Now a certain bhikku was once sick with dysentery, and he lay fouled in his own urine and excrement. As the Blessed One was going the round of the lodgings with the venerable Ananda as his attendant monk he came to that bhikkhu’s dwelling.
When he saw him lying where he was, he went up to him and said: ‘What is your sickness, bhikkhu?’
‘It is dysentery, Blessed One’.
‘But bhikkhu, have you no attendant?’
‘No, Blessed One’.
‘Why do they not look after you bhikkhu?’
‘I am no use to the bhikkhus Lord; that is why they do not look after me’.
Then the Blessed one said to the venerable Ananda: ‘Ananda go and fetch some water. Let us wash this bhikkhu’.
‘Even so, Lord’ the venerable Ananda replied, and he brought some
water. The Blessed One poured out the water and the venerable Ananda
washed the bhikkhu. Then the Blessed One took him by the head and the
venerable Ananda took him by the feet, and they raised him up and put
him on a bed.
With this as the occasion and this as the reason the Blessed One
summoned the bhikkhus and asked them: ‘Bhikkhus, is there a bhikkhu
sick in a certain dwelling?’
‘There is, Blessed One’
‘What is that bhikkhu’s illness?’
‘He has dysentery, Lord’.
‘Has he anyone to look after him?’
‘No, Blessed One’.
‘Why do the bhikkhus not look after him?’
‘Lord, that bhikkhu is of no use to the bhikkhus; that is why they do not look after him.’
‘Bhikkhus, you have neither mother nor father to look after you. If
you do not look after each other, who will look after you? Let him who
would look after me look after one who is sick. If he has a preceptor,
his preceptor should as long as he lives look after him until his
recovery. His teacher, if he has one, should do likewise. Or his
co-resident, or his pupil, or one who has the same preceptor, or one
who has the same teacher. If he has none of these, the Community should
look after him. Not to do so is an offence of wrongdoing.
When a sick man has five qualities, he is hard to look after: he does
what is unsuitable; he does not know the measure of what is suitable;
he does not take medicine; he does not disclose his illness to his
sick-nurse who seeks his welfare, or tell him that it is better when it
is so, or worse when it is so, or the same when it is so; he is of a
type unable to endure arisen bodily feelings that are painful, harsh,
racking, piercing, disagreeable, unwelcome and menacing to life. When a
sick man has the five opposite qualities he is easy to look after.
Vinaya. MV. Kh. 8