On the story of one ill

^Kd.8.26.1 Now at that time a certain monk was suffering from dysentery; he lay fallen in his own excrements. Then the Lord, as he was touring the lodgings with the venerable Ānanda as his attendant,^[1] approached that monk’s dwelling-place. The Lord saw that monk lying fallen in his own excrements; seeing him he approached that monk, and having approached he spoke thus to that monk:

“What is your disease, monk?”

“Lord, I have dysentery.”

“But, monk, have you anyone who tends you?”

“I have not, Lord,” ^Vin.1.302 he said.

“Why do not the monks tend you?”

“I, Lord, am of no use to the monks, therefore the monks do not tend me.”

^Kd.8.26.2 Then the Lord addressed the venerable Ānanda, saying: “Go, Ānanda, bring water, we will bathe this monk.”

“Very well, Lord,” and the venerable Ānanda, having answered the Lord in assent, when he had brought the water, the Lord sprinkled on the water, the venerable Ānanda washed him over; the Lord took him by the head, the venerable Ānanda by the feet, and having raised him up, they laid him down on a couch.

^Kd.8.26.3 Then the Lord, on that occasion, in that connection, having had the Order of monks convened, asked the monks:

“Is there, monks, in such and such a dwelling-place a monk who is ill?”

“There is, Lord.”

“What, monks, is that monk’s disease?”

“Lord, the venerable one has dysentery.”

“But, monks, is there anyone who is tending that monk?”

“There is not, Lord.”

“Why do not the monks tend him?”

^BD.4.432 “Lord, this monk is of no use to the monks, therefore the monks do not tend that monk.”

“Monks, you have not a mother, you have not a father who might tend you. If you, monks, do not tend one another, then who is there who will tend you? Whoever, monks, would tend me, he should tend the sick.

^Kd.8.26.4 “If he has a preceptor he should be tended for life by the preceptor, who should wait for his recovery.^[2] If he has a teacher he should be tended for life by the teacher, who should wait for his recovery. If he has one who shares a dwelling-place … If he has a pupil … If he has a fellow-preceptor … If he has a fellow-teacher he should be tended for life by the fellow-teacher, who should wait for his recovery. If he has neither a preceptor nor a teacher nor one who shares a dwelling-place nor a pupil nor a fellow-preceptor nor a fellow-teacher, he should be tended by the Order. If it should not tend him, there is an offence of wrong-doing.

^Kd.8.26.5 “Endowed with five qualities,^[3] monks, does one who is ill become difficult to tend: he becomes one who does not do what is beneficial;^[4] he does not know moderation in what is beneficial; he becomes one who does not take medicine;^[5] he becomes one who does not make clear the disease just as it comes to be to one who tends the sick and who wishes him well, saying as it is getting worse, ‘it is getting worse’, or as it is getting better, ‘It is getting better’, or as it is stationary, ‘It is stationary’; he becomes not the kind (of man) who endures bodily feelings which, arising, are painful, acute, sharp, shooting, disagreeable, miserable, deadly.^[6] Endowed with ^BD.4.433 these five qualities, monks, does one who is ill become difficult to tend. ^Vin.1.303

^Kd.8.26.6 “Endowed with five qualities, monks, does one who is ill become easy to tend: he becomes one who does what is beneficial; he knows moderation in what is beneficial; he becomes one who takes medicine; he makes clear the disease just as it comes to be to one who tends the sick and who wishes him well, saying as it is getting worse, ‘It is getting worse’, or as it is getting better, ‘It is getting better’ or as it is stationary, ‘It is stationary’; he becomes the kind (of man) who endures bodily feelings which, arising, are painful, acute, sharp, shooting, disagreeable, miserable, deadly. Endowed with these five qualities, monks, does one who is ill become easy to tend.

^Kd.8.26.7 “Endowed with five qualities, monks, is one who tends the sick not fit to tend the sick: he comes to be not competent to provide the medicine; he does not know what is beneficial and what is not beneficial; he brings forward what is not beneficial, he takes away what is beneficial; he tends the sick in the hope of gain,^[7] not (from) amity of mind;^[8] he becomes one who loathes to remove excrement or urine or sweat or vomit; he does not come to be competent to gladden, rejoice, rouse, delight the sick from time to time with dhamma-talk. Endowed with these five qualities, monks, one who tends the sick is not fit to tend the sick.

^Kd.8.26.8 “Endowed with five qualities, monks, is one who tends the sick fit to tend the sick: he comes to be competent to provide the medicine; he knows what is beneficial and what is not beneficial; he takes away what is not beneficial, he brings forward what is beneficial; he tends the sick (from) amity of mind, not in the hope of gain; he does not become one who loathes to remove excrement or urine or sweat or vomit; he comes to be competent to gladden … delight the sick from time to time with dhamma-talk. Endowed with these ^BD.4.434 five qualities, monks, is one who tends the sick fit to tend the sick.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Cf. above, BD.4.420.

[2]:

At Vin.1.50 it is said that a preceptor should be tended by the one who shares his cell; one who shares the cell by his preceptor (Vin.1.53); a teacher by his pupil and a pupil by his teacher (Vin.1.61).

[3]:

From here to end of Kd.8.26 = AN.iii.143. The five qualities, aṅgā here, are called dhammā there.

[4]:

asappāyakārin, a doer of what is not beneficial. Pali-English Dictionary gives for Mil.215, sappāyakiriyā, “giving a drug”. GS.iii.110 translates “he treats not himself with physic”, and doubtless that which is beneficial has come to have the sense of medicine, drug. But at Vin.1.292 sappāyāni bhojanāni must mean suitable or beneficial meals, and not meals that are medicines, for it comes under Visākhā’s boon called “food for the sick”. There is also sappāyāni bhesajjāni, suitable, beneficial medicines, when she is asking to give medicines for the sick.

[5]:

bhesajjaṃ na paṭisevitā hoti.

[6]:

Stock. For references see BD.3.12, n.2.

[7]:

āmisantaro. Commentary on AN.iii.144 says “expecting (gifts of) robes, etc.” Vin-a.1133 mentions that antara means kāraṇa, and that āmisantara means āmisaṃ assa antaraṃ, gain is his motive.

[8]:

no mettacitto, the mind, or heart, not in amity. Mettā at some time came to be one of the four brahmāvihāras, Brahma-abidings; See Mrs. Rhys Davids, Sakya, p.216ff.