BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

Buddhist Monastic Code IChapter 7.1Nissaggiya Pācittiya: The Robe-cloth ChapterNissaggiya PācittiyaThe term nissaggiya, used in connection with training rules, means "entailingforfeiture." Used in connection with articles, it means "to be forfeited." Pācittiya is aword of uncertain etymology. The Parivāra gives a didactic derivation — that itmeans letting skillful qualities fall away (patati) with a deluded mind (citta) — but theterm is more likely related to the verb pacinati (pp. pacita), which means to discern,distinguish, or know.Each of the rules in this category involves an object that a bhikkhu has acquired orused wrongly, and that he must forfeit before he may "make the offense known" —confess it — to a fellow bhikkhu or group of bhikkhus. Once he has made hisconfession, he is absolved from the offense. In most cases, the forfeiture issymbolic — after his confession, he receives the article in return — although threeof the rules require that the offender give up the article for good.There are thirty rules in this category, divided into three chapters (vagga) of tenrules each.1. When a bhikkhu has finished his robe and the frame is dismantled (his kaṭhinaprivileges are ended), he is to keep extra robe-cloth ten days at most. Beyond that,it is to be forfeited and confessed.The origin story for this rule is retold as part of a larger narrative in the Mahāvagga(VIII.13.4-8). Because the context provided by the larger narrative is what makes itinteresting, that is the version translated here."(The Buddha addresses the bhikkhus:) 'As I was traveling on the road fromRājagaha to Vesālī, I saw many bhikkhus coming along loaded down with robecloth,having made a mattress of robe-cloth on their heads and a mattress of robeclothon their backs/shoulders and a mattress of robe-cloth on their hips. Seeingthem, I thought, "All too quickly have these worthless men been spun around intoabundance in terms of robe-cloth. What if I were to tie off a boundary, to set a limiton robe-cloth for the bhikkhus?""'Now at that time, during the cold winter middle-eight nights (the four nights oneither side of the full moon in February, the coldest time of the year in northernIndia) when snow was falling, I sat in the open air wearing one robe and was notcold. Toward the end of the first watch I became cold. I put on a second robe andwas not cold. Toward the end of the middle watch I became cold. I put on a thirdrobe and was not cold. Toward the end of the final watch, as dawn rose and thenight smiled, I became cold. I put on a fourth robe and was not cold. The thought143