ought at once to declare his fault, and after proper penance he shall have rest and peace.
"Brethren! having repeated this preface, I demand of you all—Is this assembly pure or not? (Repeat this three times.) Brethren! this assembly is pure; silent! silent! ye stand! So let it be! Brethren, I now proceed to recite the four parajika laws, ordered to be recited twice every month."
These four laws are then repeated, and the penalty of excommunication,
which attaches to a breach of any of them, is
enunciated. The first of the four prohibits impure conduct;
the second, theft. The third runs as follows:—
"If a Bhikshu cause a man's death, or hold a weapon and give it a
man (for the purpose), or if he speak of the advantages of death, or if
he carelessly exhort one to meet death (saying), 'Tush, you are a brave
man,' or use such wicked speech as this, 'It is far better to die and not
to live,' using such considerations as these, bringing every sort of expedient
into use, praising death, exhorting to death: this Bhikshu
ought to be excluded and cut off."
The fourth rule is against pretending to a perfect knowledge
of the Truth which the Bhikshu does not in fact possess.
At the end of the recitation of these four rules it is declared that a brother who has transgressed any one of them "has acquired the guilt which demands exclusion, and ought not to live as a member of the priesthood." The question as to the purity of the Assembly is then again put, and the priest (after declaring it pure) proceeds to thirteen rules, the breach of which is punished by suspension. The first restrains a monk from pampering lustful thoughts, the second from bringing any part of his body in contact with that of a woman, the third from lewd talk with a woman, the fourth from obtaining a woman to minister to him. For a violation of this last injunction the highest penance, as well as suspension, is appointed. There follow rules against building a residence of illegal size, or without due consecration, or on an inconvenient site; against building a Vihâra on an inconvenient site; against slander of a Bhikshu (two rules), against causing disunion in a community,
