Lzh Dg Bu Pm 2 Pc 63Intentionally Killing Living Creatures
Pāli / Sanskrit:Sañcicca
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The Sutta on Killing Living Beings Intentionally (Sañcicca)
Background
The Sañcicca Sutta belongs to the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Pāli Canon, established in the context of the training rules (Pātimokkha) of the early Buddhist Sangha. This text is recorded when the Buddha taught at Sāvatthī, his long-term residence. Its content relates to Pārājika — especially grave offenses that cause ordination (upasampadā) to be entirely forfeited for a novice or bhikkhunī who commits them.
This sutta is not an independent sermon, but part of the detailed system of discipline, explaining clauses concerning the most inhumane kind of conduct: killing sentient beings. The appearance of the word “Sañcicca” — intentional, deliberate — is the key to understanding the nature of this violation in Theravāda Buddhism.
Main Content
Sañcicca — “deliberate” or “intentional” — is the decisive moral factor in the act of killing. According to the Theravāda Vinaya, deliberately killing any being endowed with the life faculty (jīvita-indriya) is a violation of the first Pārājika, the most fundamental and irreparable prohibited offense.
The factor of “intention” (sañcetanā) is the theoretical foundation of Buddhist causality (kamma). An action becomes karmically significant only when there is knowing, wanting, and decision in the mind. A death that occurs through negligence or without intention differs from an act of deliberate killing. Theravāda Buddhism emphasizes that when a bhikkhu or novice intentionally takes the life of a being — whether an insect or an animal — he has committed a Pārājika offense.
The standard concerning the victim is also clearly defined: the victim must be a living being capable of experiencing death. The penalty for this violation is the public declaration that the person is no longer a bhikkhu or novice; he is permanently removed from the Sangha.
Practical Meaning
The Sañcicca Sutta teaches that ethics lies not in outward action alone, but in the deep intention of the mind.
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