Summary
s.1What Mendicants Hold Most Dear contains the Buddha’s answer to a question by Upāli, the Buddha’s foremost disciple in knowledge and mastery of the Vinaya. Upāli asks the Buddha to teach about the nature, types, and obligations of mendicants and about the meaning of this term. For the benefit of the assembled mendicants and mendicants in general, the Buddha explains that their nature is restraint, their obligations consist of disciplined conduct, and their types are the genuine mendicants who abide by disciplined conduct and those who are not genuine and thus do not so abide. When one of the Buddha’s answers given in similes seems obscure, he offers further clarification upon Upāli’s request. The Buddha explains the advantages of maintaining disciplined conduct, thus urging the mendicants to treasure it, and he warns against disregarding it while wearing the mendicant’s robes.
s.1《乞士所珍視之物》記載了優波離向佛陀提出的一個問題，優波離是佛陀在律藏知識和掌握方面最傑出的弟子。優波離請求佛陀教導關於乞士的本質、類型、義務以及這個詞語的含義。為了利益聚集在一起的乞士以及普遍的乞士，佛陀解釋說他們的本質是制約，他們的義務包括戒律，他們的類型分為真正的乞士，即遵守戒律的人，和非真正的乞士，即不遵守戒律的人。當佛陀用比喻給出的一個答案似乎不夠清楚時，他會應優波離的請求提供進一步的澄清。佛陀解釋了維持戒律的優點，從而勸勉乞士們珍視戒律，並警告他們不要在穿著乞士衣袍的同時輕視戒律。