Trades

A very short discourse addressed to mendicants. It states that a lay follower should not engage in five trades: trade in weapons, in living creatures, in meat, in intoxicants, and in poisons. That is the whole of the teaching; no reasons are given and no exceptions are discussed. Nothing is said about what falls under each category. The text names the five and then repeats the opening line. It concerns a lay follower’s livelihood, not the conduct of mendicants, even though it is spoken to them.