Lzh Dg Bu Vb Np 11Silk Blanket

– DHARMAGUPTAKA VINAYA

– NAISSARGIKAPĀCITTIYA

11. BEDDING MADE OF SILK

A. ORIGIN

At one time, the Buddha was staying in the region of the wilderness country. At that time, the group of six bhikkhus made new bedding from mixed silk thread. They demanded and requested raw silk—whether unprocessed or processed, whether dyed or undyed, whether new or old. They went to a silkworm-rearing household and said:

"We need silk."

The silkworm keepers replied:

"Wait until the silkworms have matured, then come."

The group of six bhikkhus stood nearby, waiting and watching. They stood watching as the cocoons were being dried and the pupae of the silkworms were making sounds. The laypeople who saw this were all resentful and said: "The Sakyan monastics have no sense of shame or remorse—they harm living beings. Outwardly they declare that they practice the true Dharma. How then can there be any true Dharma? They demand silkworm cocoons to make new bedding!"

They reproached this conduct. Among the bhikkhus who heard of it, those who were of few desires, who were content, who practiced the ascetic way of life, who delighted in training in the precepts, criticized the group of six bhikkhus: "How could they demand cocoons to make new bedding?" Having reproached them thus, they went to the presence of the Blessed One, bowed with their heads at his feet, sat to one side, and reported this matter to the Buddha fully and in detail.

The Blessed One, on account of this matter, convened the assembly of bhikkhus and reproached the group of six bhikkhus, saying:

"What you have done is wrong. It is not proper conduct, not the way of monastics, not pure practice, not befitting behavior—you have done what should not be done. Group of six bhikkhus, how could you demand silkworm cocoons to make new bedding?"

Having reproached them, the Buddha said to the bhikkhus:

"These are foolish persons; they are a field in which many seeds of the defiled are sown; they are the first to commit this offense. From this day forward, I shall lay down a precept for the bhikkhus, comprising ten principles of meaning, up to and including the principle that the true Dharma may long endure."

The precept should be stated thus:

Whatever bhikkhu makes new bedding from mixed silk thread, it is a naissargikapācittiya.

B. ANALYSIS OF THE PRECEPT

Bhikkhu: as defined above.

Mixed: refers to soft wool, or kappāsika cotton, or kūṭapilota, or grass-cloth, or śaṇa hemp, or jute.

If a bhikkhu himself uses mixed silk thread to make new bedding and it is completed, he commits a naissargikapācittiya; if it is not completed, he commits a dukkaṭa. If he instructs another to make it and it is completed, he also commits a naissargikapācittiya; if it is not completed, he commits a dukkaṭa. If he makes it on behalf of another, whether completed or not, he commits a dukkaṭa.

This article must be forfeited. When forfeiting it, one should use a hatchet or axe to chop it into small pieces, mix it with mud, and plaster it onto a wall or spread it on the ground.

For a bhikkhunī: dukkaṭa. For a sikkhāmānā, a sāmaṇera, or a sāmaṇerī: dukkaṭa. This is called an offense.

Non-offense: If one receives an article already made, or if one chops it into small pieces with a hatchet, mixes it with mud, and plasters it onto a wall or on the ground, there is no offense.

Those who do not offend: the first offender at the time before the precept was laid down; one who is mentally deranged, whose mind is in confusion, or who is afflicted and overcome by pain.

Vietnamese translation: Bhikkhu Thích Đỗng Minh and Thích Đức Thắng. DHARMAGUPTAKA VINAYA, PART ONE

Chinese translation: Tripiṭaka masters Buddhayaśas and Zhu Fonian.

Revised and annotated: Bhikkhu Thích Nguyên Chứng

(Chinese translation, fascicles 1–21; Vietnamese translation, fascicles 1 and 2)

Buddhist Publication Committee, 2002