BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

Buddhist Monastic Code 1be forfeited and the nissaggiya pācittiya offense confessed. The procedures forforfeiture, confession, and receiving the blanket/rug in return are the same as in thepreceding rules.Non-offenses. There is no offense if a bhikkhu makes a new felt blanket/rug (or,apparently, if he has one made) after six or more years have passed; if he makesone or has one made for another's use; if, having obtained one made by (§)someone else — not at his instigation — he uses it; or if he makes felt to use as acanopy, a floor-covering, a wall screen, a mattress/cushion, or a kneeling mat.Also, as the rule indicates, there is no offense if within less than six years he makesa felt blanket/rug for his own use after being authorized to do so by the bhikkhus.The Vibhaṅga explains this by saying that the Community, if it sees fit, may formallygive this authorization — a transaction with one motion and one announcement(ñatti-dutiya-kamma — to a bhikkhu who is too ill to do without a new feltblanket/rug before his six years are up. This authorization is best explained bynoting that there is no exemption under this rule for a bhikkhu whose felt rug/blanketis snatched away, lost, or destroyed. Had there been such an exemption, bhikkhusmight have abused it by intentionally ridding themselves of their existing feltrug/blankets in order to get new ones. In the absence of such exemptions, if abhikkhu's rug/blanket is snatched away, lost, or destroyed, the Community — if theyare satisfied that he did not intentionally lose it, destroy it, or put it in a place whereit might easily get stolen — can give him the authorization to get a new one made.Summary: Unless one has received authorization to do so from the Community,making a felt blanket/rug for one's own use — or having it made — less than sixyears after one's last one was made is a nissaggiya pācittiya offense.15. When a bhikkhu is having a felt sitting rug made, a piece of oldfelt a sugata span (25 cm.) on each side is to be incorporated for thesake of discoloring it. If, without incorporating a piece of old felt asugata span on each side, a bhikkhu should have a new felt sittingrug made, it is to be forfeited and confessed.A sitting cloth — for protecting his robes from getting soiled by any place where hesits down, and for protecting any place where he sits down from being soiled byhim — is one of the requisites a bhikkhu is allowed to have (Mv.VIII.16.3). In fact, ifhe goes without one for more than four months, he incurs a dukkaṭa (Cv.V.18). Pc89 gives stipulations for its size and for the requirement that it should have at leastone border piece.There is some question as to whether the felt sitting rug described in this rulecounts as a sitting cloth. The Commentary to Pc 89 says Yes, the Sub-commentaryNo. The Vibhaṅga's definition for sitting cloth under that rule, however, states simplythat it "has a border," and because the felt sitting rug also "has a border," it would186