Lzh Mu Bu Pm Pc 48Hitting

Hitting (Pahāra) — Comparative Vinaya in Chinese, Entry Lzh Mu Bu Pm Pc 48

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Source Status

This entry belongs to the Comparative Vinaya — Chinese collection, numbered Lzh Mu Bu Pm Pc 48, with the Vietnamese title Đánh Người, the English title Hitting, and the original Pāli/Sanskrit term Pahāra. This is a document in the Sectarian Buddhist Scriptures — Comparative tradition, that is, a Vinaya text preserved in Chinese, reflecting the regulations of one of the sectarian Buddhist schools (Nikāya) after the division of the early Sangha.

At present, the original source text of this entry has not been directly collated within the scope of this explanatory compilation. Therefore, the content presented below is not a translation of the original scripture, but an explanation based on the supplied descriptive information, combined with general understanding of the structure and character of the Buddhist sectarian Vinayas. Readers should consult the original Chinese text to obtain accurate and complete content.

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Background

The Comparative Vinaya — Chinese collection is a compilation and comparison of Buddhist Vinaya texts transmitted through the Chinese language, including the regulations of many different schools, such as the Four-Part Vinaya, Five-Part Vinaya, Ten-Recitations Vinaya, Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya, and other Vinaya systems. The purpose of this type of comparative material is to help researchers recognize similarities and differences among sectarian Vinaya traditions, thereby gaining deeper understanding of the history of the formation and development of Buddhist Vinaya.

The designation Pm Pc 48 in this entry number suggests that this rule belongs to the Pācittiya group, that is, a class of disciplinary rules involving offenses that require confession and are not among the grave rules leading to exclusion from communion. This is the forty-eighth rule in this group according to the numbering of the corresponding Chinese comparative document. The term Pahāra in Pāli literally means a blow, striking, derived from the verb pahārati, to strike or attack with the hand or with some object.

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Content Identifiable from the Descriptive Information

Based on the title and the original term Pahāra (Đánh Người — Hitting), this Vinaya entry concerns the act of using physical violence against another person, specifically the act of striking. In Buddhist sectarian Vinaya systems generally, rules related to pahāra usually stipulate that a monk is not permitted to strike or assault another person, whether lay or monastic, without legitimate reason, and in most cases such behavior is considered an offense requiring confession.

The presence of this rule in the pācittiya group indicates that this violation is assessed as serious enough to require acknowledgment and confession before the Sangha, though not to the point of incurring the gravest consequences such as expulsion or suspension of membership in the Sangha. This reflects the subtlety of the Buddhist Vinaya’s classification of offenses: although it is not a grave offense, striking is still an expression of a mind of anger and a lack of compassion, wholly contrary to the spirit of the practitioner.

Because this is a Chinese comparative sectarian document, the specific content may include the formulations of various traditions concerning the same rule, thereby helping reveal consistency or difference in how the schools define, classify, and handle the act of hitting another person within the Sangha or in relation to outsiders.

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Meaning for Practice

The rule Pahāra, regardless of the tradition through which it is read, carries the fundamental message of nonviolence (ahiṃsā) and compassion (karuṇā) as core qualities of a renunciant. A Buddhist practitioner, especially a monk, is expected to be a model of virtue, not only abandoning the taking of life but also abandoning every form of causing physical suffering to others.

The act of striking, whether arising from momentary anger, from a feeling of being offended, or from a wish to punish, reveals the presence of a mind of hatred, one of the three unwholesome roots that must be cut off on the path of practice. The rule concerning pahāra is therefore not merely a social rule or organizational discipline, but a direct reflection of the inner aim: calming anger, cultivating patience, and nurturing a mind of loving-kindness.

For students of Vinaya and practitioners of discipline today, this entry reminds us that patience in the face of adversity, the capacity to endure without violent reaction, is an active and profound practice, not weakness or passivity. Discipline protects not only the person who might be harmed, but also the practitioner himself from the degeneration of consciousness caused by nurturing a mind of anger.

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Comparative Notes

The full Chinese source text of entry Lzh Mu Bu Pm Pc 48 has not been directly collated and presented in this document. Researchers who wish to study it fully should consult the original Chinese text in the corresponding sectarian comparative Vinaya collections. The term Pahāra may be used for comparison with equivalent rules in the Pāli Vinaya and other Chinese Vinaya traditions, in order to see the continuity and diversity of the Buddhist Vinaya tradition.