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II, 3, 1. UPOSATHA CEREMONY, AND PÂTIMOKKHA. 241
At that time the Bhikkhus, considering that the Blessed One had ordered them to assemble on the fourteenth &c. day of each half month, assembled on the fourteenth &c. day of each half month and sat there silent. The people went to them in order to hear the Dhamma. They were annoyed, murmured, and became angry: 'How can the Sakyaputtiya Samanas, when they have assembled on the fourteenth &c. day of each half month, sit there silent, like the dumb, or like hogs ? Ought they not to recite the Dhamma, when they have assembled ?' Some Bhikkhus heard those people that were annoyed, murmured, and had become angry; these Bhikkhus told this thing to the Blessed One. In consequence of that and on this occasion the Blessed One, after having delivered a religious discourse, thus addressed the Bhikkhus: 'I prescribe, O Bhikkhus, that you recite the Dhamma, when you have assembled on the fourteenth &c. day of each half month.
3.
1. Now when the Blessed One was alone and had retired into solitude, the following consideration presented itself to his mind: What if I were to prescribe that the Bhikkhus recite as the Pâtimokkha1 the precepts which I have promulgated to
1 On the origin and the meaning of the title Pâtimokkha,' see our Introduction, p. xxvii.
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