Bu Sk 5555. Receiving with soiled hand
Pāli / Sanskrit:Sāmisa
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Theravāda Collection on Monastic Law The Great Analysis
The chapter on training The subchapter on slurping 55. Receiving with soiled hand
Origin story
At one time when the Buddha was staying in the Bhagga country at Susumāragira in the Bhesakaḷā Grove, the monks in the Kokanada stilt house were receiving the drinking-water vessel with hands soiled with food. People complained and criticized them, “How can the Sakyan monastics receive drinking-water vessels with hands soiled with food? They’re just like householders who indulge in worldly pleasures!”
The monks heard the complaints of those people, and the monks of few desires complained and criticized those monks, “How can those monks do this?” … “Is it true, monks, that they do this?”
“It’s true, sir.”
The Buddha rebuked them … “How can those foolish men do this? This will affect people’s confidence …” … “And, monks, this training rule should be recited like this:
Final ruling
‘“I will not receive the drinking-water vessel with a hand soiled with food,” this is how you should train.’”
One should not receive the drinking-water vessel with a hand soiled with food. If a monk, out of disrespect, receives the drinking-water vessel with a hand soiled with food, 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 he receives it with the intention of washing it or having it washed; if there is an emergency; if he is insane; if he is the first offender.
The fifth 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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