In Which We Are All Udāyi

The Watercooler
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Hi All! I’m currently reading Buddhism in Chinese Society: An Economic History from the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries by Jacques Gernet (translated from French by Franciscus Verellen), and I’ve come across a bit that keeps making me laugh.

This section is on the use of money in the Mahāsāṃghikavinaya:

It is prohibited to store gold, silver, or money, for their possession engenders the five desires (of vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch). Udāyi has received some money from a donor. Knowing that he must not touch it, he has it sown into a corner of his habit and goes to market to buy himself some cake. This subterfuge is condemned by the Buddha. (155)

I hope you are inspired by Udāyi’s subterfuge to have some cake! :birthday: (And maybe if you’re a monastic just poke a lay-person until they get you some).

The full reference for this text is:

Gernet, Jacques. Buddhism in Chinese Society: An Economic History from the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries. Translated by Franciscus Verellen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.

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I just made some fig bars. But they didn’t have sugar. :pancakes:

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#vinayatips

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I haven’t read the entire Vinaya, but at some point when I was reading I wondered: Udāyi does so many wrong things—does he never get expelled? Then I started thinking that maybe “Udāyi” is sort of the “John Doe” of Pāli. Can someone set me right?

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I think that’s correct, though I cannot say for certain there wasn’t some time travelling monk from current times…