BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

The Bowl Chapter Chapter 7.3Oil, according to the Vibhaṅga, includes sesame oil, mustard seed oil, "honey tree"oil, castor oil, and oil from tallow. The Commentary adds that oil made from anyplants not listed in the Vibhaṅga carries a dukkaṭa if kept more than seven days,although it would seem preferable to apply the Great Standards and simply make allplant oils subject to the full offense under this rule.Mv.VI.2.1 allows five kinds of tallow: bear, fish, alligator, pig, and donkey tallow.Because bear meat is one of the kinds normally unallowable for bhikkhus, the Subcommentaryinterprets this list as meaning that oil from the tallow of any animalwhose flesh is allowable — and from any animal whose flesh, if eaten, carries adukkaṭa — is allowable here. Because human flesh, if eaten, carries a thullaccaya,oil from human fat is not allowed.Mv.VI.2.1 adds that tallow of any allowable sort may be consumed as oil if receivedin the right time (before noon, according to the Commentary), rendered in the righttime, and filtered in the right time. (The PTS and Thai editions of the Canon use theword saṃsaṭṭha here, which usually means "mixed together"; the Sri Lankan editionreads saṃsatta, or "hung together." Whichever the reading, the Commentary statesthat the meaning here is "filtered," which best fits the context.) According toMv.VI.2.2, if the tallow has been received, rendered, or filtered after noon, the act ofconsuming the resulting oil carries a dukkaṭa for each of the three activities thattook place after noon. For example, if the tallow was received before noon butrendered and filtered after noon, there are two dukkaṭas for consuming the resultingoil.Honey means the honey of bees, although the Commentary lists two species of bee— cirika, long and with wings, and tumbala, large, black and with hard wings —whose honey it says is very viscous and ranks as a medicine, not as one of the fivetonics.Sugar/molasses the Vibhaṅga defines simply as what is extracted from sugar cane.The Commentary interprets this as meaning not only sugar and molasses, but alsofresh sugar cane juice, but this contradicts Mv.VI.35.6, which classes fresh sugarcane juice as a juice drink, not a tonic. The Commentary also says that sugar ormolasses made from any fruit classed as a food — such as coconut or date palm— ranks as a food and not as a tonic, but it is hard to guess at its reasoning here,as sugar cane itself is also classed as a food. The Vinaya-mukha seems morecorrect in using the Great Standards to say that all forms of sugar and molasses, nomatter what the source, would be included here. Thus maple syrup and beet-sugarwould come under this rule.The Vinaya-mukha — arguing from the parallel between sugar cane juice, which is ajuice drink, and sugar, which is made by boiling sugar cane juice — maintains thatboiled juice would fit under sugar here. This opinion, however, is not accepted in allCommunities.According to Mv.VI.16.1, even if the sugar has a little flour mixed in with it simply tomake it firmer — as sometimes happens in sugar cubes and blocks of palm sugar— it is still classed as a tonic as long as it is still regarded simply as "sugar." If the211