Confession 77

Origin Story

At that time, the Blessed One was in Sāvatthī in Jeta’s grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s park.

Not far from the bhikkhunī monastery, nice string-tying grass was growing. Then householders often came and sat and lay down and entertained themselves, some reciting, some singing, some dancing, and some making wailing sounds. It disturbed the bhikkhunīs sitting in meditation and they suffered from this. After the householders had left, they put excrement, urine, and garbage on the grass. When the householders returned to amuse themselves there, these impure things soiled their bodies and clothes, and they also soiled the grass. The grass slowly withered and died. Because of this matter, the householders were all upset and said: “These bhikkhunīs take without limit, they know no shame. Outwardly, they praise themselves: ‘We know the true dhamma’, how is that the true dhamma? We often came here to amuse ourselves and to sing and dance, why did the bhikkhunīs just soil and destroy the clean grass with excrement and urine, and also soil our bodies and clothes?”

When the bhikkhunīs heard this, there were among them those with few wishes, who knew moderation, who practised the austerities, who were keen on training in the precepts, and who knew shame. They criticized these bhikkhunīs: “Why did you, in a place where householders amuse themselves, put excrement, urine, and impure things on the fresh grass, which soiled the householders’ bodies and clothes, and moreover made the fresh grass wither and die?” Then the bhikkhunīs went and told the bhikkhus, and the bhikkhus went and told the World-honored One. The World-honored One then for this reason gathered the bhikkhu sangha, and criticized these bhikkhunīs: “What you did is wrong, is improper conduct, against the rules of renunciates, an impure practice, a practice not to be followed, shouldn’t be done. Why, bhikkhunīs, did you, in a place where householders amuse themselves, put excrement and urine on the fresh grass, which soiled the (householders’) bodies and clothes?” Then, when the World-honored One had criticized these bhikkhunīs in countless ways, he said to the bhikkhus: “These bhikkhunīs have all kinds of taints, and are the first to break this precept. From now on, I’ll lay down a precept for the bhikkhunīs, and state the 10 principles: … So that the true dhamma may last long. Someone wishing to recite the precept should recite like this:

Final Ruling

‘If a bhikkhunī defecates or urinates on fresh grass, it’s a pācittiya.’”

Explanation

The meaning of “bhikkhunī” is as above.

If a bhikkhunī defecates or urinates on fresh grass, it’s a pācittiya.

For a bhikkhu, it’s a dukkaṭa. For a sikkhamānā, a sāmaṇera, and a sāmaṇerī, it’s a dukkaṭa. This is called “to commit”.

“Not committed” means if she has a certain illness, if she defecates or urinates in a place without grass and it flows down on grass, if a wind blows it there, or if a bird takes it in its beak and soils the grass, the offense isn’t committed.

“Not committed” means if she’s the first offender when the precept hadn’t yet been laid down, if she’s mad, if she’s distracted, or if she’s overcome with pain. (End of the 77th rule.)