vassa begins. See Mahāvagga III, 2.