Chapter 35 - The Houseless Monk

Learn from me, with attentive minds, the road shown by the wise ones^[1], which leads a monk who follows it, to the end of all misery. (1) Giving up the life in a house, and taking Pravrajyā, a sage should know and renounce those attachments which take hold of men. (2)

A restrained monk should abstain from killing, lying, stealing, carnal intercourse, from desire, love, and greed. (3)

Even in his thoughts a monk should not long for a pleasant painted house filled with the fragrance of garlands and frankincense, secured by doors, and decorated with a white ceiling-cloth^[2]. (4)

For in such a dwelling a monk will find it difficult to prevent his senses from increased desire and passion. (5)

He should be content to live on a burial-place, in a deserted house, below a tree, in solitude, or in a place which had been prepared for the sake of somebody else^[3]. (6)

A well-controlled monk should live in a pure place, which is not too much crowded, and where no women live. (7)

He should not build a house, nor cause others to erect one; for many living beings both movable and immovable, both subtile and gross, are seen to be killed when a house is being built; therefore a monk should abstain from building a house. (8, 9)

The same holds good with the cooking of food and drink, or with one’s causing them to be cooked. Out of compassion for living beings one should not cook nor cause another to cook. (10)

Beings which live in water, corn, or in earth and wood, are destroyed in food and drink; therefore a monk should cause nobody to cook. (11)

There is nothing so dangerous as fire, for it spreads in all directions and is able to destroy many beings; one should therefore not light a fire. (12)

Even in his thoughts a monk should not long for gold and silver; indifferent alike to dirt and gold he abstains from buying and selling. (13)

If he buys, he becomes a buyer; if he sells, he becomes a merchant; a monk is not to engage in buying and selling. (14)

A monk who is to live on alms, should beg and not buy; buying and selling is a great sin; but to live on alms is benefitting. (15)

He should collect his alms in small parts according to the Sūtras and so as to avoid faults; a monk should contentedly go on his begging-tour, whether he get alms or not. (16)

A great sage should not eat for the sake of the pleasant taste (of the food) but for the sustenance of life, being not dainty nor eager for good fare, restraining his tongue, and being without cupidity. (17)

Even in his thoughts he should not desire to be presented with flowers, to be offered a seat, to be eloquently greeted, or to be offered presents, or to get a magnificent welcome and treatment. (18)

He should meditate on true things only^[4], committing no sins and having no property; he should walk about careless of his body till his end arrives. 09)

Rejecting food when the time of his death arrives, and leaving the human body, he becomes his own master^[5], and is liberated from misery. (20)

Without property, without egoism, free from passions and the Āsravas, he obtains absolute knowledge, and reaches eternal beatitude. (21)

Thus I say.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Buddhehi.

[2]:

Ullova = ulloca.

[3]:

Parakaḍa = parakṛta, explained parair ātmārthaṃ kṛta.

[4]:

Śukla dhyāna, see note 1, p. 200.

[5]:

By the destruction of the vīryāntarāya.