z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 06.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 429
THE BHIKKHU-THE BUDDHA’S CONCEPTION OF HIM
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naked, is of certain loose habits, licks his hands, respects no approach, sir, nor stop, sir; accepts nothing expressly brought, nor expressly prepared, nor any invitations. He accepts nothing taken from mouth of cooking-pot, nor placed within the threshold, nor within a mortar, nor among sticks, nor within a quern; nor anything from two eating together, nor from a pregnant woman: nor from a nursing mother; nor from a woman in intercourse with a man; nor food collected in drought; nor from where a dog is; nor from where flies are swarming; nor will he accept fish or meat; nor drink strong drink, “nor intoxicants, nor gruel. He is either a one-houser, a one-mouthful man; or a two houser, a two-mouthful man; or a sevenhouser, a seven-mouthful man. He maintains himself on one alms, on two, or on seven. He takes food once a day, or once every two days, or once every seven days. Thus does he dwell addicted to the practice of taking food according to rule, at regular intervals, upto even half a month. He feeds either on pot-herbs, or wild rice, or nivara seeds, or leather parings, or on hata, or on the powder in rice rusks, on rice-scum, on flour or oil-seeds, on grasses, on cowdung, or fruits and roots from the wood or on windfalls. He wears coarse hempen cloth, coarse mixture cloth, discarded corps-cloths, discarded rags, or tirita-bark cloth; or again he wears antelopehide, or strips of the same netted, or kusa fibre, or bark garments, or shale cloth, or a human-hair blanket, or a horse-hair blanket, or an owl’s-feather garment. He is a hair-and-beard plucker, addicted to the practice of plucking out both ; a stander-up; a croucher on heels, addicted to exerting himself (to move forward) when thus squatting; a bed-of-thorns man, putting iron spikes or thorns on his couch; he uses a plank-bed; sleeps on the ground; sleeps only on one side; is a dust-and-dirt wearer and an open-air man; a where-you-will sitter; a filth-eater, addicted to the practice of eating such; a non-drinker, addicted to the practice of drinking (cold water); and even-for-third-time-man.
- “After having done this, Nigrodha,” the
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