Lzh Mu Bu Vb Sk 79Low Seats

Explanation of the Nīcāsana Sutta (Low Seats)

Background

The Nīcāsana Sutta is recorded in the Vinaya Piṭaka, especially in the Bhikkhunī Vibhaṅga, the regulations concerning the community of female Buddhist renunciants. This sutta arose from a specific event in the early monastic community, when bhikkhunīs violated principles of moral cultivation through a small action that nevertheless had profound significance for mental discipline.

The Buddha saw that some female monastics were using high seats to sit on, creating distinctions of status and creating conditions for pride and arrogance to arise. This was not merely a material issue, but an expression of actions connected with conceit (māna), one of the chief obstacles on the path of practice.

Main Content

The sutta states that bhikkhunīs should not use low seats but should sit on seats lower than those of bhikkhus, male monastics. This principle is built on the foundation of the Eight Rules of Respect (Garudhamma), special rules that define the relationship between the order of nuns and the order of monks in the Buddhist community.

The purpose of this regulation is not to demean women, but to educate the psychology of practice. Using a low seat symbolizes humility, willingness to learn, and acceptance of guidance. Sitting lower prevents a female monastic from thinking of herself as in a higher or supreme position, thereby destroying the seed of pride in the mind.

The sutta also refers to realization and proper practice. If any bhikkhunī violates this regulation, she must undergo a decision of realization (yathāvuḍḍhi, according to maturity in the Dharma), that is, she must recognize the fault and correct herself. This is the self-correcting mechanism of the Sangha field, helping the whole community maintain purity and harmony.