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THE PAVARANA CEREMONY.
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to exchange greeting with incoming Bhikkhus. And the Blessed One said to those Bhikkhus: 'Do things go well with you, O Bhikkhus? Do you get enough to support yourselves with? Have you kept Vassa well, in unity, and in concord, and without quarrel? and have you not suffered from want of food?'
'Things go tolerably well with us, Lord; we get enough, Lord, wherewith to support ourselves; we have kept Vassa well, in unity, in concord, and without quarrel; and have not suffered from want of food.'
IV, I, II.
10. The Tathagatas sometimes ask about what they know; sometimes they do not ask about what they know. They understand the right time when to ask, and they understand the right time when not to ask. The Tathagatas put questions full of sense, not void of sense; to what is void of sense the bridge is pulled down for the Tathagatas. For two purposes the blessed Buddhas put questions to the Bhikkhus, when they intend to preach the doctrine, or when they intend to institute a rule of conduct to their disciples.
II. And the Blessed One said to those Bhikkhus: 'In what way, O Bhikkhus, have you kept Vassa well, in unity, and in concord, and without quarrel, and not suffered from want of food?'
'We have entered upon Vassa, Lord, a number of Bhikkhus, companions and friends of each other, in a certain district of the Kosala country. Now, Lord, we thought: "What shall we do (&c., as in § 1)?" Then we thought, Lord: "If we do not speak (&c., as in §§ 2-4)." Thus, Lord, we did not speak to or converse with each other (&c., down to :) without uttering a word on that account. In that
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