Lzh Mu Bi Vb Pc 119Ordaining Untrained Unmarried Girls
Pāli / Sanskrit:Paripuṇṇavīsativassa-asikkhita-kumāribhūta
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Explanation of the Sutta on Ordaining Untrained Unmarried Girls
(Paripuṇṇavīsativassa-asikkhita-kumāribhūta)
Background
This sutta is found in the Vinaya Piṭaka, specifically in the Pātimokkha, the fundamental code for bhikkhunīs, female monastics. In the Theravāda tradition, the Pātimokkha is the foundation of humble and disciplined life in the Sangha. The sutta is recorded under the title Paripuṇṇavīsativassa-asikkhita-kumāribhūta, meaning “a woman who has completed twenty years but has not been trained in the discipline and is still a maiden.”
The background for the formulation of this sutta comes from the need to protect the integrity and dignity of the Bhikkhunī Sangha. Śākyamuni Buddha clearly laid down the prerequisites for the ordination of women, in order to ensure that they had reached a level of maturity in both age and mind, and thus had the capacity to practice the discipline seriously.
Main Content
This sutta establishes a specific rule concerning the ordination of girls who have not been trained in the discipline, even though they have completed twenty years of age. This reflects an important principle in Theravāda Buddhadharma: age is not the only factor determining a person’s readiness to enter the life of practice.
According to the rule of the Vinaya Piṭaka, for a woman to be ordained as a bhikkhunī, she must not only have reached twenty years of age (paripuṇṇa-vīsativassa), but must also have been fully trained in the discipline (sikkhita). If a girl has never been trained, that is, if she is asikkhita, or if she is still a “maiden” (kumāribhūta), an expression often implying psychological immaturity or lack of necessary life experience, she should not be ordained.
This rule was established to protect her safety and concentration in the process of practice.
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