Tipitaka >> Vinaya Pitaka >> Bhikkhuni Patimokkha
Pali Versions : Pali-English and Pali-Devanagri versions are provided in the texts below.
THE PATIMOKKHA
THE BHIKKUNI PATIMOKKHA[]
DISCIPLINARY RULES FOR BHIKKUNIS(NUNS)
Detailed Text: File:Patimokkha-F.pdf
Note : The Bhikkhunī Pāṭimokkha contains 311 rules. Of these, 181 are shared with the Bhikkhu Pāṭimokkha.
- More than one third of these extra rules were formulated to protect bhikkhunīs from being the direct recipients of the abusive or careless behavior of other bhikkhunīs(nuns).
- Two of the extra rules (Pācittiyas 6 and 44) prevent bhikkhunīs from putting themselves in a position of servitude to bhikkhus or to lay people.
- According to the rules' origin stories, all but three of the extra rules (Pācittiyas 59, 94, and 95) were formulated only after bhikkhunīs complained to the bhikkhus about an errant bhikkhunī's(nun's) behavior.
The Four Preliminary Functions of Bhikkunis
- 1. Sweeping the place,
- 2. Lighting a lamp,
- 3. Administering water and
- 4. Spreading seats.
The Five Functions
- 1. Interest,
- 2. Purity,
- 3. (Discerning)The suitable time,
- 4. The number of bhikkhunis and
- 5. The advice
The Four Features To Be Suitable
- 1. The day of the full moon,
- 2. All the defeated bhikkhunis,
- 3. Those excluded from the Community are not present and
- 4. The bhikkhunis defeated are at a distance
The four preliminary functions, the five functions and the four features of suitability completed, we invite the bhikkhunis who have got the consent of the order of bhikkhunis to recite the rules of the higher order.
Nidana(Introduction) (The Introduction)
Noble ladies listen, today is the fifteenth day of the full moon, as suitable may the Community of bhikkhunis recite the rules of the bhikkhunis
What are the functions? Noble ladies inform your purity. I will recite the rules of the higher order. All present, listen carefully and attentively. Those that have ecclesiastical offences should voice them. Those who haven't should be silent, by their silence I will know their purity. In a gathering like this, it should be heard up to the third time. When listening to it, up to the third time, if you recall any offences, they should be declared. If a bhikkhuni listening to it, up to the third time, were not to declare an offence that she recalls, it amounts to telling a deliberate lie. The Blessed One has said that telling a deliberate lie is an impediment. Therefore those recalling their offences should declare them, it's for their mental health.
Noble ladies, the origin is recited, how is your purity? For the second and for the third time I ask how is your purity? The noble ladies are pure, therefore they are silent, and I record it as such.
End of the Nidana(Introduction)
Patimokkha Chapters[]
1. Parajika Dhamma(Defeat & Expulsion)[]
2. Sanghadisesa Dhamma(Meeting of Order)[]
3. Nissaggiya Pachittiya Dhamma(Confession & Atonement)[]
4. Pachittiya Dhamma(Atonement)[]
5. Patidesaniya Dhamma(Confession)[]
6. Sekhiya Dhamma(Trainees' Rules)[]
7. Adhikarana Samatha Dhamma(Settling Disputes)[]
Noble ladies, the Nidana(introduction) is recited. The eight serious offences, the seventeen serious offences that merit excommunication, the thirty rules that cause a fall and excommunication, the eight offences that have to be confessed, the rules for the trainee and the seven ways of establishing discipline are recited. These have come down from the discourses of the Blessed One and are to be recited fortnightly. All should train in them united and without a dispute.
End of the detailed exposition.
End of the rules of the Patimokkha for bhikkhunis.