BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

The Bowl Chapter Chapter 7.3it is by means of one's own resources. (This last point refers only to caseswhere the bhikkhu was the one who had the weavers hired in the first place.)Summary: When donors who are not relatives — and have not invited one to ask —have arranged for weavers to weave robe-cloth intended for one: Receiving thecloth after getting the weavers to improve it is a nissaggiya pācittiya offense.28. Ten days prior to the third-month Kattika full moon, shouldrobe-cloth offered in urgency accrue to a bhikkhu, he is to accept it ifhe regards it as offered in urgency. Once he has accepted it, he maykeep it throughout the robe season. Beyond that, it is to be forfeitedand confessed.The third-month Kattika full moon is the full moon in October, or the first if there aretwo. This is the final day of the first Rains-residence, and the day before thebeginning of the robe season.Robe-cloth offered in urgency is any piece of the six allowable kinds of robe-cloth,measuring at least four by eight fingerbreadths, offered under the followingconditions: The donor is someone who wants the greater merit that some peoplebelieve accrues to a gift of cloth given during the robe season, but who does notwant to wait until the robe season to make an offering, either because his/hersurvival is in doubt — as when a soldier is going into war, a traveler is about to setout on a journey, or a woman has become pregnant — or because he/she hasdeveloped new-found faith in the religion. At any time from the fifth through thefifteenth day of the waxing moon at the end of the first Rains-residence (see BMC2,Chapter 11) he/she sends a messenger to the bhikkhus, saying, "May the venerableones come. I am giving a Rains-residence (cloth)." (The Commentary adds that thedonor can also simply bring the cloth to the bhikkhus him- or herself.) Out ofcompassion for the donor, the bhikkhus should accept the cloth and then, beforeputting it aside, mark it as robe-cloth offered in urgency. The cloth can then bekept throughout the robe season — the first month after the Rains if the kaṭhina isnot spread; and the period during which the kaṭhina privileges are in effect if it is.The question is, why mark it?The Commentary argues that, because the cloth counts as Rains-residence cloth, itcan appropriately be shared out only among bhikkhus who have kept the Rainsresidenceup to that point. If any other bhikkhu receives such a piece of cloth, hemust give it back, as it belongs to the Community. Thus the mark is for the purposeof recognizing it as such. However, if this were the rationale, there would be noreason to treat the cloth any differently from other gifts of Rains-residence cloth. Amore likely rationale for the mark is suggested by a later passage in theCommentary: Other gifts of cloth received during the last ten days of the Rainsresidencecarry a life span that can, under NP 1 or 3, extend past the end of therobe season. If, for instance, the cloth is offered five days before the end of the223