Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/483

Rh total abstinence from intoxicating drinks is obligatory. The usual mode of obtaining food is for the monk to take his begging-bowl, a brown earthenware vessel, in shape nearly like a soup tureen without its cover, and holding it in his hands, to beg straight from house to house. He i-; to say nothing, but simply stand outside the hut, the doors and windows of which in India are usually large ami open. If anything is put into his bowl he utters a pious wish on behalf of the giver and passes on ; if nothing is given he passes on in silence, and thus begs straight on without going to the houses of the rich or luxurious rather than to those of the poor and thrifty. As the food of all classes consisted almost exclusively of some form of curry, the mixture was not so very incongruous, and when enough had been given, the monk retired to his home to cat it, thinking the while of the impermanence and worth- lessness of the body which was thus nourished, and of the processes through which the food would have to pass. To express a Buddhist idea in the quaint words of Herbert, &quot; Look on meat, think it dirt, then eat a bit, and say withal, Earth to earth I commit.&quot; From the first it was permitted to wealthy or pious laymen to invite one or more monks to take their mid day meal at their houses, and this was frequently done, especially on full moon days ; it was also allowed to the laity on special occasions to bring food to the monastery. For the stricter monks further vows are mentioned of abstinence from animal food, of eating the whole meal without rising, of refusing all invitations and all food brought to them, of eating everything in the bowl without leaving or rejecting anything, and so on ; but it is doubtful whether they are ever observed now, and they were formerly taken only for a time. Much later a practice sprung up of the order possessing rice fields, letting them out to be cultivated on condition of receiving a share of the produce, and then having their meals cooked at home by some lay follower or even slave. As regards residence, Gautama considered a lonely life in tlie forest to be the most conducive to self-conquest; but as he himself, after having lived apart from the world, spent his life from the commencement of his prophetic career among men, so from the first the lonely life was adopted only by the most earnest, and that only for a time. The majority of the monks lived in companies in groves or gardens, and very soon the piety of laymen provided for them suitable monasteries, several of which were built even in the lifetime of Buddha, During the fine weather the monks often travelled from place to place, as their teacher did, but during the rainy season they always settled in one spot in or near a town ; and near the ancient cities of India have been lately discovered extensive ruins on the site of the monasteries mentioned in the Pali books. On the other hand, there have been found numerous rock caves, many of which, especially in Ceylon, were evidently meant for solitary hermits, and they often bear inscriptions in the old Pali character, brought by Asoka s son Mahendra to Ceylon in the 3d century B.C. As regards clothing, the monks were to be habited in clothes of no value, put together from cast-off rags ; but here again the practice of Buddha himself, and that followed by the large majority of the brethren, was to dress in simple robes of dull orange colour, first torn to pieces and then sewed together again, so as to form two under garments, and one upper garment to cover the whole of the body except the right shoulder. All three are simply lengths of cotton cloth ; the two under ones, the antara-vasaka and the sanghati, being wrapt round the middle of the body, and round the thighs and legs respectively; and the upper one, the uttarasanga, being first wrapt round the legs and then drawn over the left shoulder. The colour was probably at first chosen as the one regarded with most contempt, because of its being nearly the same as that of very old rags of the common white cotton cloth, and because cloths of that colour were of no value at all for ordinary purposes ; but the orange-coloured robes, from their very peculiarity as a sign of the members of the Sangha, soon came to be looked upon as an honour, and were sought after on that account alone ; so that the Dhammapada, a collection of ethical verses, one of the books in the Buddhist canon, has to give a warning that those who are not free from sin (kasava) are not worthy of the orange colour (kasava). In Buddhist countries men s ordinary dress is merely a cloth wrapt round the loins, whereas the monks are to cover the whole body, and are not permitted at any time to lay their robes aside. To do so would be to lay aside their membership of the order, to put on or to put off the robes being current ex pressions for joining or leaving the Society. Of course no ornaments are allowed, and even the natural ornament of hair is not permitted, complete tonsure being obligatory on all. No monk should possess more than one change of robes, and minute rules in detail are laid down to guard against any brother even by indirect methods taking any steps to procure himself new ones ; to provide them spon taneously is the duty and privilege of the laity. It is scarcely necessary to state that sexual intercourse, theft, and murder entail upon the culprit irrevocable expul sion from the order ; while the ease with which the Society could be left provided an escape for those who found the vow of continence too hard to keep. On the vow of poverty a few words ought to be said. In his individual right no monk is to possess more than the following eight articles : 1, 2, 3, the three robes mentioned above ; 4, a girdle for the loins ; 5, an alms-bowl ; 6, a razor ; 7, a needle ; 8, a water-strainer, through which he is to strain all he drinks not only to remove impurities, but also and chiefly to pre vent the accidental destruction of any living creatures. This individual vow of poverty has however been swallowed up by the permission given to the community to possess not only books and other personal property, but even lands and houses. Gautama himself is said to have received such gifts on behalf of the Sangha,, which at the time of its expulsion from India must have rivalled in wealth the most powerful orders of the Middle Ages, and in some Buddhist coun tries at the present day the Society possesses enormous tracts of the most valuable land. But water-drinking celi bates, who take only one meal a day, and dress in a simple uniform, could never indulge in unbounded personal luxury. Many members of the order enjoy the fascinating sense of wealth, so completely contrary to all the principles of their religion, and to the precepts laid down by their Teacher for the attainment of spiritual progress ; they are often lazy and not seldom avaricious : but in the southern church at least they are not disgraced by gluttony or drunkenness, and have never given way to the weak vanity of dress, or of the pomp and pride of ritual. The vow of obedience was never taken by the Buddhist monks or nuns, and in this may be noticed a fundamental difference between them and their brethren and sisters in the West. Mental culture, not mental death, was the aim set before the Buddhist ascetic by the founder of his order. Each one is to conquer self by himself ; and the observance of no ceremony, the belief in no creed, will avail him who fails in obtaining this complete self- mastery. Outward respect and courtesy to his superiors are exacted from the novice, but his own salvation and his usefulness as a teacher depend on his self-culture. He is to obey not his brother, but the law ; his superior has no supernatural gifts of wisdom or of absolution ; and by himself must the ascetic stand or fall. A few simple rules of discipline are laid down, but the highest punish ment is to compel the fallen brother to return to the world, 