The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [262]
“Then we ate only in the evening and in the morning. Then there was an occasion when the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus thus: ‘Bhikkhus, please abandon that night meal, which is outside the proper time.’ Venerable sir, I was upset and sad, thinking: ‘The Blessed One tells us to abandon the more sumptuous of our two meals, the Sublime One tells us to relinquish it.’ Once, venerable sir, a certain man had obtained some soup during the day and he said: ‘Put that aside and we will all eat it together in the evening.’ [Nearly] all dishes are prepared at night, few by day. Out of our love and respect for the Blessed One, and out of shame and fear of wrongdoing, we abandoned that night meal, which was outside the proper time.
“It has happened, venerable sir, that bhikkhus wandering for alms in the thick darkness of the night have walked into a cesspool, fallen into a sewer, walked into a thornbush, and walked into a sleeping cow; they have met hoodlums who had already committed a crime and those planning one, and they have been sexually enticed by women. Once, venerable sir, I went wandering for alms in the thick darkness of the night. A woman washing a pot saw me by a flash of lightning and screamed out in terror: ‘Mercy me, a devil has come for me!’ I told her: ‘Sister, I am no devil, I am a bhikkhu [449] waiting for alms.’—‘Then it’s a bhikkhu whose ma’s died and whose pa’s died!672 Better, bhikkhu, that you get your belly cut open with a sharp butcher’s knife than this prowling for alms for your belly’s sake in the thick darkness of the night!’ Venerable sir, when I recollected that I thought: ‘How many painful states has the Blessed One rid us of! How many pleasant states has the Blessed One brought us! How many unwholesome states has the Blessed One rid us of! How many wholesome states has the Blessed One brought us!’”
7. “So too, Udāyin, there are certain misguided men here who, when told by me ‘Abandon this,’ say: ‘What, such a mere trifle, such a little thing as this? This recluse is much too exacting!’ And they do not abandon that and they show discourtesy towards me as well as towards those bhikkhus desirous of training. For them that thing becomes a strong, stout, tough, unrotting tether and a thick yoke.
8. “Suppose, Udāyin, a quail were tethered by a rotting creeper and would thereby expect injury, captivity, or death. Now suppose someone said: ‘The rotting creeper by which that quail is tethered and thereby expects injury, captivity, or death, is for her a feeble, weak, rotting, coreless tether.’ Would he be speaking rightly?”
“No, venerable sir. For that quail the rotting creeper by which she is tethered and thereby expects injury, captivity, or death, is a strong, stout, tough, unrotting tether and a thick yoke.”
“So too, Udāyin there are certain misguided men here who, when told by me ‘Abandon this’…do not abandon that and they show discourtesy towards me as well as towards those bhikkhus desirous of training. For them that thing becomes a strong, stout, tough, unrotting tether and a thick yoke.
9. “Udāyin, there are certain clansmen here who, [450] when told by me ‘Abandon this,’ say: ‘What, such a mere trifle, such a little thing to be abandoned as this, the Blessed One tells us to abandon, the Sublime