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V, 13, 3. RULES FOR FOOT-CLOTHING, SEATS, ETC. 33
higher life using only one bed, and with but one meal a day. Do you, therefore, Sona, remain in the state of a householder, and practise only for a time the higher life, the precepts of the Buddhas, using only one bed, and with but one meal a day.'
Then the desire for renunciation which had arisen in the disciple Sona Kutikanna abated in him.
A second time the disciple Sona Kutikanna (made the same request, and received the same reply with the same result].
And a third time Sona Kutikanna made the same request. Then the venerable Maha Kakkâyana conferred the pabbaggâ (ordination) on the disciple Sona Kutikanna.
Now at that time in the Southern country and in Avanti there were but few Bhikkhus. And it was only after the lapse of three years that the venerable Maha Kakkâyana was able, with difficulty, and with trouble, to get together a meeting of the Order in which ten Bhikkhus were present ?. And then he admitted the venerable Sona into the higher rank of the Order.
3. Now when the venerable Sona had passed the rainy season there sprang up in his mind, when he was meditating alone, this thought :
I have heard indeed that the Blessed One is such and such a one. But I have not as yet seen him face to face. I should like to go and visit the Blessed One, the Arahat Buddha, if my superior would allow me.'
And in the evening the venerable Sona, leaving his solitude, went to the place where the venerable
Compare gamikâbhisam khâra, Mahâvagga VI, 31, 3. : On the necessity of this, see Mahâvagga IX, 4, I.
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| SR No. | 007684 |
| Book Title | Vinaya Texts |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | T W Rhys Davids, Hermann Oldenberg |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1881 |
| Total Pages | 2523 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 47 MB |