Bi Np 2323. Bartering
Pāli / Sanskrit:Kayavikkaya
A nun who barters, except with fellow monastics, must relinquish the item received and confess the offense.
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Kayavikkaya (Trading and Bartering)
Bhikkhunī Vinaya — Nissaggiya Pācittiya Rules
Background
Kayavikkaya (trading and bartering) is a rule belonging to the Bhikkhunī Vinaya — the collection of disciplinary rules for nuns in the Pāli Vinaya Piṭaka. This rule arose from specific situations in which nuns transgressed the principle of refraining from worldly commercial transactions, particularly the bartering of goods for personal advantage.
The reason this rule was established derives from the spirit of the holy life for monastics: monks and nuns ought to keep themselves apart from commercial activities and trade, since such activities easily give rise to greed, dispute, and exploitation. Living simply and refraining from the bartering of goods for gain is a means of preserving purity and maintaining focus on the practice of liberation.
This rule carries deep significance: it emphasizes that nuns are not merchants, but persons who have gone forth in pursuit of the path of enlightenment. The distinction between worldly life and the monastic life must be clearly maintained.
Main Content
The rule on kayavikkaya (from kaya = body, article; vikkaya = selling, exchanging) stipulates that: a bhikkhunī may not barter or trade personal articles, except when such a transaction takes place among nuns within the monastic community.
If a nun transgresses this rule by:
Bartering articles with persons outside the Saṅgha (laypeople or monastics not belonging to her community)
Gaining benefit from such a transaction
then that act is regarded as a breach of the disciplinary rules (pācittiya). In order to make amends, the nun must:
1. Completely relinquish the article received through the transaction
2. Confess the offense before the Saṅgha in accordance with the formal procedures for confession
This rule does not prohibit bartering within the monastery itself, since such transactions are conducted in a spirit of communal sharing, without the aim of personal benefit or the accumulation of material possessions.
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