Lzh Dg Bi Pm Pc 124Ordaining Trained Candidate Without Approval

Exposition of the Sutta: Sikkhita-sikkhamānā-asammata

Rules on Conferring Ordination Without Permission

Background

This sutta belongs to the Vinaya-piṭaka in the Pāli Canon of the Theravāda Buddhist tradition, specifically in the Pācittiya section, the offenses requiring confession. It addresses a fundamental administrative matter in the Buddhist community of nuns: the lawful procedure for receiving female candidates for training into the religious life (sikkhamānā).

A female trainee (sikkhamānā) is a woman who studies the teaching and practices the basic precepts, usually ten or eight precepts, before being formally admitted as a bhikkhunī. She occupies an intermediate status between a laywoman and a fully ordained nun.

The Vinaya was taught to maintain discipline and harmony in the Sangha. Each rule reflects a specific event in early Buddhist history, where someone committed a fault and the Buddha then established a rule to prevent similar conduct.

Main Content

This rule prohibits bhikkhunīs from proclaiming or recognizing a sikkhamānā as having completed her training or as being qualified for ordination without formal approval from the Sangha assembly or from those authorized to grant it.

"Asammata" (not approved/not consented to) is the key term. This approval is not an arbitrary formality. It must be carried out according to the communal act (kamma), that is, a formal decision of the Sangha announced three times in succession. If a bhikkhunī declares or implies that a sikkhamānā has completed her training without having received this approval, she commits a Pācittiya, an offense requiring confession before another bhikkhunī.

This offense arises from the effort to prevent disorder or personal favoritism in the process of recognizing spiritual status.