127. Use of the requisites by the seven kinds of trainers is called “use as an inheritance”; for they are the Buddha’s sons, therefore they make use of the requisites as the heirs of requisites belonging to their father. But how then, is it the Blessed One’s requisites or the laity’s requisites that are used? Although given by the laity, they actually belong to the Blessed One, because it is by the Blessed One that they are permitted. That is why it should be understood that the Blessed One’s requisites are used. The confirmation here is in the Dhammadáyáda Sutta (MN 3). Use by those whose cankers are destroyed is called “use as a master”; for they make use of them as masters because they have escaped the slavery of craving.
128. As regards these kinds of use, use as a master and use as an inheritance are allowable for all. Use as a debt is not allowable, to say nothing of use as theft. But this use of what is reviewed by one who is virtuous is use freed from debt because it is the opposite of use as a debt or is included in use as an inheritance too. For one possessed of virtue is called a trainer too because of possessing this training.
129. As regards these three kinds of use, since use as a master is best, when a bhikkhu undertakes virtue dependent on requisites, he should aspire to that and use them after reviewing them in the way described. And this is said:
“The truly wise disciple
Who listens to the Dhamma
As taught by the Sublime One
Makes use, after reviewing,
Of alms food, and of dwelling,
And of a resting place,
And also of the water
For washing dirt from robes” (Sn 391).
“So like a drop of water
Lying on leaves of lotus,
A bhikkhu is unsullied
By any of these matters,
By alms food, [and by dwelling,]
And by a resting place,
And also by the water
For washing dirt from robes” (Sn 392).
“Since aid it is and timely
Procured from another
The right amount he reckons,
Mindful without remitting
In chewing and in eating,
In tasting food besides:
He treats it as an ointment
Applied upon a wound.” (Source untraced)
“So like the child’s flesh in the desert
Like the greasing for the axle,
He should eat without delusion
Nutriment to keep alive.” (Source untraced)
So virtue is of four kinds as “virtue of Pátimokkha restraint,” and so on.
131. In the first pentad in the fivefold section the meaning should be understood in accordance with the virtue of those not fully admitted to the Order, and so on. For this is said in the Paþisambhidá: “(a) What is virtue consisting in limited purification? That of the training precepts for those not fully admitted to the Order: such is virtue consisting in limited purification. What is virtue consisting in unlimited purification? That of the training precepts for those fully admitted to the Order: such is virtue consisting in unlimited purification. What is virtue consisting in fulfilled purification? That of magnanimous ordinary men devoted to profitable things, who are perfecting [the course] that ends in trainership, regardless of the physical body and life, having given up [attachment to] life: such is
virtue of fulfilled purification, (d) What is virtue consisting in purification not adhered to? That of the seven kinds of trainer: such is virtue consisting in purification not adhered to. What is virtue consisting in tranquillized purification? That of the Perfect One’s disciples with cankers destroyed, of the Paccekabuddhas, of the Perfect Ones, accomplished and fully enlightened: such is virtue consisting in tranquillized
purification” (Patis I 42–43).
By Bhikkhu Ñānamoli