Lzh Mi Bu Vb Sk 36Not Sit Proudly
Pāli / Sanskrit:Not sit proudly
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The Sutta “Not Sitting Arrogantly” — A Traditional Pāli Exposition
Background
This sutta belongs to the Vinaya Piṭaka, the sacred canon governing the discipline and ethics of the community of monks and nuns. In the Theravāda tradition, the Vinaya Piṭaka is the foundation for maintaining the purity of moral conduct (śīla) and the harmony of the order. This thirty-sixth sutta is found in the Bhikkhunī Vibhaṅga, the division concerning nuns, or is related to rules of conduct for novice monastics within the practicing community.
The creative context of this sutta is connected with concrete situations in the life of monastic training, when the Buddha discerned expressions of greed, pride, and conceit (lobha, moha, dosa) through the act of sitting. The action of “sitting arrogantly,” not as verbal boasting but as a bodily attitude expressing pride, was regarded by the Buddha as a violation of the spirit of practice.
Main Content
The sutta “Not Sitting Arrogantly” emphasizes that monks, nuns, or monastics must not have an arrogant attitude when sitting in communal gatherings or before younger Dharma brothers and sisters. Specifically, “sitting arrogantly” (bhayībhave nisīdati) refers to taking the highest seat, sitting in the most honored place, or using bodily posture to show superiority when one does not yet possess the purity or virtue worthy of it.
The Buddha especially warned against this conduct because it reflects and nourishes the mind of pride and conceit (māna). In the Buddha-Dharma, pride is a dangerous defilement (kilesa), covering the wisdom of self-seeing and obstructing progress on the path. The sutta points out that even if a person has the outward appearance of practice, if the mind still contains pride, this is a violation of the Vinaya Piṭaka, not a violation of crude outward action, but a violation of its spirit.
This rule applies not only to elders or those with offices, but to every member of the community. True practitioners must know how to “lower themselves” (ātmānam anucchanna), recognizing the temporary and impermanent (anicca) nature of status and achievement.
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