Confession 140

The 140th training precept: Having a washer wash a robe.

Origin Story

Location as before. Then a group-of-twelve bhikkhunī dreamed about intercourse with a man, and sexual fluid leaked out and stained her robes. She had a washer wash it. That person then put the bhikkhunī’s red robe together with a lay person’s white robe to wash them, and as they became wet, they were ruined. The owner of the robe came and asked: “Who ruined my robe?” The washer replied: “I washed it together with a bhikkhunī’s robe, therefore it was stained and ruined.” A group of lay people was upset: “We see that this renunciate isn’t enlightened.” The bhikkhunīs told the bhikkhus, and the bhikkhus told the Buddha. The Buddha asked if it was true and criticized her, as explained in detail, down to: “I’ll lay down another training precept. You should recite it like this:

Final Ruling

‘If a bhikkhunī has a washer wash a robe, it’s a pācittiya.’”

Explanations

“A bhikkhunī” means a bhikkhunī in this dhamma.

“Having a washer wash a robe” means having them wash one of her seven robes. Mūlasarvāstivāda bhikkhunīs have five robes, just like in any other vinaya. This probably refers to the seven kinds of robe materials, cf. nissaggiya pācittiya 4.*

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

Recite the 15th summary verse:

Senior monastic, a renunciate’s robe,

Two rules about menstrual robes, asking from someone,

Not removing together, not distributing,

Quarreling, not informing, learning magic.