Mahavogga 6.32

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Adapted from the Translation by T. W. Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg

MAHAVAGGA

SIXTH KHANDHAKA(ON MEDICAMENTS)

Chapter-32.

1. Now at that time Veshali was well provided with food, the harvest was good, alms were easy to obtain, one could very well get a living by gleaning, or through favour.

And when the Lord Buddha had retired into solitude this consideration presented itself to his mind: 'The things which I have prescribed for the Bhikkhus in a time of scarcity, when the harvest is bad, and alms are difficult to obtain--keeping food indoors, cooking it indoors, cooking it of one's own accord, taking what they can pick up, eating food brought from within, or received before meal-time, eating things found in woods or in pools, those things the Bhikkhus enjoy also now.'

And the Lord Buddha, in the evening, when he had left his solitude, said to the venerable Ananda: 'The things which (&c., as above, down to:) or in pools--do the Bhikkhus enjoy those things now also?'

'They enjoy them, Lord.'

2. Then the Lord Buddha, in that connection, and on that account, after having delivered a dhamma discourse, said to the Bhikkhus:

'The things which I have prescribed (&c., as in §-1, down to:) or in pools--those I do not allow from this day forth. You are not, O Bhikkhus, to eat food kept indoors, or cooked indoors, or cooked of your own accord; nor to take things (to eat) which you have picked up. Whosoever shall do so, is guilty of a dukkata offence. And you are not, O Bhikkhus--after you have once finished eating, and have refused food still offered--to eat food brought from within, or received before meal-time, or found in the woods or pools, even if it be food which is not the leavings of the meal of one who has eaten on invitation. Whosoever shall so eat, shall be dealt with according to law.'