Lzh Sarv Bi Pm Sk 96Not Teach Someone With Right Shoulder Covered and Left Shoulder Bare
Pāli / Sanskrit:Not teach someone with right shoulder covered and left shoulder bare
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Discourse on Proper Solemnity in Receiving Dharma Teaching
Background
The Vinaya Piṭaka is the collection that records the disciplinary rules (sīla) for monks and nuns in the Sangha. These regulations are not dry prohibitions, but practical guidance helping disciples cultivate loving-kindness (mettā) and mutual respect, while also protecting the honor of the Three Jewels.
This discourse concerns a basic rule about bodily attitude when receiving or studying the Dharma from a teacher. In the life of monks and nuns, maintaining solemnity through the body is not only an expression of respect, but also reflects the degree of mindfulness (sati) and clear comprehension (sampajañña) of the practitioner.
Main Content
This rule forbids monastics from teaching the Dharma to someone who leaves the right shoulder bare while covering the left shoulder, or the reverse. This is an attitude lacking respect, easily harmful to the mind of the student and unsuitable to purity in practice.
Improper standards of clothing and bodily presentation when receiving the Dharma are regarded as signs of loss of mindfulness or lack of reverence. Especially in the context of the Sangha, where the Dharma teaching is transmitted from teacher to disciple through generations, solemnity in every detail is a way of showing that we understand the immeasurable value of the Dharma we are receiving.
This rule is also closely connected with other forms of reverence. In the Early Buddhist tradition, covering the shoulder, especially the right shoulder, Pāli: āgaṇṭhuyaṃ dhivaraṃ, is regarded as an expression of the highest respect. The student should use a long under-robe or cloth to cover the body so that it is always dignified, avoiding a half-bare body or ill-fitting clothing while listening to the Dharma.
Practical Meaning
More deeply, this discourse teaches us the awareness that the Dharma is not an ordinary object to be received in a confused state of mind or with an undignified body.
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