Bu Sk 4141. Opening the mouth
Pāli / Sanskrit:Anāhaṭa
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Theravāda Collection on Monastic Law The Great Analysis
The chapter on training The subchapter on mouthfuls 41. Opening the mouth
Origin story
At one time the Buddha was staying at Sāvatthī in the Jeta Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s Monastery. At that time the monks from the group of six opened their mouths without bringing a mouthful to it. …
Final ruling
“‘I will not open my mouth without bringing a mouthful to it,’ this is how you should train.”
One should not open one’s mouth without bringing a mouthful to it. If a monk, out of disrespect, opens his mouth without bringing a mouthful to it, he commits an offense of wrong conduct.
Non-offenses
There is no offense: if it is unintentional; if he is not mindful; if he does not know; if he is sick; if there is an emergency; if he is insane; if he is the first offender.
The first training rule is finished.
The “…” is an abbreviation carried over from the Pāli original itself, called peyyāla. The early canon was memorized and recited, so passages repeated verbatim from a preceding discourse were commonly contracted to an elision mark rather than written out in full. Venerable Thích Minh Châu's translation preserves this convention. Some texts therefore look short — but that is the canonical form, not missing content or a truncated translation. The elided passages can be read in full in the preceding discourses of the same chapter.
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