Confession 169

The 169th training precept: Just asking without requesting permission first.

Origin Story

Location as before. Then a bhikkhu who had memorized the four āgamas came to the bhikkhunī monastery. The bhikkhunīs prepared a seat, and the bhikkhu sat down. Thullanandā thought: “He knows the four āgamas. I’d like to question him now.” Then she directly asked him a question. The bhikkhu didn’t understand what the bhikkhunī was asking about, and felt deeply ashamed. The bhikkhunī then replied: “You remember the suttas in vain, like a bird’s confused chirping. It’s all meaningless. You’ve just wasted your mind’s abilities.” When the bhikkhunīs heard these words, the whole group were all upset. Together they told the bhikkhus, and the bhikkhus told the Buddha. The Buddha asked Thullanandā: “Did you really without requesting permission just ask a bhikkhu in this way?” She answered: “I really did.” The World-honored One 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 just asks a question without requesting permission, it’s a pācittiya.’”

Explanations

“A bhikkhunī” means Thullanandā etc.

“Just asking a question without requesting permission” means just touching on and asking about a difficult point without consulting him first.

“Asking” means asking about the meaning of what the Buddha or one of his disciples said.

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

“Bhikkhunīs, I’ll now explain the procedure for requesting permission to ask. If a bhikkhu comes, you first need to prepare a seat, sincerely venerate and pay respect to him, and greet him with pleasant words: ‘Is the noble one quite learned in the āgama suttas, the abhidhamma, the vinaya etc. and can he recite and remember everything? Please allow us to ask a few questions.’ If he allows it, you may ask. If he doesn’t allow it, don’t ask. If you disregard this, you incur a dukkaṭa offense.”