Lzh Sarv Bu Vb Pc 29Sitting in Private
Pāli / Sanskrit:Rahonisajja
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The Discourse on Sitting in Private (Rahonisajja)
An Exposition According to the Pāli Canon Tradition
Background
Rahonisajja belongs to the Vinaya Piṭaka, specifically to the Pācittiya—the collection of rules whose violation requires penance. This text is constructed from actual situations that arose within the monastic community of the Sangha (both monks and nuns) during the lifetime of the Blessed One.
The Vinaya Piṭaka does not consist of arbitrary commands, but rather is a system of ethics established by the Blessed One to protect the purity of the monastic community, to uphold moral virtue (sīla), and to prevent conduct that might give rise to suspicion or cause harm to the faith of the laity. The Rahonisajja specifically concerns the act of "sitting in private" between a monk or a nun and a person of the opposite sex in a secluded and sheltered environment.
Principal Content
The Rahonisajja stipulates that monks and nuns should not sit in a private, secluded place with a person of the opposite sex without a witness present. Such an act is regarded as paccaya-dubbhara—that is, exceedingly difficult to defend—meaning it is very difficult to protect one's good reputation and purity of moral conduct. This principle does not arise because all such acts are in themselves unwholesome, but because they create conditions conducive to suspicion, slander (pisunavaca), and harm to public trust.
The text teaches that even though a monk or nun may be pure in intention, if others observe them sitting privately without a witness present, those others may pass judgment in a negative manner. For this reason, the Blessed One emphasizes the importance of "making visible" (paccakkharaṇa)—the practice whereby a monastic must allow others to bear witness to their purity, rather than that purity residing in the mind alone.
This rule is not an absolute prohibition but a cautionary measure. A monk or nun who transgresses it must undertake penance (pācittiya), that is, must confess the offense before the Sangha or before senior members of the community.
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