Six and Five kinds of Wrong Livelihood (micchājiva)

Prologue: Ājivapārisuddhi-sīla, the morality of purity of livelihood, means avoiding six kinds of livelihood which the Vinaya prohibits and avoiding of all other kinds of wrong livelihood.

Six kinds of Wrong Livelihood

The six sikkhāpadas promulgated by the Buddha with regard to livelihood are:

(1) Having evil wishes and being oppressed by them, if a bhikkhu boasts of jhāna, magga, phala attainments which are not present in him, and which have never been present before, he is guilty of Pārājika-āpatti.

(2) For the sake of livelihood, if he acts as a go-between, arranging marriages, he is guilty of Sanghadisesa-āpatti.

(3) Without mentioning directly: “I am an arahat”, if he says, for the sake of livelihood: “A certain bhikkhu lives at your monastery, that bhikkhu is an arahat” and if the donor of the monastery understands what he means, he is guilty of Thullaccaya-āpatti.

(4) For the sake of livelihood, if he asks for and eats sumptuous food^[1], without being ill, he is guilty of Pācittiya-āpatti.

(5) For the sake of livelihood, if a bhikkhunī asks for and eats sumptuous food, without being ill, she is guilty of Pātidesaniya-āpatti.

(6) For the sake of livelihood, if a bhikkhu asks for and eats curry or boiled rice, without being ill, he is guilty of Dukkata-āpatti.

Other kinds of wrong livelihood, in addition to the above six are:

Five kinds of Wrong Livelihood

(1) Kuhana, hypocrisy,
(2) Lapana, talking,
(3) Nemittkata, hinting,
(4) Nippesikatā, belittling.
(5) Lābbhena lābham nijigisanatā, seeking gain with gain.

(1) Kuhana, hypocrisy:

Kuhana (hypocrisy), is of three kinds:

(i) Hypocrisy in use of requisites (Paccaya patisevana).
(ii) Hypocrisy in talk on subjects close to attainments of the Path and the Fruition States (Samanta jappana).
(iii) Hypocrisy in change of postures to deceive lay devotees (Iriyāpatha saṇṭhapana).

(i) When lay devotees offer a bhikkhu robes, etc. although he wants them, having evil desires to pretend and pose himself as if he has attributes which are non-existent, he says, in order to get even more, (for robes): “What is the use of such expensive robes for a bhikkhu? Only pansukulika robes made of refuse rags is proper for him.” (For food) he says: “What is the use of such expensive food for a bhikkhu? Only food obtained on alms round is proper for a bhikkhu.” (For dwelling place) he says: “What is the use of such a fine dwelling place for a bhikkhu? Only dwelling at the foot of a tree or in the open air is proper for him.” (For medicine) he says: “What is the use of such expensive medicine for a bhikkhu? Cow urine or a portion of gall nut or myrobalan is good for him as medicine.”

Accordingly, to practise what he preaches, he uses only coarse robes, coarse dwelling place and coarse medicines. Lay devotees think so highly of him thus: “This Venerable One has few wishes; he is easily contented; he is free from desires of material goods and sense pleasures; he does not mix with lay people; he is also very diligent (in the practice of Dhamma).” Then they invite him to accept more and more of requisites. Then the bhikkhu with evil desires boastfully says: “Dayaka, when these three things: the faith, material goods to offer and the person to receive them are present, then the good person who has faith can develop much merit. Here, you devotees surely have faith; you have things to give away in charity; and indeed, I am a donee. If I do not accept your alms, your merit will decline. So out of compassion for you, I should accept your alms although I am not in need of them.” So saying, he accepts cartloads of robes and food, numerous dwelling places and large quantities of medicine. Thus, though he is avaricious, he pretends to be of little wants, and uses coarse requisites to make others think highly of him. This is called Paccaya patisevana kuhana, hypocrisy in use of requisites.

(ii) Without saying directly: “I have already attained jhāna, magga and phala”, he makes other people think that he is already in possession of them by insinuating: “The bhikkhu who wears such kind of robes is powerful, the bhikkhu who carries such a kind of bowl, such a kind of water filter, such a kind of water strainer, such a kind of waist-band, such a kind of sandal, is powerful.” This is called Sāmanta Jappana, hypocrisy in talk on subjects close to attainments of jhāna, magga and phala.

(iii) Determined on gaining the praise and high esteem of lay devotees, the bhikkhu thinks: “If I were to walk like this, people will praise me and think highly of me,” and effects the deportment of Noble Ones in going, standing, sitting and lying down. This is called Iriyāpatha saṇṭhapana, hypocrisy in change of posture to deceive lay devotees.

