BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

Buddhist Monastic Code 1cloth to make the allowable number of robes. The non-offense clauses add thatone may take excess cloth if one promises to return the excess when one hasfinished making one's robe(s). And if the donor tells one to keep the excess, onemay do so without penalty.The factors of the offense for overstepping the bounds of this protocol are three.1) Object: any piece of the six kinds of suitable robe-cloth, measuring at leastfour by eight fingerbreadths.2) Effort: One asks for more than the allowable amount of robe-cloth from anunrelated householder who has not previously made an invitation to ask.Perception is not a mitigating factor here: Even if one perceives thehouseholder to be related when in fact he/she isn't — or feels that he/shewould be happy to offer the excess cloth even though he/she has given noprevious invitation to ask — this factor is fulfilled all the same.3) Result: One gets the excess robe-cloth.The offenses here are as follows: a dukkaṭa for asking in the way that fulfills thefactor of effort, and a nissaggiya pācittiya when all three factors are fulfilled. Theprocedures to follow in forfeiture, confession, and receiving the cloth in return arethe same as in the preceding rules. For the Pali formula to use in forfeiting the cloth,see Appendix VI.If one perceives a related householder as unrelated, or if one is in doubt aboutwhether he/she is related, one incurs a dukkaṭa in asking for and receiving excessrobe-cloth from him/her.Non-offenses. In addition to the two cases mentioned above — one takes excesscloth with the promise to return the excess when one has finished one's robe(s),and the donors tell one to keep the excess — there is no offense in taking excesscloth if:the donors are offering cloth for reasons other than that one's robes weresnatched away or destroyed (e.g., they are impressed with one's learning, saysthe Commentary);one is asking from one's relatives or people who have previously made one aninvitation to ask for cloth (before one's robes were snatched away ordestroyed, says the Sub-commentary);or one gets the cloth by means of one's own resources.The Commentary calls attention to the fact that the Vibhaṅga's non-offense clausesmake no mention of asking for the sake of another. It then draws the conclusion,based on the fact that the rule was formulated in response to bhikkhus' requesting168