BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

Buddhist Monastic Code 1"The boy Upāli heard his parents' conversation. So he went to the boys... and said,'Come, masters, let's go forth among the Sakyan-son monks.'"'If you go forth, master, so will we.'"So each of the boys, having gone to his parents, said, 'Permit us to go forth fromhome into homelessness.' Then the parents of the boys gave their permission,(thinking,) 'All these boys are unanimous in their desire. Their motives are noble.'"(The boys) having gone to the bhikkhus, asked for the Going-forth. The bhikkhusgave them the Going-forth and full Acceptance. Then, waking up in the last watchof the night, the boys (now bhikkhus) cried out, 'Give us porridge! Give us a meal!Give us food!'"The bhikkhus said, 'Wait, friends, until the night turns light. If there is porridge, youwill drink it. If there is a meal, you will eat it. If there is food, you will eat it. But ifthere is no porridge or meal or food, then you will eat having gone for alms.'"But even then, those (new) bhikkhus cried out as before, 'Give us porridge! Give usa meal! Give us food!' And they wet the bedding and soiled it."The Buddha, in rebuking the bhikkhus who had given full Acceptance to theseventeen boys, painted a picture of the bhikkhus' life very different from thatimagined by Upāli's parents:"Bhikkhus, how can these worthless men knowingly give full Acceptance to anindividual less than 20 years old? An individual less than 20 years old is not resistantto cold, heat, hunger, thirst, the touch of gadflies and mosquitoes, wind and sunand creeping things; or to abusive, hurtful language. He is not the sort who canendure bodily feelings that, when they arise, are painful, sharp, stabbing, fierce,distasteful, disagreeable, deadly.'"The factors for the full offense here are three.1) Object: a man less than 20 years old.2) Perception: One knows that he is less than 20 years old — either fromknowing on one's own, from having been told by the man, or from havingbeen told by others.3) Effort: One acts as the preceptor in his full Acceptance as a bhikkhu.Object. As Mv.I.75 makes clear, a person's age for the purpose of this rule iscounted from the time he becomes a fetus in his mother's womb. Because this isdifficult — if not impossible — to date with any accuracy, the usual practice incalculating a person's age is to add six months to the number of years since hisbirth, to allow for the possibility of his having been born prematurely. As theCommentary notes, a baby born after seven months in the womb may survive, butone born after only six months in the womb won't.380