Lzh Mi Bi Vb Pc 175Within Their Own Country

Antoraṭṭha Sutra - Within Their Own Country

Background

Antoraṭṭha (Pāli: antora - within, aṭṭha - country, territory) is a rule belonging to Nisaggiya Pācittiya, a category of offenses involving forfeiture or restitution. This rule is recorded in the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Pāli Canon, reflecting the detailed regulations established by the Buddha Gotama for the Sangha in the early period of Buddhism.

According to the Theravada tradition, the Vinaya Pitaka is regarded as a precious treasury that teaches how bhikkhus and bhikkhunīs should practice purely and preserve the holy life. Every rule has a cause of arising (nidāna), illustrating specific situations that led the Buddha to formulate the rule in order to protect the sanctity of the monastery and the community of devotees.

Main Content

The Antoraṭṭha rule concerns issues that arise when bhikkhus operate, receive, or manage property within their own local region. Specifically, this sutra addresses cases in which a bhikkhu acts or accepts goods, especially money or valuable objects, in the country or territory where he is residing or practicing.

According to this rule, if a bhikkhu directly receives, keeps, or negotiates over money and valuable property without following the proper regulations of the Sangha, he violates pācittiya, an offense requiring confession and restitution. What is important is that the bhikkhu must completely relinquish or return those possessions to the Sangha, and not hold them privately.

The core principle behind this rule is the separation between worldly possessions and the pure monastic life. Early Buddhism emphasized that monks must live very simply and should not become absorbed in complicated economic or monetary relationships with the outside world.