English
107 The shadow of the Great Master has faded away, and the chief magnates of the Law have also passed from us. The heretics stand high as a mountain, and the small hill of benevolence is also being ruined. To preserve the radiance of the sun-like Buddha is indeed the work of the good and wise. If one follow the narrow path, how can one teach the greater way? (The good Law) has been fortunately handed down to the intelligent, who haye diligently to promote it. It is to be hoped that one will transmit and propagate the Law without defiling it, but making it ever more fragrant to remotest ages. What is meant by ‘making the Law ever more fragrant?’ : It is stirring up the waves in the Ocean of Sila (morality). Thus the teaching of the Buddha may not come to an end though it has already been near its end, and the practice of the Law may not be wrong though it has almost suffered misapprehension. We should make our practice agree with the Right Teaching taught in Ragagrtha, and endeavour to arrive at the point of undefiled discipline laid down at the Geta Gardens. CHAPTER XX. BATHING AT PROPER TIMES. Now I shall describe the manner of bathing. Bathing in India is different from that in China. The weather is moderate in all seasons, somewhat different from other districts. There are flowers and fruits always, even in the twelfth month. Snow and ice are unknown. There is frost, but slightly. Though it is hot (in certain seasons), yet the ‘heat is not intense ; and even in the warmest season people do not suffer from ‘prickly heat!’ When it is very cold, they have not chapped feet, for they wash and bathe frequently, and think much about the purity of the body. In their daily life they do not eat without having first washed. . Water is exceedingly abundant in the pools everywhere. It is con- sidered meritorious to dig ponds*. If we go but one yogana, we see * The so-called ‘ prickly heat’ is a severe form of Lichen tropicus. * Cf. Si-yu-ki, Julien, Mémoires, liv. viii, p. 466, where two brother Brahmans, according to the command of Mahesvara Deva, build a monastery and dig a pool to gain relicions merit. 108 A RECORD OF BUDDHIST PRACTICES. XX, twenty or thirty bathing-places ; and they vary in size, some being one mou (or about 733$ square yards), others five mou. On all sidés of a pond Sdla-trees are planted, which grow to the height of about forty or fifty feet. All these pools are fed by rain-water, and are as clear as a pure river. Near every one of the eight Kaityas! there is a pool in which the World-honoured One used to bathe. The water in these pools is very pure, different from that in others. There are more than ten great pools near the Nalanda monastery, -and there every morning a ghav/éi is sounded to remind the priests of the bathing-hour. Every one brings a bathing-sheet with him. Sometimes a hundred, sometimes a thousand (priests) leave the monastery together, The eight Kaityas are— 1. In Lumbint Garden, Kapilavastu, the Buddha’s birthplace. (Cp. Lalita., p. 94.) 2. Under the Bodhi tree near the Naira#gana river, Magadha, where Buddhahood was obtained. 3. In Varamast (Benares), in the country of the K4sts, the place where the Buddha preached his Law for the first time. 4. In Geta Garden, Sravasti, where the Buddha’s great supernatural powers were displayed, 5- In Kanyakubga (Kanoj), where the Buddha descended from the Trayastrimsa Heaven. 6. In Ragagrzha, where a division among the disciples arose and the Buddha taught them accordingly. 7. In Vaisalf, where the Buddha spoke about the Jength of his life. Reference to this occasion in I-tsing’s Introduction, see p. 5, and also in Si-yu-ki, Julien, liv. vii, p. 390. , 8. In the great avenue of the Séla-trees in Kusinagara, where the Buddha entered Nirvaza. See my note at the end. The above names are to be found in (1) Jiun K4syapa’s Commentary ; (2) Mialasarvastivadanikaya-vinaya-samyuktavastu, book xxxviii, translated by L-tsing, A.D. 710 (Nanjio’s Catal., No. 1121); (3) Ash/a-maha-aitya-stotra, composed by king Stldditya (Nanjio’s Catal., No. 1071); (4) most clearly, in the ‘Sftra on the Names of the Great Xaityas’ (Nanjio’s Catal., No. 898), see Nanjio’s note in the Catalogue, Cf. the eight Stipas, Mah4parinibbana-sutta VI, 51-62 (pp. 131-135). BATHING AT PROPER TIMES. Tog and proceed in all directions towards these pools, where all of them take a bath. The regulation concerning the bathing-sheet is as follows: Take soft cloth five feet long by a foot and a half wide, and put it round the body (over the under-garment). Draw out and take off the ordinary under- garment, and let both ends of the bathing-cloth come in front. Then take hold of the Upper corner of the left end with the right hand, and by pulling it up towards the waist let it touch the body ; join this with the right end of the cloth; and twisting both