The Great Pretenders
ONCE THERE WAS A TIME of
great hardship in the country and the monks who were spending the vassa near a
poor village found themselves with very little lay support.
In order
to get enough food, the bhikkhus addressed each other in such a way that the
people in the village, never suspecting that they would be deceived by monks,
believed that they had attained sainthood. And as the news of them spread, they
gained even more respect. So the villagers, although themselves struggling to
survive, mangaged to pool together enough food to keep their “saints” well fed
and comfortable.
When the
vassa came to a close and all the bhikkhus who had spent their vassa away from
the Buddha went back to pay their respects to him, as was the custom, the
well-fed bhikkhus stood out like a sore thumb. Everyone else looked so thin and
pale next to them.
The Buddha
asked the healthy bhikkhus how they had managed to do so well when the other
monks could barely get by. The bhikkhus, expecting praise for their cleverness,
recounted how they had misled the poor villagers into believing that they were
saints. “And are you really saints?” the Buddha asked them, knowing full well
that they were not. When they admitted that they were not, the Buddha warned
them that to accept requisites from lay supporters, if they did not truly merit them, was indeed very unwholesome action and should he refrained from
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