BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

Buddhist Monastic Code 1At present, much of this discussion is purely academic, inasmuch as most bhikkhus— if they use a bathing cloth — tend to determine it for use as a "requisite cloth" soas to avoid any possible offense under this rule.Summary: Seeking and receiving a rains-bathing cloth before the fourth month ofthe hot season is a nissaggiya pācittiya offense.Using a rains-bathing cloth before the last two weeks of the fourth month of the hotseason is also a nissaggiya pācittiya offense.25. Should any bhikkhu — having himself given robe-cloth to(another) bhikkhu and then being angered and displeased — snatch itback or have it snatched back, it is to be forfeited and confessed."At that time Ven. Upananda the Sakyan said to his brother's student, 'Come, friend,let's set out on a tour of the countryside.'"'I can't go, venerable sir. My robe is threadbare.'"'Come, friend, I'll give you a robe.' And he gave him a robe. Then that bhikkhuheard, 'The Blessed One, they say, is going to set out on a tour of the countryside.'The thought occurred to him: 'Now I won't set out on a tour of the countryside withVen. Upananda the Sakyan. I'll set out on a tour of the countryside with the BlessedOne.'"Then Ven. Upananda said to him, 'Come, friend, let's set out on that tour of thecountryside now.'"'I won't set out on a tour of the countryside with you, venerable sir. I'll set out on atour of the countryside with the Blessed One.'"'But the robe I gave you, my friend, will set out on a tour of the countryside withme.' And angered and displeased, he snatched the robe back."As the Commentary points out, this rule applies to cases where one perceives therobe-cloth as being rightfully one's own even after having given it away, as whengiving it on an implicit or explicit condition that the recipient does not later fulfill.Thus the act of snatching back here does not entail a pārājika. If, however, one hasmentally abandoned ownership of the robe to the recipient and then for somereason snatches it back, the case would come under Pr 2.The factors for an offense here are three.Object: a piece of any of the six allowable kinds of robe-cloth, measuring at leastfour by eight fingerbreadths.218