Confession 161

Origin Stories

At that time, the bhikkhunīs wore lay women’s bodily adornments, and sexual desire arose in their minds.

Then, Thullanandā bhikkhunī’s supporter was newly married. The wife gave her bodily adornments, and had her wear them. Wearing them, (Thullanandā) covered her head and slept in the bed. The husband returned from outside and wanted to be intimate with his wife. When he uncovered her head, he found out and criticized her: “If I hadn’t uncovered your head, we’d have engaged in sexual intercourse. Wouldn’t that have been a great offense? Why does a bhikkhunī do such a thing? This isn’t the practice of renunciates. You’ve broken the rules of renunciates.” When the senior bhikkhunīs heard it, they criticized her in all kinds of ways, … “I now lay down a precept for the bhikkhunīs, as explained above. From now on, this precept should be recited thus:

Final Ruling

‘If a bhikkhunī wears bodily adornments, it’s a pācittiya.’”

Explanations

For a sikkhamānā and a sāmaṇerī, it’s a dukkaṭa.

The non-offenses are as above.