Sermon on Transgression of 12 lay-news

“In this great forest of worldly existence, the sphere of old age, disease, and death*, there is no other protector but dharma.* Therefore it alone must be served. It is two-fold with complete and partial self-control. The first belongs to ascetics and is ten-fold: self-control, et-cetera. The second belongs to house-holders and is considered twelve-fold; the five lesser vows, the three meritorious vows, and the four disciplinary vows. The vows with transgressions* do not lead to virtue. Then transgressions five to each vow must be avoided. Binding from anger, cutting the skin, loading with excessive burdens, beating, limitation of food*, et-cetera are known (as transgressions) in non-injury. Teaching of wrong belief, a false accusation suddenly,248 telling of secrets, betrayal of confidential deliberation, and false writing are transgressions in truthfulness. Abetment in theft, receiving stolen goods, crossing an enemy’s realm, counterfeiting, falsification of measures are (transgressions) joined to non-theft.
Going to a woman who has been taken for a short time,249 going to one who has not been taken,250 another marriage, excessive persistence in love, and love-sport are prescribed (as transgressions) in chastity. Exceeding the amount of money and grain, of base metal, of cattle, et-cetera, of fields and possessions, of wrought and unwrought gold (are transgressions) in non-possession for one who has taken the vow it is not fitting (to act) in five ways in regard to acquisition, existence, offspring, joining, and gifts.251
Forgetfulness, exceeding (distance in the) upper, lower, and horizontal directions, increasing the ground: these five are prescribed (as transgressions) in the vow of limitation of direction.
Food with life, food joined with something that has life, food mixed with something that has life, fermented liquids, slowly ripening food: these belong to the standard of things of single and repeated enjoyment. These must be avoided in regard to food.* In regard to work, cruel work must be avoided. In this vow one should avoid the fifteen sins the undertaking of (sinful) work.
Livelihood from charcoal, a forest, carts, wages, splitting; trading in tusks, lac, rasa, hair, and poison; pressing in a machine, marking domestic animals, keeping worthless creatures,252 burning a forest, drying up a pond: one should avoid these fifteen. Livelihood from charcoal consists in making charcoal, in making frying-pans, in making pitchers of iron, or gold, working in copper, et-cetera, in baking bricks. The selling of leaves, flowers, and fruit of plants cut in two or not; living from splitting and grinding of grain: they are livelihood for forests. The sale of carts, the making of their parts, and also driving them: that is known as livelihood from carts. A living from driving the loads of oxen, buffaloes, camels, donkeys, [mules, and horses of carts that is livelihood from wages. Living from work of digging ponds, wells, et-cetera and crushing ‘rock, combined with injury to the earth that is livelihood from splitting. The taking of tusks, hair, nails, bones, skin, and down from their place of origin in a movable creature for the sake of trading that is livelihood from trading in tusks. The sale of lac, red arsenic, indigo, dhataki,253 borax, et-cetera that is called trading in lac, the abode of evil. The sale of fresh butter, lard, honey, wine, et-cetera; the sale of two-footed and four-footed creatures that is trading in rasa and hair. The sale of objects destructive of life, such as poison, weapons*, plows, machines, iron, sulpheret of arsenic that is called trading in poison. The pressing of seasame, sugar-cane, mustard seed, castor beansB in water-machines, et-cetera and the making of oil from their leaves are known as pressing by machine. Piercing the nose, branding, cutting the testicles, overloading,254 cutting the ears and tail that is called marking. The keeping of a maina, parrot, cat, dog, cock, peafowl, and of a slave-girl for the sake of money they are know as keeping of worthless creatures. A forest-fire could be of two kinds: from a calamity or from the idea of acquiring merit.255 Drying up of ponds is the flooding of water from ponds, rivers, lakes, let-cetera.
Superintendence of combined things,256 excess of repeated pleasure, garulity, bad gestures,257 love are connected with purposeless injury.
The evil activity of body, voice, and speech, want of zeal, not keeping (samayika) in mind are prescribed (as transgressions*) in the samayika-vow.
Employment of a servant,258 having something brought (from outside), throwing out of matter,259 consequences of sound and form260 (are transgressions) of the vow of time and place.
Not having inspected and cleaned (the bare ground for) excretions, things accepted, and covers, want of zeal, no earnest thought (are transgressions*) of the pausadha-vow.261
Throwing something into something with life, covering with something with life,262 transgression of time,263 anger,264 pretext of someone else265 are prescribed in the fourth disciplinary vow. Cherishing the vows devoid of these transgressions, even a layman, pure-minded, is freed from the bondage of existence.”
After hearing the Lord’s sermon, many became mendicants; many became laymen. Gertainly the speech of the Arhat is not fruitless.
Asvasena, enlightened, gave his kingdom to his son, Hastisena, then and there, and became a mendicant, noble-minded. Queen Vama and Prabhavati became afraid of worldly existence because of the Lord’s sermon and adopted mendicancy which results in emancipation.
The Lord had ten ganadharas, Aryadatta and others. The Master taught them the three-phrases: permanence, origination, and perishing. From the three-phrases they all composed the twelve angas. To the intelligent teaching is like a drop of oil in water. The Lord delivered his sermon in the full first watch. In the second watch Aryadatta delivered a sermon. Then Sakras and the others bowed to the Supreme Lord and they all went to their respective places, recalling the Master’s sermon.
Sasanadevatas
Originating in that congregation*, the Yaksa Parsva, with a tortoise for a vehicle, dark, elephant-faced, splendid with an umbrella of serpent-hoods, four-armed, holding an ichneumon and a serpent in his left hands, a citronB and a serpent in his right hands, became the Lord’s messenger-deity.
Likewise the goddess Padmavati, with a kurkuta-serpent for a vehicle, gold colored, carrying a lotus and a noose in her right hands, a fruit and a goad in her left hands, became the second messenger-deity of Lord Sri Parsva. The Lord, his vicinity unceasingly presided over by the messenger-deities, wandered over the earth, attended by reverent gods and other