BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

The Silk Chapter Chapter 7.2This, however, contradicts a number of points in the Vibhaṅga. (1) Its table of thepossible actions covered by this rule includes only cases where the outcome of thetrade for the bhikkhu is money. As we noted in the Introduction, we have to trustthat the Vibhaṅga arrangers knew what was and was not an offense under a certainrule, and that if they had meant the rule to cover more than the alternatives listed inthe table they would have included them. (2) In the Vibhaṅga's discussion of howthe forfeiture is to be conducted, it consistently refers to the offender as the "onewho purchased money" and to the bhikkhu who throws the forfeited object away asthe "money-disposer." (3) If monetary exchange covers cases where the bhikkhuuses money to buy allowable things, then the discussion of how a bhikkhu could gethis steward to use money rightfully placed with the steward to buy such thingswould have been included under this rule; instead, it is included under the followingrule. All of this seems to indicate that the Commentary is on shaky ground when ittries to force its interpretation on the Vibhaṅga here.Still, the Commentary's interpretation is widely followed and fairly complex, so it willbe good to discuss it in some detail.As under the preceding rule, the Commentary divides articles into three sorts:nissaggiya objects (N.O.), i.e., articles such as gold and money, whichentail a nissaggiya pācittiya when accepted;dukkaṭa objects (D.O.), articles such as pearls, precious stones; uncookedgrain, raw meat; women and girls, male and female slaves; goats and sheep,fowl and pigs, elephants, cattle, steeds, and mares; fields and property, anyof which entail a dukkaṭa when accepted;allowable objects (A.O.), articles that a bhikkhu may rightfully accept andpossess.It then works out the following scheme to cover all possible trades involving theseobjects:Using to buy results inN.O. → N.O. a nissaggiya pācittiyaN.O. → D.O. a nissaggiya pācittiyaN.O. → A.O. a nissaggiya pācittiyaD.O. → N.O. a nissaggiya pācittiyaD.O. → D.O. a dukkaṭa*D.O. → A.O. a dukkaṭa*A.O. → N.O. a nissaggiya pācittiyaA.O. → D.O. a dukkaṭa*A.O. → A.O. a nissaggiya pācittiya under NP 20The trades marked with asterisks point out one of the anomalies of theCommentary's interpretation: Why trades involving D.O. should entail only a dukkaṭa,while A.O. → A.O. trades should entail a nissaggiya pācittiya is hard to fathom.197