FIRST LECTURE,

CALLED

BEGGING OF FOOD .

FIRST LESSON.

WHEN a male or a female mendicant, having entered the abode of a householder with the intention of collecting alms, recognises food, drink, dainties, and spices as affected by, or mixed up with, living beings, mildew, seeds or sprouts, or wet with water, or covered with dust--either in the hand or the pot of another --they should not, even if they can get it, accept of such food, thinking that it is impure and unacceptable . (1)

But if perchance they accept of such food, under pressing circumstances , they should go to a secluded spot, a garden, or a monk's hall--where there are no

eggs, nor living beings, nor sprouts, nor dew, nor water, nor ants, nor mildew, nor drops (of water), nor mud, nor cobwebs--and rejecting (that which is affected by), and cleaning that which is mixed up (with living beings, &c.), they should circumspectly eat or drink it. But with what they cannot eat or drink, they should resort to a secluded spot, and leave it there on a heap of ashes or bones, or rusty things, or chaff, or cowdung, or on any such-like place which they have repeatedly examined and cleaned. (2)

A monk or a nun on a begging-tour should not accept as alms whatever herbs they recognise, on examining them, as still whole, containing their source of life, not split longwise or broadwise, and still alive, fresh beans, living and not broken; for such food is impure and unacceptable. (3)

But when they recognise after examination that those herbs are no more whole, do not contain their source of life, are split longwise or broadwise, and no more alive, fresh beans, lifeless and broken, then they may accept them, if they get them; for they are pure and acceptable. (4)

A monk or nun on a begging-tour should not accept as alms whatever flattened grains, grains containing much chaff, or half-roasted spikes of wheat, &c., or flour of wheat, &c., or rice or flour of rice, they recognise as only once worked ; for such food is impure and unacceptable. (5)

But when they recognise these things as more than once worked, as twice, thrice worked, then they may accept them, if they get them; for they are pure and acceptable. (6)

A monk or a nun desiring to enter the abode of a householder for collecting alms, should not enter or leave it together with a heretic or a householder; or a monk who avoids all forbidden food, &c., together with one who does not. (7)

A monk or a nun entering or leaving the out-of-door places for religious practices or for study should not do so together with a heretic or a householder; or a monk who avoids all forbidden food, together with one who does not. (8)

A monk or a nun wandering from village to village should not do so together with a heretic or a householder; or a monk who avoids all forbidden food, together with one who does not. (9)