San Lo Bu Pm Pj 3Murder
Pāli / Sanskrit:Manussaviggaha
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The Manussaviggaha Sutra (The Offense of Murder)
Background
The Manussaviggaha sutra belongs to the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Pāli Canon and is found in the Pārajika collection — rules that constitute the gravest violations for bhikkhus and bhikkhunīs. This sutra was recorded chiefly to define clearly the act of killing a human being (homicide) from the perspective of Buddhist religious law, thereby determining the degree of offense and its consequences in the discipline.
The background of the sutra is connected with events that occurred at Jetavana (Jeta’s Grove) or other places, when some monastics acted in ways that harmed human life. The Buddha, in order to protect the Sangha and maintain the purity of the monastic community, established the Pārajika rule concerning killing human beings to clarify the boundary between actions that can be corrected and violations that lead to exclusion from the Sangha.
Main Content
Manussaviggaha — “killing a human being” — is defined in the sutra with clarity concerning all the elements that constitute this wrongful act. According to the Vinaya Piṭaka, to constitute a Pārajika violation (the gravest prohibitive rule) related to killing, the following factors must be present together: a living human person, the intention of a mind wishing to kill, an action carried out to cause death, and the final result that death occurs.
The sutra does not consider only cases of direct killing, but also includes cases such as instructing another to commit suicide, causing another person to die by indirect means (such as poison or weapons), or inciting an act of suicide. In addition, the sutra also considers situations involving a human fetus — causing harm to a fetus is also regarded as related to this rule, though with refinements in detail.
The distinction between Dhamma (legal principle) and practical reality is very important. If a monastic has a clear intention to kill and carries out an act intended to cause death, even if the final result does not occur, there are still rules governing the degree of offense (Saṅghādisesa or even Dukkaṭa — a minor fault).
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