Lzh Sarv Bu Pm 2 Pc 23Teaching Nuns for Profit
Pāli / Sanskrit:Āmisa
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SUTTA ON TEACHING THE DHARMA FOR PROFIT (Āmisa)
Background
This sutta appears in the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Theravāda tradition, specifically in the Pācittiya section, the ethical rules concerning faulty conduct of monks and nuns. It is recorded in the context of the Buddha teaching at Sāvatthi or in other places, when he discovered a serious problem arising among the nuns.
Some nuns began teaching the Dharma to others, but not with a pure purpose: they accepted material offerings (āmisa), such as gifts, money, or other material benefits, as the essential aim of teaching. This action violated the spirit of Buddhist practice, where the sharing of the Dharma should arise from compassion and the wish to liberate beings, not from desire for gain.
Main Content
The sutta states that bhikkhunīs must not teach the Dharma with the primary purpose of receiving offerings, property, or material benefits. In other words, if a nun deliberately teaches suttas, treatises on the Dharma, or gives Dharma talks in order to obtain goods, money, or favors from patients, patrons, or lay followers, that is a Pācittiya offense: a fault that must be openly confessed and repented before the Sangha.
This rule does not mean that bhikkhunīs can never receive offerings from those they teach. The key point is intention: if the primary motivation is material gain, the action is considered improper. However, if a nun teaches the Dharma purely, with the wish to educate and liberate, and afterward receives offerings as a natural result without deliberate seeking, that is not an offense.
The sutta emphasizes a subtle but extremely important distinction: between an action done for the purpose of gain and an action done from compassion that has natural consequences accompanying it.
Practical Meaning
This rule teaches us that greed for gain is a deadly ground, an āsava, a deeply rooted defilement, in Buddhist practice.
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