Lzh Dg Bi Vb Np 22Exchanging Personal Property

– DHARMAGUPTAKA VINAYA

– NISSAGGIYA PĀCITTIYA

RULE 22

A. ORIGIN STORY

At one time, the Blessed One was dwelling in the Anāthapiṇḍika Garden, the Jeta Grove, in the country of Śrāvastī. At that time, the bhikkhunī Anyin had a certain lay supporter as her donor. At the proper time, she put on her robe, took up her bowl, went to the donor's house, spread out a seat, and sat down.

At that time, the lay supporter asked after her welfare:

"Are you comfortable?"

The bhikkhunī Anyin said:

"I am not comfortable."

The lay supporter asked:

"Why are you not comfortable?"

Anyin said:

"Because the place is noisy, I am not comfortable."

The lay supporter asked:

"Do you not have a room of your own?"

Anyin said:

"I do not."

The lay supporter said:

"I will provide the means; can you have one built?"

Anyin said:

"Yes."

The lay supporter then provided her with the means. That bhikkhunī then thought: "If I were to build a room, it would bring even more complications. Meanwhile, robes for bhikkhunīs are hard to come by—it is difficult to obtain the full set of five robes. I should now take these funds intended for building a room and exchange them for robes." And so she went and exchanged them for robes.

After some time had passed, the bhikkhunī Anyin put on her robe, took up her bowl, went to the lay supporter's house, and sat in the seat.

The lay supporter greeted her:

"Reverend Aunt, is your manner of living comfortable?"

She replied:

"My manner of living is not comfortable."

The lay supporter asked:

"Why are you not comfortable?"

The bhikkhunī said:

"Because the dwelling place is noisy, I am not comfortable."

The lay supporter asked again:

"Does the Venerable One not have a room of her own?"

The bhikkhunī said:

"I do not."

The lay supporter pressed her:

"Before, I gave you money to build a house—did you not build it?"

The bhikkhunī said:

"I did not build it."

He asked again:

"Why did you not build it?"

She replied:

"I thought to myself: if I were to use these funds to build a room, it would bring even more complications. Meanwhile, robes for bhikkhunīs are hard to come by—it is difficult to obtain the full set of five robes. So I took the funds intended for building a room and exchanged them for robes."

The lay supporter reproached her, saying:

"This bhikkhunī accepts without knowing restraint and does not know contentment. Outwardly she claims to know the true Dharma—yet what true Dharma is this? I gave money to build a house, and she went and exchanged it for robes. Do I not know how difficult it is for bhikkhunīs to acquire the full set of five robes? But we have heard the Blessed One teach that among the highest fields of merit, the foremost is building and offering rooms and dwellings to the Sangha of the four quarters."

The bhikkhunīs heard of this. Among them, those of few desires and contentment, who lived the ascetic practices, who delighted in training in the precepts, and who had a sense of shame, reproached Anyin, saying: "The donor gave the means to build a room—how could you exchange them for robes?"

The bhikkhunīs reported this to the bhikkhus. The bhikkhus went and reported it to the Blessed One. The Blessed One, on account of this cause and condition, assembled the community of bhikkhus and reproached the bhikkhunī Anyin:

"What you have done is wrong; it is not proper conduct, not the way of a renunciant, not pure practice, not befitting behavior—you have done what should not be done. The donor gave the means to build a room—how could you exchange them for robes?"

After reproaching her with numerous methods, the Blessed One said to the bhikkhus:

"The bhikkhunī Anyin is one who has planted many seeds of the defiled āsavas; she is the first to transgress this precept. From now on, I will lay down a rule for the bhikkhunīs comprising ten principles of meaning, up to and including the phrase 'for the long endurance of the true Dharma.'"

Wishing to set forth the rule, it should be stated thus:

Whatever bhikkhunī takes the means donated by a lay supporter for one purpose and applies them to another purpose—nissaggiya pācittiya.

B. ANALYSIS OF THE RULE

Bhikkhunī: as explained above.

Applying donated means to a different purpose: if the donation is for building a room and it is used instead to make robes; if the donation is for making robes and it is used instead to build a room; if the donation is given for one purpose and applied to another—nissaggiya pācittiya.

This nissaggiya [offence] requires forfeiture to the Sangha, as before. The method of forfeiture and confession is also as before.

The Sangha must return the forfeited robe through the formal act of a kammavācā with one announcement and two motions, also as before. If it is not returned for keeping as one of the five robes, or even for making into an item that is not a robe, or for wearing regularly—all of these incur a dukkaṭa offence.

A bhikkhu—dukkaṭa. A sikkhāmānā, a sāmaṇera, a sāmaṇerī—dukkaṭa. These are called transgressions.

Non-transgression: if one asks the donor and acts according to the donor's wishes; or if at the time of the donation the donor says, "Use it however you wish"; or if a relative says, "Use it as you wish—I will inform the donor"—then there is no transgression.

Those who do not transgress: one who transgresses for the first time before the rule has been laid down; one who is insane, of deranged mind, or in extreme pain and distress.

Vietnamese translation: Bhikkhu Thích Đỗng Minh and Thích Đức Thắng. DHARMAGUPTAKA VINAYA, PART ONE.

Chinese translation: Tripiṭaka masters Buddhayaśas and Zhu Fonian.

Revised and annotated: Bhikkhu Thích Nguyên Chứng

(Chinese translation, fascicles 1–21; Vietnamese translation, fascicles 1–2)

Buddhist Publication Committee, 2002.