Lzh Dg Bu Pm 2 Sk 28Receiving in Proportion

Samasūpakapaṭiggahaṇa Sutta: Receiving Offerings in Proportion

Background

The Samasūpakapaṭiggahaṇa Sutta (Receiving Offerings in Proportion) belongs to the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Theravāda Buddhist tradition and is part of the system of rules governing property in the Sangha. This is an important part of the Vinaya, the discipline of practice that Buddha Śākyamuni established to protect the purity and orderly functioning of the community of monks and nuns.

In the context of the early Sangha, the question of how offerings should be fairly and reasonably distributed was a practical challenge. This discourse was established to guide the way in which the Sangha receives and distributes items provided by lay followers according to the principles of fairness, suitability to actual need, and the avoidance of conflict.

Main Content

Samasūpakapaṭiggahaṇa (samas = equal, suitable; ūpaka = accessory, arrangement; paṭiggahaṇa = receiving) instructs that when the Sangha or individual monks and nuns receive offered items, such as food, robes, medicines, and lodging, they should observe the principle of suitability and balance.

Specifically, the discourse states that offerings should be divided into two kinds: items for common use by the whole Sangha (sangha-bhaṇḍa) and items for the private use of individual monks or nuns (puggala-bhaṇḍa). Common items must be kept centrally and distributed according to fair need. Personal items must be received by each person according to actual capacity and their status in practice.

The principle of “suitability” here is not merely equal division by number of persons, but also special distribution based on circumstance: those who are ill, those who are elderly, and those who bear many responsibilities in the Sangha may receive in proportion to actual need. This expresses the refinement of the Buddha-Dharma: fairness is not always “formal equality,” but “substantive fairness.”