together, push them in between the waist and the cloth itself. This is the way of putting on a bathing- sheet. The same is the rule for putting on an under-garment at bed- time. When a man is about to come out of the bathing-place, he should shake his body and emerge from the water very slowly lest he should take out some insects adhering to the cloth. The rules concerning the manner of coming up to the bank are laid down in the Vinaya texts 1, In case of having a bath in the monastery without going to the pond, the bathing-cloth is put on in the same manner, but the water is poured on by another man, and an enclosure is to be made around the spot for bathing. The World-honoured One taught how to build a bath-room, to con- struct a brick pond in an open place, and to make a medical bath in order to cure a disease. Sometimes he ordained the whole body to be anointed with oil, sometimes the feet to be rubbed with oil every night, or the head every Morning; for such a Practice is very good for maintaining clear eyesight and keeping off the cold. Concerning all these details, we have sacred authority which is too voluminous to be fully stated here. A detailed account is found in the Vinaya texts 2, Further, bathing should always take place when one is hungry.: Two kinds of benefits are derived by having meals after bathing. First, the body is pure and empty, being free from all * In the Mélasarvastivadanikaya-samyuktavastu, book v (Nanjio’s Catal., No. 1121), and the Vinaya-sangraha, book xii (Nanjio’s Catal. No. 1427). * For the construction of a bathing-room enjoined by the Buddha, &c., see the Milasarvastivadanikaya-samyuktavastu, book iii (Nanjio’s Catal., No, 1121), and also in the Katurvarga-vinayapi/aka (Nanjio’s Catal., No. 1r17). 110 A RECORD OF BUDDHIST PRACTICES. XXL dirt. Second, the food will be well digested, as the bathing makes one | free from phlegm or any disease of the internal organs. Bathing after a good meal (lit. much eating) is forbidden in the ‘ Science of Medicine’ (Kikitsa-vidy4). Therefore we can see that the (C/ivese) saying: ‘Wash hair when hungry, but bathe after food,’ does not hold good in every country, When a bathing-sheet only three feet long is worn (as usual in China), it cannot preserve decency, being too short. Bathing without any cloth is contrary to the teaching of the Buddha. People ought to use a bathing-garment made of a cloth the length of which measures four times its breadth ; then it can cover the body as is seemly. Such a prac- tice is not only in perfect harmony with the noble teaching of the Buddha, but also produces no shame before men and gods. As to the right or wrong of other mattérs the wise should carefully judge for themselves. Even in night bathing one should adhere to the proper custom; how much more then should one cover the body befote the people's eyes! . CHAPTER XXI. CONCERNING THE MAT TO SIT ON. IN the five parts of India there is no suck custom as using a mat to sit on‘while worshipping. Nor is there any reference in the rules of the four Nikayas to the custom of standing and saluting others three times. General rules for doing homage will be found in other chapters (xxv and xxx). In making a mat for sitting or lying on (Nishidana) a piece of cloth is cut (in two), and the pieces placed one upon the other and stitched together. Patches (or fringe) are attached to the mat. I have no time to give here a minute description of its size’. It is used for preserving the mattress belonging to-another, when one happens to sleep 1 KAsyapa gives a sketch of the mat, and says: ‘Its length is the Buddha's two spans, and its width the Buddha’s one span and a half. As the Buddha’s fingers were twice as long as ours, the length would be about 4 feet 5 inches, and the width 3 feet 32 inches. One third of the mat is fringed at the bottom. The venerable Udayi was very tall; a mat of the measurement then prescribed was too short and lis feet extended beyond the edge. Accordingly he brought some RULES OF SLEEPING AND RESTING. Trl thereon. Whenever one uses anything which is another’s possession, whether it be new or old, one must spread (one’s own mat) over it. But if the thing be one’s own, and be old, one need not use (another mat). But one should avoid destroying gifts of the faithful by dirtying them. The sitting-mat is not used when one performs a salutation. The priests in the Southern Sea islands keep a cloth three or five feet long, doubled up like a napkin, and they use it for kneeling on when they perform a salutation. They carry it on the shoulder when walking. Whenever Indian Bhikshus come fo the tslands, they cannot but smile when they see this custom, CHAPTER XXII. RULES OF SLEEPING AND RESTING, AS apartments (in a monastery) are not spacious in India, and the residents are numerous, the beds are removed after the occupants have risen.