Xct Mu Bi Pc 115Getting Trainees to Massage

Discourse on Having Female Trainees Give Massage

Background

This section belongs to the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Pāli Canon, specifically to the regulations concerning the disciplinary rules for bhikkhunīs in the religious community. In the Theravāda Buddhist tradition, the Vinaya Piṭaka is not merely a set of rigid prohibitions, but an expression of a harmonious and mindful way of life within the community of practice.

This discourse is recorded in the context of early Buddhism, when the Buddha and his disciples were establishing rules for communal living. In particular, it concerns female trainees (sikkhamānā), women who were practicing the preparatory steps before receiving full admission to the household life.

Sikkhamānā is a distinctive status in the Buddhist Vinaya: these women observe 10 or 12 training rules in preparation for formal ordination. The recorded context shows the practical issues in managing the monastic community, which the Buddha addressed with wisdom and compassion.

Main Content

This concerns whether female trainees are permitted or not permitted to give massage to others, especially to bhikkhunīs and monastics within the community itself. The question is similar to: “Is performing these duties in accord with the spirit of practice? Does it affect the concentrated mind?”

In the context of the Vinaya, these regulations are not arbitrary restrictions, but guidelines intended to protect the virtue and concentration of practitioners. Massage (ummaddāna) in a monastic context is not only a matter of treatment or bodily care, but may involve activities capable of creating attachment or distraction.

This discourse records specific regulations about which situations are permitted and which are prohibited, depending on the purpose, context, and mental effect. Permission or prohibition is not absolute, but depends on specific conditions: whether it is necessary care because of illness, and whether it is an activity that causes distraction.