The Path of Purity Part II (of Concentration)

[118] CHAPTER IVEXPOSITION OF THE EARTH DE^CENow in what has been said m the words " forsa£en that monasterywhich is unsuitable to his concentration-culture, and livingin a suitable monastery " (p. 105):—whoever finds it comfortableliving with his teacher, in a monastery should live there,and clear up the subject of meditation. If it be not comfortablethere, he should live in whatever other monastery is suitable,whether at a distance of a gavuta, a h.ali~yojana or even ayojana. For while he lives thus, should there arise doubtor confusion in any detail of the subject, he should in timedo his duties in the monastery, go seekmg alms on the wayand, after his meal, go to the dwelling-place of the teacher,and on thaj; very day and in his presence clear up the matter.The next day he should salute the teacher and take his departure,and seeking alms on the way would be able to return tohis own abode without fatigue. 1 But whoso gets no comforteven in a monastery a yojana distant should solve all knottypoints in the subject and, having made it perfectly clear andfastened it to his apprehension, go a great distance and livein a suitable monastery, forsaking the one that is unsuitablefor his concentration-culture.Herein a monastery possessing one or other of eighteenfaults #is unsuitable. And the eighteen faults are these:—largeness, newness, dilapidation, dependence" on a road, havinga pool, proximity to a plantation of herbs or of flowers or offruits, desirableness, dependence on a town or on a wood oron fields, presence of persons of dissimilar views,* dependenceon a port, or on a border-town or on the boundaries of akingdom, unsuitableness, want of access to good friends. [119]Possessed of one or other of these eighteen faults a monasteryis unsuitable; where he should not live. ^ And why ?1 Fatigue would be harmful to his meditation.138