San Sarv Bu Pm Tf 11 Np 26Rainy-Season Robes
Pāli / Sanskrit:Vassikasāṭika
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The Rainy-Season Robe Sutta (Vassikasāṭika)
Background
The Vassikasāṭika Sutta (Rainy-Season Robe) is a rule in the Bhikkhunī Pātimokkha, the code of discipline for nuns, belonging to the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Theravāda tradition. This is the section that gives detailed regulations concerning property, especially clothing, in the process of practice and communal life within the monastic community.
The rainy season (vassa), lasting three months during the Indian summer, usually from the seventh to the ninth lunar month, is an important period in the life of monastics. During this time, monastics should not wander on the roads, but should remain in monasteries for concentrated practice, avoiding harm to insects that emerge with the rains. To support monastic life during this special period, there are rules concerning the provision of special garments called vassikasāṭika, rainy-season robes.
Main Content
This rule states that if laypeople provide rainy-season robes for nuns, the manner of receiving and using them must follow strict principles. Specifically, these garments are the property of the community (Saṅgha), not personal property. Therefore, if a nun wishes to receive such a robe, she must inform and ask permission from the community, or at least from senior monastics who have authority.
The specific prohibition is this: a nun may not take a rainy-season robe on her own without the witness or consent of the community. If she does so, she violates one of the rules in the Pātimokkha. This is not because of a matter of miserliness or greed (lobha), but because it violates the collective principle and transparency in the management of the community’s common property.
Moreover, this teaching also suggests that providing clothing for monastics is a worthy charitable act, but it must be carried out according to clear regulations in order to avoid creating unfairness or unhealthy dependence between laypeople and monastics.
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