Mpt Sk 57Poking Tongue

Commentary on the Jivhānicchāraka Sutta (Putting Out the Tongue)

Background

The Jivhānicchāraka Sutta belongs to the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Early Buddhist tradition, recorded in the Samantapāsādikā, the detailed legal commentary for bhikkhus. This sutta is recognized as one of the rules related to coarse bodily actions, specifically the act of protruding the tongue rudely in the community of monks and nuns.

The background for the arising of this sutta lies in the effort to build proper standards of practice and communal discipline in the Sangha. The Buddha and his earliest disciples always recognized that seemingly trivial actions could profoundly affect the virtue and image of a practitioner, and could also negatively affect the confidence of the lay community.

Main Content

The Jivhānicchāraka Sutta addresses the act of a bhikkhu intentionally and publicly putting out his tongue in order to attract attention or show disrespect. This act is regarded as a violation of moral discipline (sīla), because it reflects a scattered state of mind, arrogance, or lack of respect toward the Sangha and those around him.

From the perspective of the Early Buddhist Vinaya Piṭaka, putting out the tongue is not an extremely grave violation, not one of the pārājika offenses, but it falls among the lighter breaches of ethical rules. This shows that the Buddhadharma pays close attention even to small details of behavior, because every action is an expression of the inner mind and virtue.

This action is also considered in a broader context: sense restraint (indriya-saṃvara). A practitioner must be clearly aware of every action of body, speech, and mind in order to maintain purity and focus on the purpose of practice.

Practical Meaning

The Jivhānicchāraka Sutta teaches us that no bodily action is so small that it need not be attended to.