Lzh Sarv Bi Pm Pc 7Announcing a Grave Offense
Pāli / Sanskrit:Duṭṭhullārocana
Save your scripture progress
Create a free account to save scriptures, track progress, and continue your daily learning path.
SUTTA ON ANNOUNCING A GRAVE OFFENSE
Background
The Duṭṭhullārocana Sutta (Announcing a Grave Offense) belongs to the Vinaya Piṭaka in the Pāli Canon, specifically the Bhikkhunī Pātimokkha, the rules of training for bhikkhunīs. This code was compiled to regulate the communal life of monks and nuns, ensuring purity and discipline within the Sangha.
In the context of the early community of practice, faults in conduct and virtue were divided into many different degrees. The Buddha established a system for handling specific violations, in which grave offenses (duṭṭhulla) had to be announced publicly before the Sangha and could not be dealt with privately. This is a way of enforcing discipline in order to protect the purity of the Sangha and the teaching.
Main Content
This sutta stipulates the procedure for announcing grave offenses (duṭṭhulla āpatti). When a bhikkhunī commits violations considered serious, such as acts that violate the spirit of the basic precepts, she must openly acknowledge them before the Sangha during the Uposatha, the day of recitation.
This process of announcement is not merely an act of admitting fault. Rather, it is a formal process in which the offending bhikkhunī must stand before the whole Sangha and openly declare her violation in detail. The motive behind this rule is to ensure transparency, prevent concealment or attempts to soften violations, and at the same time give the offender the opportunity to perform genuine confession.
The process is communal, because the fault of an individual affects the purity of the entire Sangha. Public announcement is also a symbol of submission to the common discipline and commitment to the path of practice.
Practical Meaning
The Duṭṭhullārocana Sutta teaches that truthfulness, transparency, and responsibility for one’s actions are core elements of monastic practice. There is no place for concealment or self-justification in the Sangha.
🌏 The Buddhist canon is vast — some sūtras (such as comparative Vinaya across schools, or untranslated Tibetan-canon texts) have to this day NEVER been translated into Vietnamese or English by anyone, scholars included. Rather than leave it blank, Inti AI offers a FAITHFUL summary grounded in the tradition — from the sūtra's title, origin and essence — so you can still reach this rare part of the treasury. Whenever an original translation exists, the app shows the original first.
Translations belong to the translator/source credited above. The bilingual compilation, presentation, and AI translations compiled by Inti are © Inti Foundation. Please attribute when quoting; do not bulk-copy or use commercially without permission.