Xct Mu Bu Pm Pc 62Intentionally Killing Living Creatures
Pāli / Sanskrit:Sañcicca
Save your scripture progress
Create a free account to save scriptures, track progress, and continue your daily learning path.
Explanation of the Sañcicca Sutta — Intentionally Killing Living Beings
Background
The Sañcicca Sutta appears in the later examination of the Vinaya, reflecting the rules of self-discipline that the Buddha established for the Sangha after specific incidents. The word “sañcicca” means “intentionally, consciously,” clearly indicating the core element this rule seeks to define: the action must arise from intention.
In the context of the Vinaya Piṭaka, regulations on killing living beings are not merely prohibitions, but a deep understanding of the causal mechanism of the unwholesome (akusala). The Buddha emphasized that all actions with ethical value depend upon intention (cetanā). Intentional killing is the most serious violation because it is rooted in greed (lobha), hatred (dosa), or delusion (moha), the three basic unwholesome states.
This sutta appears in a context where bhikkhus had to understand clearly the boundary between intentional actions and unforeseen unfortunate accidents, so as to cultivate ethics with clarity and responsibility.
Main Content
The Sañcicca Sutta lays down that if a bhikkhu intentionally kills any living being, from a tiny insect to a large animal, he commits a Pārājika offense, a defeat, the gravest level of violation in the Vinaya.
The determining factor here is deliberate intention (sañcicca). This means that the practitioner must:
First, have clear awareness of the action about to be performed. If someone accidentally causes the death of a living being without the intention to kill, such as inadvertently stepping on an ant while walking, then he does not commit a Pārājika offense, though there may still be a lesser fault in other unavoidable cases.
Second, have an intentional impulse to act so as to bring about the death of the living being. This is especially important: if a subsequent force or another factor causes the death rather than the practitioner’s direct action, the degree of violation is different.
Third, there must be a result: the living being actually dies.
🌏 The Buddhist canon is vast — some sūtras (such as comparative Vinaya across schools, or untranslated Tibetan-canon texts) have to this day NEVER been translated into Vietnamese or English by anyone, scholars included. Rather than leave it blank, Inti AI offers a FAITHFUL summary grounded in the tradition — from the sūtra's title, origin and essence — so you can still reach this rare part of the treasury. Whenever an original translation exists, the app shows the original first.
Translations belong to the translator/source credited above. The bilingual compilation, presentation, and AI translations compiled by Inti are © Inti Foundation. Please attribute when quoting; do not bulk-copy or use commercially without permission.