Confession 76

Origin Story

The Buddha was in Sāvatthī. At that time, there were two bhikkhunīs, one called Luozha, the other Boluozha. They had originally gone forth from a rich family. These two bhikkhunīs, got up early, and went to the house of their relatives, acquaintances, and supporters. They received delicious drinks and food, ate it, and both said: “It’s not good.” They asked: “Who prepared this food?” The donors answered: “It was prepared by the cooks.” The bhikkhunīs said: “Why did they prepare food without fragrance and flavor?” The donors asked: “Can you prepare it?” The bhikkhunīs said: “We can. When there’s a nice day and you want to have an outing, or if you want to go on a boat trip, just come and speak with us. We’ll prepare food and drinks for you.” At a later time, when a nice day had come, the donors wanted to go to a park. Then they summoned the bhikkhunīs. The bhikkhunīs came to prepare food and drinks. In that household were people working as cooks. Supervising the kitchen, they stood in the door and saw that there was cooked food. They came out and asked: “Who has cooked this food?” The donors answered: “There are two bhikkhunīs, one called Luozha, the other Boluozha, who’ve cooked this food.” The people working as cooks said angrily: “They’ve lost and burnt their status as bhikkhunīs. They’re snatching away our livelihood.”

Among the bhikkhunīs were those of few wishes, who knew moderation and practised the austerities. When they heard of this matter, their minds weren’t pleased, and they explained it to the Buddha in detail. The Buddha gathered both sanghas because of this matter. He knew, and intentionally asked these two bhikkhunīs: “Did you really do this?” They answered: “We really did this, World-honored One.” The Buddha criticized them with all kinds of reasons: “How can you be called bhikkhunīs when you cook raw things to prepare food?” Having criticized them with all kinds of reasons, he said to the bhikkhus: “For 10 benefits, I’ll lay down a precept for the bhikkhunīs. From now on, this precept should be recited thus:

Final Ruling

‘If a bhikkhunī cooks raw things to prepare food, it’s a pācittiya.’”

Explanations

“Pācittiya” means burn, cook, cover, obstruct. If she doesn’t confess the offense, it can obstruct the path.

Herein, this is an offense: If a bhikkhunī cooks raw things to prepare food, it’s a pācittiya. Whenever she cooks, she incurs a pācittiya.

There’s no offense: If she reheats food, if there’s an urgent reason, or if she cooks to purify by fire, I.e. the precedure to make food allowable. However, only people who’re not fully ordained can make food allowable, so I’m not sure why it’s mentioned here.* the offense isn’t committed. (End of rule 76.)