Questions and Answers on the Observance and So Forth

332. In the answering of the questions beginning with "What is the beginning of the legal act of Observance": "harmony is the beginning" means that the bodily harmony of those who have assembled, having purified the boundary with the intention "We shall perform the Observance" and having brought the consent and purity, is the beginning. "The performance is the middle" means that, having completed the preliminary duties, the performance of the recitation of the Pātimokkha is the middle. "The conclusion is the end" means that this conclusion of the Pātimokkha - "Therein, all should train in concord, harmoniously, without dispute" - is the end. "Harmony is the beginning of the legal act of invitation to admonish" means that the bodily harmony of those who have assembled, having purified the boundary with the intention "We shall perform the invitation to admonish" and having brought the consent-invitation, is the beginning. "The performance is the middle" means that the motion for the invitation to admonish and the invitation speech are the middle; the statement of the most junior member of the Saṅgha, "If I see it, I shall make amends," is the end. In the legal act of censure and so forth, "the ground" means the ground on account of which one becomes worthy of the legal act - that is the ground. "The person" means the person by whom that ground was committed - that is the person. "The formal act of the motion is the end" means that the concluding statement of each respective formal act of the motion - "The legal act of censure against the monk named so-and-so has been performed by the Saṅgha; the Saṅgha approves, therefore it is silent; thus do I understand it" - is the end. The remainder is clear everywhere.

The commentary on the questions and answers beginning with the Uposatha is finished.

Commentary on the Treatise on Reasons

334. In the Connection of Reasons - Regarding "ten reasons" and so forth, what is to be said has been stated in the commentary on the first Defeat itself. Regarding "whatever is for the excellence of the Community, that is for the comfort of the Community" and so forth, each upper term is the meaning of each lower term.

However, regarding "a hundred meanings, a hundred teachings" and so forth, by taking each of the ten terms as a root and combining them ten times, a hundred terms have been stated. Therein, by way of each latter term, a hundred meanings should be understood; by way of each former term, a hundred teachings should be understood. Or alternatively, dependent on which ten reasons a training rule has been laid down by the Tathāgata for disciples, which were previously described in the commentary on the first Defeat thus: "Therein, 'excellence of the Community' means the state of excellence of the Community; just as in the passage where 'excellent, O devas' occurs, it is the state of accepting the word 'excellent, Venerable Sir'; and whoever accepts the word of the Tathāgata, for him that is for his welfare and happiness for a long time; therefore, for the purpose of the Community's acceptance of my word as 'excellent, Venerable Sir,' I shall lay down the rule, having shown the danger in not accepting and the benefit in accepting, not by overpowering through force" - making this meaning clear, he said - "for the excellence of the Community" - described in this manner and so forth, since these have occurred here ten times, a hundred meanings should be understood, and by way of the terms that illuminate those meanings, a hundred teachings should be understood. Now, by way of the linguistic expressions that illuminate the meanings, a hundred linguistic expressions; by way of the linguistic expressions that constitute the teachings, a hundred linguistic expressions - thus two hundred linguistic expressions; a hundred knowledges in the hundred meanings, a hundred knowledges in the hundred teachings, two hundred knowledges in the two hundred linguistic expressions - thus four hundred knowledges should be understood.

Thus indeed what has been stated, it was stated in reference to this.

Thus in the Samantapāsādikā, the commentary on the Vinaya,

the commentary on the Mahāvagga is finished.