Nuns’ Expiation (Pācittiya) 59

^{Bi-Pc.59.1.1 BD.3.358} … at Sāvatthī in the Jeta Grove in Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Now at that time nuns neither asked (the date of) the Observance day^[1] nor did they ask for exhortation. Monks … spread it about, saying: “How can these nuns neither ask (the date of) the Observance day nor ask for exhortation?” …

“Is it true, as is said, monks, that nuns neither … nor ask for exhortation?”

“It is true, lord.”

The enlightened one, the lord, rebuked them, saying:

“How, monks, can nuns neither … nor ask for exhortation? It is not, monks, for pleasing those who are not (yet) pleased … this rule of training:

“Every half month a nun should desire two things from the Order of monks: the asking as to (the date of) the Observance day and the approaching for exhortation.^[2] For her who transgresses this, there is an offence of expiation.”

---

^Bi-Pc.59.2.1 Every half month means: every Observance day.^[3]

Observance day means: the two Observance days, that on the fourteenth day and that on the fifteenth day.^[4]

Exhortation means: the eight important rules.

If she thinks, “I will neither ask (the date of) the Observance day nor ask for exhortation,” in throwing off the responsibility, … see Bi-Pc.58.2.1–Bi-Pc.58.2.2 … if she is the first wrong-doer. ^Vin.4.316

Footnotes and references:

[back to top]

[1]:

See Vin.1.105, where the lord is shown as prompting Kappina, and as saying that if brahmins do not honour the uposatha, who will?

[2]:

The third of the eight “important rules,” Vin.4.52; see BD.2.268.

[3]:

= above, BD.3.44.

[4]:

Cf. Vin.1.104, Vin.1.132.