The rains residence was instituted by the Buddha to prevent bhikkhus traveling during the Rainy Season of India and S.E. Asia, and so damaging the crops, and the living creatures which are abundant then. No doubt he considered their health as well when he laid down that bhikkhus must spend the rains with four walls round them and a roof over their heads.
From the beginning this was a time when a bhikkhu could live near a teacher, a senior bhikkhu who had specialized in meditation, in the Discipline, or in the Discourses. He had the chance then to make intensive efforts and learn whatever the teacher taught. After the Rains, especially in the early days when bhikkhus mostly wandered and had few monasteries, the teacher might receive an invitation to go elsewhere and the settled association with pupils would be broken. And then during the Rains there are fewer visitors to the quieter and more secluded monasteries so that more intensive efforts are possible at this time.
In Buddhist countries this is still the time for intensive activity: the meditator meditates more and undertakes more of the austere practices; the student of books makes more effort to master his studies; the teacher-monk is more active in teaching Dhamma and the writer in writing. In some countries this is the time when many laymen, mostly the young, get temporary ordination as "Rains-bhikkhus" (fewer women also become nuns for some time), usually for about four months, after which they disrobe and return to the layman's state. They are honored by others with the name "pandit" (a learned man) for the learning and good conduct that they have acquired in the monastery and benefit their families and society in general by bringing this knowledge back with them. This general intensification of activities in the Sangha leads lay people to consider what they can do during this period.
Usually a lay person on the day of entering the Rains makes a vow or vows to practice in a certain way during the three months of the Rains-residence. This vow may be told to a senior bhikkhu or it may be kept private but in any case it is made in front of a Buddhist shrine. This is something which could be done by any one who wanted to tighten up on practice for the duration of the Rains-residence. The content of the vows vary with one's character, country and circumstances. Below are a number of typical vows made by lay people on Rains-entry day, some of which could be practiced by isolated Buddhists:
During the Rains residence, some lay people in Buddhist countries undertake one or two of the austere practices which were allowed by the Buddha for bhikkhus.[2] It is not possible for lay people to practice most of them but Acariya Buddhaghosa in his "Path of Purification" (Visuddhimagga) has written there (Ch. II para 92) that they can undertake the One-sessioner's practice and the bowl-food-eater's practice. For an isolated Buddhist who goes out to work, even these two could not be practiced.
The One-sessioner's practice means eating one meal in one session a day. Practiced strictly a person does not even drink foods (such as milk and milk beverages) at other times but having sat down eats enough to last for twenty-four hours.
The Bowl-food-eater's practice is undertaken when a person does not have many plates and dishes but puts all the food to be eaten on one vessel -- the sweet with the main part of the meal, though without necessarily mixing them.
Both practices are good for limiting greed for food, for fine flavors and desires for fine textures, etc. Food is taken by such lay people as a medicine which is necessary to cure the disease of hunger. It is not used for the satisfaction of sensual desires. Particularly for greed characters (in which greed or desire is the strongest of the Roots of Evil) such restraint can be valuable.
And if during the Rains one cannot do anything else, at least one should at this time practice dana to the best of one's ability and in whatever personal ways it is possible to give. Impersonal giving, for instance, having amounts stopped out of one's wage packet, should be avoided as there is little or no good kamma made in such ways. It may be that giving time and sympathy with the effort to help others may be more effective than giving money or goods. The Rains traditionally is the time when lay people have the chance to increase their practice of dana and even though one may not live near to the Sangha there are still plenty of opportunities for giving.
1. This should not be called "Buddhist Lent"! There is no basis for comparing Christian Lent with Buddhist Rains-residence, as they do not spring from the same religious ideas, nor have the same purpose, nor apply to the same people. [Go back]
2. See Wheel 83-84, "With Robes and Bowl." [Go back]