Vinaya Pitaka - Monastic Rules
Bhikkhu Vibhanga - Sekhiya 7: To keep the eyes lowered when sitting in inhabited areas.
- Translated from the Pali by I.B. Horner.
… in Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Now at that time the group of six monks looking about here and there went amidst the houses … " …
‘With the eyes cast down will I go (sit down) amidst the houses,’ is a training to be observed."
One should go amidst the houses with the eyes cast down looking only a plough’s (distance ahead). Whoever out of disrespect, looking about here and there, goes amidst the houses, there is an offence of wrong-doing.
There is no offence if it is unintentional, if he is not thinking, if he does not know, if he is ill, if there are accidents, if he is mad, if he is the first wrong-doer.
1 tena samayena buddho bhagavā sāvatthiyaṃ viharati jetavane anāthapiṇḍikassa ārāme. tena kho pana samayena chabbaggiyā bhikkhū tahaṃ tahaṃ olokentā antaraghare gacchanti … pe … .
2 "okkhittacakkhu antaraghare gamissāmīti sikkhā karaṇīyā"ti. (7:152)
3 okkhittacakkhunā antaraghare gantabbaṃ yugamattaṃ pekkhantena. yo anādariyaṃ paṭicca tahaṃ tahaṃ olokento antaraghare gacchati, āpatti dukkaṭassa.
4 anāpatti— asañcicca, assatiyā, ajānantassa, gilānassa, āpadāsu, ummattakassa, ādikammikassāti.