Lzh Dg Bu Vb Pc 8Truthfully Announcing Superhuman Attainments

– FOUR-PART VINAYA

– PĀCITTIYA

8. PROCLAIMING SUPERHUMAN STATES

A. ORIGIN OF THE RULE

At one time, the Buddha was dwelling at the Peaked House monastery on the bank of the Monkey Pond at Vesālī. At that time, monks in the Vāguvana grove declared to persons who had not received full ordination that they themselves had realized superhuman states of Dharma. On account of this cause and condition, the Buddha assembled the community of monks, and knowing full well, yet deliberately questioning the monks of the Vāguvana grove:

"Is this truly so?"

They replied:

"Venerable Blessed One, it is truly so."

The Buddha admonished them:

"You are foolish men. Even if it were real, you should not speak of it to others — how much less when it is not real."

The Blessed One rebuked the monks of the Vāguvana grove by means of countless skillful methods, and then said to the monks:

"These are foolish men; they are a field in which many seeds of the defiled are sown; they are the first to transgress this precept. From this day forward, I shall establish a rule for the monks, encompassing ten principles of meaning, up to and including the phrase: so that the true Dharma may long endure."

The rule should be stated as follows:

Whatever monk, to a person who has not received full ordination, proclaims of himself that he has realized a superhuman state of Dharma, saying, "I have seen this, I know this" — if this is true, it is a pācittiya.

B. ANALYSIS OF THE RULE

Monk: as above.

Has not received full ordination: as in the preceding rule.

States pertaining to human beings: the precepts of human beings, the aggregates (skandhas) of human beings, the sense bases (āyatanas) of human beings.

Superhuman states: refers to the states leading to liberation.

To proclaim of oneself: to declare that one has attained mindfulness with regard to the body, right reflection, has morality, has aspiration, has non-heedlessness, has energy, has concentration, has right concentration, has the path, has cultivation, has wisdom, has vision, has attainment, has fruit. If such a monk truly possesses these things, yet goes to a person who has not received full ordination and speaks clearly of them, he commits a pācittiya; if he speaks unclearly, a dukkaṭa.

If by means of hand gestures, written characters, or signs he causes another to understand clearly, it is a pācittiya; if unclearly, a dukkaṭa.

If he proclaims superhuman states to devas, asuras, yakkhas, gandhabvas, nāgas, hungry ghosts, or animals capable of transformation, whether clearly or unclearly, he commits a dukkaṭa in all cases.

If he has truly attained superhuman states, and then speaks of them to a person who has received full ordination but who does not consent, he commits a dukkaṭa. Or if he declares, "I have attained the faculties, the powers, the factors of enlightenment, the path, dhyāna, liberation, attainment of samādhi," and speaks of this to another, he commits a pācittiya.

Bhikkhunī: pācittiya. Sikkhāmānā, sāmaṇera, sāmaṇerī: dukkaṭa. These are called offenses.

Non-offense: if it is due to conceit (abhimāna); or if one says it is due to karmic result without claiming it was attained through one's own cultivation; or if one has truly attained superhuman states and speaks of them to a consenting monk; or if one speaks of faculties, powers, factors of enlightenment, path, liberation, attainment of samādhi without saying to another, "I have realized this"; or if speaking in jest, speaking to oneself, speaking in a dream, or intending to say one thing but saying another. In all these cases there is no offense.

Those who do not commit an offense: one who transgresses for the first time before the rule has been established; one who is insane; one whose mind is disturbed; one afflicted with pain and overwhelmed by suffering.

Vietnamese translation: Bhikkhu Thích Đỗng Minh and Thích Đức Thắng. FOUR-PART VINAYA, FIRST PART.

Chinese translation: Tripiṭaka masters Buddhayaśas and Zhu Fonian.

Revised and annotated by: Bhikkhu Thích Nguyên Chứng.

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

Buddhist Studies Publication Committee, 2002.