The-Collected-Teachings-of-Ajahn-Chah-Single-Volume

Understanding VinayaHe said, ‘Oh, Mahā, don’t you know this rule? Those people who werehere just now were all women. If women invite you to travel with them youshould not consent. If they make the arrangements themselves that’s fine.If I want to go I can, because I didn’t take part in making the arrangements.’The Mahā sat and thought, ‘Oh, I’ve really made a fool of myself.’The Vinaya states that to make an arrangement, and then travel togetherwith women, even though it isn’t as a couple, is a pācittiya offence.Take another case. Lay people would bring money to offer VenerableAjahn Pow on a tray. He would extend his receiving cloth, 1 holding it atone end. But when they brought the tray forward to lay it on the cloth hewould retract his hand from the cloth. Then he would simply abandon themoney where it lay. He knew it was there, but he would take no interestin it. He would just get up and walk away, because in the Vinaya it issaid that if one doesn’t consent to the money it isn’t necessary to forbidlaypeople from offering it. If he had desire for it, he would have to say,‘Householder, this is not allowable for a monk.’ He would have to tell them.If you have desire for it, you must forbid them from offering that which isunallowable. However, if you really have no desire for it, it isn’t necessary.You just leave it there and go.Although the Ajahn and his disciples lived together for many years,still some of his disciples didn’t understand Ajahn Pow’s practice. This is apoor state of affairs. As for myself, I looked into and contemplated manyof Venerable Ajahn Pow’s subtler points of practice.The Vinaya can even cause some people to disrobe. When they study itall the doubts come up. It goes right back into the past … ‘My ordination,was it proper? 2 Was my preceptor pure? None of the monks who sat inon my ordination knew anything about the Vinaya, were they sitting atthe proper distance? Was the chanting correct?’ The doubts come rolling1 A ‘receiving cloth’ is a cloth used by Thai monks for receiving things fromwomen, from whom they do not receive things directly. That Venerable AjahnPow lifted his hand from the receiving cloth indicated that he was not actuallyreceiving the money.2 There are very precise and detailed regulations governing the ordinationprocedure which, if not adhered to, may render the ordination invalid.537