He Shall Then
Meditate On The Advantages To Be Derived From Carrying The Alms-Bowl
And Putting On The Yellow Robe." The Injunctions On The Priesthood
Relative To Their Abstracting Their Thoughts And Desires From All
Earthly Matters Whatever, Are Of The Strictest Nature.
"The door
of the eye is to be kept shut.
When the outer gates of the city are
left open, though the door of every separate house and store be shut,
the enemy will enter the city and take possession; in like manner,
though all the ordinances be kept, if the eye be permitted to wander,
affection for worldly objects will be produced." A story is told of a
priest named Chittagutta, who resided once in a cave, upon the walls of
which the history of Buddha was painted "in the finest style of art."
The cave was visited by some priests, who expressed their admiration
of the paintings to Chittagutta, but the devotee replied that he had
lived there sixty years and had never seen them, nor would he, except
for their information, ever have become aware of their existence. There
was near the door of his cave a spreading tree; but he only knew that
it was there by the fall of its leaves or flowers; the tree itself he
never saw, as he carefully observed the precept not to look upwards,
or to a distance!
The priest of Buddha must possess but eight articles: three of these
are matters of dress; the others, a girdle for the loins, an alms-bowl,
a razor, a needle, and a water-strainer.
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