Confession 152

The 152nd training precept: Selling flour to eat.

Origin Story

Location as before. Then Thullanandā bhikkhunī, while going on almsround, saw someone buying flour and wanting to eat it. Thullā bhikkhunī said: “Follow me. I’ll give you good flour.” She then sold it to them. That person then loudly called out in a large assembly: “In the bhikkhunī monastery, good flour is being sold.” When other people heard it, they came to the monastery and asked to buy flour to eat. They saw Mahāpajāpatī bhikkhunī, and asked: “Noble one, do you have flour to sell?” The bhikkhunī said: “Where have you seen a bhikkhunī selling flour?” These people replied: “Noble one, how could you not know that Thullanandā is selling flour? The townsfolk all know that bhikkhunīs sell flour.” Mahāpajāpatī bhikkhunī said: “It has come to this. Bhikkhunīs are now selling flour.” 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 sells flour to eat, it’s a pācittiya.’”

Explanations

“A bhikkhunī” means Thullanandā etc.

“Selling to eat” means: as it’s usually understood, selling by receiving gold, silver, money, etc.

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