Lzh Dg Bu Vb Sk 30Eating in Order

– FOUR-PART VINAYA

– ŚAIKṢA-KARAṆĪYA

RULE 30

Once the Buddha was staying in the Anāthapiṇḍika Garden, Jeta's Grove, in the country of Śrāvastī. At that time, a householder invited the community of monks to receive a meal the following morning. During the night he prepared an abundance of fine and nourishing foods, and early in the morning he came to inform the monks that it was time to eat.

When the hour arrived, the monks put on their robes, took up their bowls, and went to the householder's home, where they seated themselves in their places. The householder served food to the monks with his own hands. The group of six monks took food out of order to eat. The householders who saw this were indignant: "These Śākyan monastics have no sense of shame. They receive without knowing restraint. Outwardly they claim to know the true Dharma — yet what Dharma is there in this? They take food out of order; they eat like pigs and dogs; they eat like donkeys, cattle, birds, and crows."

The monks heard of this, and among them were those of few desires and contentment, who lived the dhūta practices, who delighted in training in the precepts and who knew shame. They reproached the group of six monks: "Why do you take food out of order to eat?"

The monks went to where the Blessed One was, bowed their heads at his feet, sat to one side, and reported this matter to the Blessed One in full. The Blessed One used this occasion to convene the assembly of monks and reproach the group of six monks:

"What you have done is wrong, unbecoming, not in accord with the deportment of monastics, not in accord with the Dharma of monastics, not a pure practice, not a compliant practice — it is something that should not be done. Why did you take food out of order?"

The Blessed One then reproached them with countless skillful means, and said to the monks:

"These foolish persons are a field sowing many seeds of contamination — they are the first to transgress this rule. From now on, I shall establish this rule for the monks, composed of ten clauses, so that the true Dharma may long endure."

The rule should be stated as follows:

Eating in order — śaikṣa-karaṇīya.

Bhikkhu: the meaning is as above.

"Out of order" means digging into the bowl anywhere at all in order to take food. If a monk intentionally acts in this way — taking food out of order to eat — he commits a duṣkṛta requiring confession. Because it is done intentionally, he commits a duṣkṛta of improper deportment. If it is not done intentionally, he commits a duṣkṛta.

Bhikkhunī: duṣkṛta. Śikṣamāṇā, śrāmaṇera, śrāmaṇerī: duṣkṛta. This is called an offense.

Non-offense: if one is afflicted with such an illness; or if, fearing heat, one digs for a cooler portion to eat; or if midday is approaching; or if there is a threat to one's life or to one's practice of the holy life, making it necessary to eat quickly — in all such cases there is no offense.

Non-offenders: one who commits an offense for the first time before the rule has been established; one who is mentally deranged, of disturbed mind, or afflicted with severe pain.

Vietnamese translation: Bhikkhu Thích Đỗng Minh and Thích Đức Thắng. FOUR-PART 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 1–2)

Buddhist Studies Editorial Board, 2002