Confession 132

The 132nd training precept: Getting jealous when seeing someone else being praised.

Origin Story

Location as before. Then a senior brahmin householder praised Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī bhikkhunī, Uppalavaṇṇā bhikkhunī, Dhammadinnā bhikkhunī, Kisāgotamī, and other such bhikkhunīs, and compared their virtuous conduct to Mt. Sumeru. Thullā bhikkhunī saw it and then disparaged them out of jealousy. The bhikkhunīs said: “Noble one, why do you slander them?” Thullā bhikkhunī said: “I’ve gone forth from a Sakyan family. I’ve learned the excellent three baskets. About all the discourses of the great dhamma teacher, I can be questioned and answer without hesitation. It’s suitable to extol my virtues instead of praising other people.” The bhikkhunīs said: “Noble one, why do you need to be extolled for your virtue?” She replied: “That clanless speaker of lies has committed a great transgression.” The bhikkhunīs said: “Why can’t you stand other people being praised out of jealousy?” The bhikkhunīs told the bhikkhus, and the bhikkhus told the Buddha. The Buddha asked and criticized, as explained in detail, down to: “I’ll lay down another training precept. You should recite it like this:

Final Ruling

‘If a bhikkhunī sees someone else being praised, and gets jealous, it’s a pācittiya.’”

Explanations

“A bhikkhunī” means Thullanandā, or any other bhikkhunī.

“Getting jealous when someone else is being praised” means being jealous of their precepts and virtue.

The explanations of the rule factors etc. are as explained in detail before.