(2) Lapana, talking:

Lapana means talking with an evil motive. When the bhikkhu sees people coming to the monastery, he speaks to them first: “Dayaka, for what purpose do you come here? Do you come here to invite bhikkhus? If so, you go ahead, I will follow you carrying the bowl” or he says: “I am Tissa Thera. The king reveres me. The ministers revere me,” etc. While talking with the people, he takes care not to go against them, or to bore them, thus avoiding their displeasure. He flatters them, calling: “a great banker”, “a great miller”, etc. Talking thus in many ways to wheedle alms from lay devotees is called Lapana.

(3) Nemittkata, hinting:

Nemittikatā means hinting by making signs or giving indications with an evil motive to induce charity. For example, seeing a man carrying some food, he gives an indication that he also wants some food by saying: “Have you already got food? Where have you got it from? How do you manage to get it?” etc. Seeing cowherds, he points to the calves and says: “Do these calves grow up on milk or water?” The cowherds reply: “Venerable sir, the calves grow up on milk.” “I don't think so. Should the calves get milk, the bhikkhus would have got it, too”, etc. thus sending the message through to their parents to offer them milk. Hinting thus to induce charity is called Nemittikatā.

The forms of talk which gives more direct and glaring indications of what one wants is called sāmanta jappa. Both nemittikatā and sāmanta jappa being different kinds of Lapana, are of evil nature.

In describing the sāmanta jappa kind of talk which indicates unmistakably the object of desire, the Visuddhi-magga gives the story of a kulupaka bhikkhu, a bhikkhu who habitually visited lay people.

The Story of A Kulupaka Bhikkhu

Wanting a meal, a bhikkhu, who was in the habit of visiting lay people, entered a house and took a seat uninvited. Seeing the bhikkhu and unwilling to give food to him, the woman of the house grumbled: “I haven't got any rice,” went out as though to look for some and stayed at a nearby house. The bhikkhu then stealthily went into an inner room and looking everywhere saw sugarcane in the corner behind the door, lumps of jaggery in a bowl, flattened piece of dried fish in a basket, rice in a pot and butter in a jar. Thereafter, he returned to his seat and sat there as before.

The woman came back murmuring: “I didn't get any rice.” The bhikkhu then said: “Dayika, this morning I saw some signs suggesting that I would get nothing to eat.” “What signs, Venerable Sir?” the woman asked. “As I came to this house for alms-food, I saw on the way a snake as big as sugarcane in the corner behind the door. To drive it away, I looked for something and found a stone which was as big as the lump of jaggery in your bowl. When I hurled the stone at the snake, its hood spread out to the size of the piece of flattened dried fish in your basket. When the snake opened its mouth to bite the stone it showed its teeth and fangs which were like the rice-grains in your pot. The foamy saliva mixed with poison of the angry snake was like the butter in your jar.” Caught inextricably in the web of words which glaringly indicates his wish, the woman thought to herself: “Here is no way to deceive the shaven head!” And she reluctantly gave him the sugarcane, cooked the rice and offered it to him together with the butter, jaggery and dried fish.

(4) Nippesikatā, belittling:

Nippesikatā, another form of wickedness, means pursuit of gain by wiping off or grinding or pulverising the virtuous qualities of a lay devotee like pursuit of perfume by grinding or pulverising scented materials. Such pursuit is made in many ways: use of abusive language to compel one to give;reproach by saying: “You are a fellow with no faith at all”, “You are not like other devotees”; sarcasm, by saying to one who does not give: “Oh, what a donor! Oh, what a great donor”; ridiculing remark made to a non-giver in the midst of people by saying: “Why do you say that this man does not offer any thing? He always gives the words: ‘I have nothing’ to everyone who comes for alms.” Such pursuit of gain by belittling the virtuous qualities of lay devotees is called Nippesikatā.

(5) Lābbhena lābham nijigisanatā, seeking gain with gain.

Lābbhena lābham nijigisanatā means pursuit of gain with gain motivated by covetousness. For example, after receiving some food offered at a dayaka's house, a bhikkhu gives it away to the children in the neighbourhood. He does so just to make the families of children give him more in return to express their thanks and delight (for his seeming interest in their children). In brief, seeking for more alms from another house by giving away the few offerings he has already received is called Lābbhena lābham nijigisanatā.

The five kinds of wrong livelihood, such as Kuhana, etc. described above, are different from one another only in the manner of pursuance in their nature, they are all the same, i.e. beguiling lay devotees into giving him offerings reluctantly.

Thus living on things obtained by infringing the six sikkhāpadas laid down by the Buddha with regard to livelihood as stated before and so things obtained by evil practices of kuhana, lapana, nemittikatā, nippesikatā and lābhena lābham nijigisanatā, is called Micchājiva (Wrong Livelihood). Refraining from all forms of wrong livelihood and becoming pure in means of living is called Ajivapārisuddhi-sīla.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Sumptuous food means food mixed with ghee, butter, oil, honey, molasses, fish, milk and curd.