..續本文上一頁or would lead us to believe. This fact can be discerned from a story involving the Venerable Maha Kaccana that is reported in the Mahavagga of the Vinaya Pitaka.[9]
When this story unfolds, the elder was dwelling in Avanti at his favorite residence, the Osprey”s Haunt on Precipice Mountain. A lay disciple of his named Sona Kutikanna came to him and expressed the wish to go forth under him as a monk. But Kaccana, seeing perhaps that the householder was not yet ready to take such a big step, discouraged him with the words: "Difficult, Sona, is it to sleep alone, to eat one meal a day, and to observe celibacy for as long as life lasts. While remaining a householder, you should apply yourself to the Buddha”s teaching, and at the proper times you may sleep alone, eat one meal a day, and observe celibacy."
With these words Sona”s enthusiasm for ordination subsided. Some time later, however, the urge was rekindled, and he approached the Venerable Maha Kaccana with the same request. A second time the elder discouraged him, and a second time Sona”s desire for ordination abated. When Sona approached him for the third time and asked for ordination, Maha Kaccana gave him the "going forth" (pabbajja), that is, the initial ordination as a novice (samanera).
During the Buddha”s time it seems to have been customary to grant mature men, already endowed with faith in the Dhamma and well acquainted with its tenets, both ordinations in immediate succession. The novice ordination would be given first, and then right afterwards the ceremony of higher ordination (upasampada) would be performed, making the postulant a bhikkhu, a full member of the Sangha. But at the time that the above incident took place Avanti was short of monks, being a region quite far from the Buddha”s own missionary rounds and from the other centers of Buddhist activity. According to the disciplinary regulations that were still in effect, the higher ordination had to be performed by a chapter of at least ten bhikkhus (dasavagga-bhikkhusangha). But such was the situation in Avanti that the Venerable Maha Kaccana could not easily find even nine other bhikkhus to confer the higher ordination on Sona. It was only three years later that the elder could, with trouble and difficulty, convene an assembly of ten bhikkhus from different places in the region to give Sona the higher ordination.
When the Venerable Sona had completed his first rains retreat as a bhikkhu, the wish arose in him to pay a visit to the Buddha. He had heard many times the highest praise of the Blessed One, his lord and refuge, yet he had never seen the Master face to face, and now the desire to do so had become irresistible. He went to his preceptor to ask for his permission to make the long journey to Savatthi, where the Buddha was residing. Not only did the Venerable Maha Kaccana applaud his disciple”s desire to see the Buddha, but he asked Sona to convey to the Lord an appeal that certain monastic regulations be relaxed to suit the different social and geographical conditions that prevailed in Avanti and in other border regions.
When the Venerable Sona came to the Buddha and explained his preceptor”s request, the Master readily agreed. First, to determine what districts should count as border regions, the Buddha defined the boundaries of the Middle Country, wherein the original regulations were to remain binding. Then he announced the revised versions of the rules that would apply in the border regions, though not in the Middle Country. These revised rules are the following: (1) The higher ordination would not require ten bhikkhus but could now be given by a chapter of five, one of whom must be a master of the Vinaya, the monastic discipline. (2) Monks are allowed to use sandals with thick linings, as the grou…
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