BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

The Living Plant Chapter Chapter 8.2the Commentary's definition, using herbicides to kill plants would also come underdamaging.The Commentary adds that plants growing in water, such as water hyacinths, whoseroots do not extend to the earth beneath the water, have the water as their base. Toremove them from the water is to damage them, although there is no offense inmoving them around in the water. To move them from one body of water to anotherwithout incurring a penalty, one may take them together with some of the water inwhich they originally lived and place them together with that water into the new bodyof water.Also, says the Commentary, plants such as mistletoe, orchids, and bird vine thatgrow on trees have the tree as their base. To remove them from the tree is todamage them and so entails a pācittiya.Perception. If one damages a living plant (§) perceiving it to be something else —say, a dead plant — there is no offense. If one damages a plant in doubt as towhether it is living or dead, then regardless of what it actually is, the offense is adukkaṭa.Intention is discussed in detail under the non-offenses, below.Making fruit allowable. Because fruit seeds are bījagāma, the question arises as tohow bhikkhus should go about eating fruit. The Commentary to this rule discussesin detail two passages, one each in the Mahāvagga (VI. 21) and the Cullavagga(V.5.2), dealing with precisely this question. The Cullavagga passage reads, "I allowyou, bhikkhus, to consume fruit that has been made allowable for monks in any offive ways: if it is damaged by fire, by a knife, by a fingernail, if it is seedless, andthe fifth is if the seeds are discharged." The Mahāvagga passage reads, "Now atthat time there was a great quantity of fruit at Sāvatthī, but there was no one tomake it allowable... (The Buddha said,) 'I allow that fruit that is seedless or whoseseeds are discharged be consumed (even if) it has not been made allowable."First, to summarize the commentaries' discussion of seedless fruit and fruit whoseseeds have been discharged: According to the Commentary to the Mahāvagga,seedless fruit includes fruit whose seeds are too immature to grow. As for fruitwhose seeds have been discharged, the Sub-commentary states that this means,"Fruit, such as mangoes or jackfruit, which it is possible to eat having removed theseeds and separating them entirely (from the flesh)."The question sometimes arises as to whether bhikkhus may remove the seedsthemselves before eating fruit of this sort, or if an unordained person has to removethem first. Given the context of the Mahāvagga passage and the wording of theSub-commentary's explanation, it seems clear that the bhikkhus themselves maydischarge the seeds before or while eating the fruit. As the Commentary notes, boththese kinds of fruit are allowable in and of themselves, and need not go through anyother procedure to make them allowable.265