Vinaya Pitaka (3): Khandhaka
by I. B. Horner | 2014 | 386,194 words | ISBN-13: 9781921842160
The English translation of the Khandhaka: the second book of the Pali Vinaya Pitaka, one of the three major ‘baskets’ of Therevada canonical literature. It is a collection of various narratives. The English translation of the Vinaya-pitaka (third part, khandhaka) contains many Pali original words, but transliterated using a system similar to the I...
Harmonious invitation
Kd.4.18.1 Now at that time several monks, friends and companions, Vin.1.177 entered on the rains in a certain residence in the Kosala country. While these were staying together on friendly terms and harmonious, a certain comfort was arrived at. Then it occurred to these monks: “While we are staying together … arrived at. But if we should invite now, it may be that (some) monks, having invited, may set forth on tour, and so we will come to lose[1] this comfort. Now what line of conduct should be followed by us?” They told this matter to the Lord.
Kd.4.18.2 BD.4.233 He said: “This is a case, monks, where several monks friends and companions, enter on the rains in a certain residence. While these are staying together … arrived at. If it then occurs to these monks: ‘While we are staying together so we will come to lose this comfort’. I allow you, monks, to make a protection of an Invitation day.[2]
Kd.4.18.3 “And thus, monks, should it be made: Each and every one should gather together in the same place; when they have gathered together, the Order should be informed by an experienced competent monk, saying: ‘Honoured sirs, let the Order listen to me. While we were staying together … so will we come to lose this comfort. If it seems right to the Order, the Order may make a protection of an Invitation day, it may carry out the Observance, it may recite the Pātimokkha now; the Order may invite on the next komudī cātumāsinī day. This is the motion.
Kd.4.18.4 “‘Honoured sirs, let the Order listen to me. While we were staying together … so will we come to lose this comfort. The Order is making a protection of the Invitation day; it will carry out the Observance, it will recite the Pātimokkha now; it will invite on the next komudī cātumāsinī day. If the making a protection of the Invitation day (by the Order) is pleasing to the venerable ones (so that) it will carry out the Observance, will recite the Pātimokkha now, and will invite on the next komudī cātumāsinī day, you should be silent; he to whom it is not pleasing should speak. A protection of the Invitation day is made by the Order, it will carry out the Observance, it will recite the Pātimokkha now, and it will invite on the next komudī cātumāsinī day. It is pleasing to the Order, therefore it is silent. Thus do I understand this.’
Kd.4.18.5 “If, monks, when these monks have made a protection of an Invitation day, any monk should speak thus: ‘I want, your reverences, to set forth on a tour of the country, I have business to do in the country’, he should be spoken to thus: ‘Very BD.4.234 well, your reverence, you can go when you have invited.’ And Vin.1.178 if, monks, that monk, while he is inviting, suspends another’s invitation, he should be spoken to thus: ‘You, your reverence, are not master of my Invitation day, I will not invite yet’. And if, monks, any monk suspends that monk’s invitation while that monk is inviting, the Order, having questioned both closely and cross-questioned them, should have them dealt with according to the rule.
Kd.4.18.6 “If, monks, that monk, having concluded his business in the country, returns again to that residence before the komudī cātumāsinī day and if, monks, while those monks are inviting, any monk suspends that monk’s invitation, he should be spoken to thus: ‘You, your reverence, are not master of my Invitation day, I have invited (already)’. If, monks, while those monks are inviting, that monk suspends any monk’s invitation, the Order, having questioned both closely and having cross-questioned them, and having had them dealt with according to the rule, may invite.”
The Fourth Section: that on Invitation
Having kept the rains they went to see the teacher in Kosala,
communion that was uncomfortable (and) like beasts, suitable
in regard to one another,
Inviting on a seat,[3] and two, (formal) act, ill one,
relations, kings, and thieves, and men of abandoned life,
likewise monks
who are enemies of monks,
Five, four, three, two, one, fallen,
he doubted, he remembered, the whole Order, being in doubt,
greater, like, smaller (number),
Resident monks, the fourteenth, the two communions by mark,
should arrive, not in a seated (assembly),
giving leave of
absence, non-invitation,
About savages, almost ended, great cloud, and an obstacle,
invitation,
they do not give (leave), ‘in case our’,
and not (duly) suspended,
for a monk,
BD.4.235 ‘Or on what?’, and which in regard to what is seen, heard,
suspected,
reproving and reproved, grave offence, matter, strife,
And a protection of an Invitation day, not master, may invite. Vin.1.179
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
paribāhirā, external to, outside; as a noun, outsiders.
[2]:
pavāraṇāsaṃgaha. Vin-a.1080 says that “when the pavāraṇāsaṃgaha has been given, there comes to be as it were an avoidance during the rains; incoming monks can not take their (the resident ones’) lodgings, nor should the rains be cut short by them, for, having invited, they get the chance to set out on tour even during (the rains)”. The monks protect their harmony by postponing the Invitation day to the end of the rainy season.