BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

Buddhist Monastic Code 13) In a monastery where there are lay and novice attendants, it is importantthat they be fully informed of the need to make sure that leftovers from thebhikkhus' meals not be served to the bhikkhus again on a later day. Ifdonors come with a large pot of food, intending for it to be eaten over aperiod of several days, the amount of food that the bhikkhus would eat inone day can be placed in a separate vessel and offered to them, while theremainder can be stored in a proper place for later use.Derived offenses. If a bhikkhu accepts or takes, for the sake of food, a juice drink, atonic, or medicine that has been stored overnight, there is a dukkaṭa in the taking,and another dukkaṭa for every mouthful he eats. The Commentary, though, assertsthat when a bhikkhu takes, not for food but simply to assuage his thirst, a juicedrink stored overnight, he incurs a pācittiya for every swallow he drinks.It seems strange that drinking the juice simply as juice would entail a strongerpenalty than taking it as food. As there is no basis anywhere in the Canon for theCommentary's assertion, there seems no reason to adopt it. Mv.VI.40.3 statesclearly that juice drinks, taken for any reason, are allowable at any time on the daythey are accepted, but not after dawnrise of the following day. No specific penaltyis given for taking them on the following day, but inferring from the Vibhaṅga to thisrule we can use the Great Standards to say that the penalty would be a dukkaṭa.Non-offenses. There is no offense in the mere act of storing food. A bhikkhu goingon a journey with an unordained person may thus carry the latter's food — while thelatter carries the bhikkhu's food — without committing an offense.There is also no offense in telling an unordained person to store food that has notbeen formally received. For example, if donors simply leave food at a bhikkhu'sresidence without formally presenting it, the bhikkhu may tell a novice or lay personto take it and put it away for a later day. If the food is then presented to the bhikkhuon a later day, he may eat it that day without penalty.However, Mv.VI.33.2 states that food may be stored indoors in a monastery only ina building designated for the purpose (this would include the dwelling of anyonewho is not a bhikkhu — see BMC2, Chapter 7). To eat food stored indoorsanywhere else in the monastery, even if it has not been formally accepted on aprevious day, would incur a dukkaṭa under Mv.VI.32.2. A bhikkhu may, however,store medicines or the five tonics anywhere in the monastery without penalty.If a bhikkhu accepts, sets aside, and then eats any of the four kinds of edibles allwithin their permitted time periods — e.g., he receives bread in the morning, sets itaside, and then eats it before that noon; or receives honey today, sets it aside, andtakes it as a tonic tomorrow — there is no offense.This rule makes no exceptions for a bhikkhu who is ill, although the rule as a wholeis suspended when there is scarcity and famine, and reinstated when the scarcityand famine have passed (Mv.VI.17-20; Mv.VI.32).328