BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

Buddhist Monastic Code 1unthinkingly — e.g., heating a kettle of water on the stove, seeing that it hastadpoles in it and in a knee-jerk reaction dumping the water out on theground so that they won't be boiled to death; orunintentionally — e.g., accidentally knocking over a goldfish bowl.However, a bhikkhu should always check water before using it. Water strainers arediscussed in BMC2, Chapter 3.Watering plants. The topic of watering plants comes up in the Commentary'sdiscussion of the bad habits of the bhikkhus at Kīṭāgiri mentioned under Sg 13.There it says that even if the water has no discernable life, to use it or havesomeone else use it to water plants with the purpose of corrupting families with giftsfrom the plant entails a dukkaṭa. In cases of this sort, one is not allowed to usekappiya-vohāra or any other way of indicating one's desire that the plant bewatered.If one wants to use the fruits or flowers of the plant in other ways — to eat the fruitoneself, to make a gift of fruit to the Community, to use the flowers as an offeringto a Buddha image, etc. — one may not water it oneself, but there is no offense ingetting someone else to water it if one uses kappiya- vohāra. ("Look at how dry thisplant is !" "If it doesn't get any water, it's going to die.")If one wants the plant to grow for other reasons — for the sake of its shade or aspart of a decorative garden or forest — there is no offense in watering it oneself aslong as one uses water with no discernable life in it. Two of the ancientcommentaries add that if one simply desires shade, a garden, or a forest, one mayplant the plant oneself as long as one places it in earth that would not count as"genuine soil" (jātā paṭhavī) under Pc 10.Summary: Pouring water that one knows to contain living beings — or having itpoured — on grass or clay is a pācittiya offense. Pouring into such water anythingthat would kill the beings — or having it poured — is also a pācittiya offense.284