Lzh Mg Bi Vb Pc 7Truthfully Announcing Superhuman Attainments
Pāli / Sanskrit:Bhūtārocana
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Bhūtārocana Sutta: Truthfully Announcing Superhuman Attainments
Background
The Bhūtārocana Sutta belongs to the Vinaya Piṭaka, the foundational code of discipline for the Theravāda Buddhist Sangha. This text concerns the ethics and honesty of declaring supernormal faculties (abhiññā).
During the time of the Buddha, certain practitioners who craved fame or sought veneration from lay followers would sometimes claim spiritual capabilities they had not genuinely attained. Some declared that they possessed supernormal powers (iddhi)—that they could fly, pass through walls, or hear sounds from afar—when in truth they possessed only ordinary, worldly knowledge. This caused confusion within the Sangha and eroded the faith of lay followers.
Accordingly, the Buddha established a rule of discipline (pātimokkha) to govern such conduct. The Bhūtārocana Sutta is one of the foundational regulations aimed at protecting the purity of the Sangha and preserving the integrity of the Dharma.
Principal Content
According to the Vinaya Piṭaka, making a dishonest declaration of supernormal faculties is considered a Pācittiya offense (pātimokkha-vibhaṅjaniya)—one of the offenses that, while not among the gravest, nonetheless requires confession and expiation. Specifically, an ordained person is not permitted to declare that they possess such faculties as supernormal powers, the divine eye (dibba-cakkhu), the divine ear (dibba-sota), or other spiritual states that they have not genuinely realized.
This rule applies to both direct and indirect declarations. If a monastic states "I see that which is invisible" or allows others to form a mistaken impression of their faculties without explicitly correcting such a misunderstanding, this too constitutes a violation of the rule.
Nevertheless, the sutta also acknowledges that if a person has genuinely attained such faculties, they are entirely entitled to declare this in an appropriate manner. The matter turns upon truthfulness (bhūta)—that is, the correspondence between one's words and the actual reality. If one's words do not accord with the truth, this is falsehood: one of the actions considered most destructive to spiritual trust.
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