Bi Pc 2020. Crying and beating oneself
Pāli / Sanskrit:Rodana
A nun who cries and beats herself must confess the offense.
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Theravāda Collection on Monastic Law The Nuns’ Analysis
The chapter on offenses entailing confession The subchapter on the dark of the night 20. Crying and beating oneself
Origin story
At one time when the Buddha was staying at Sāvatthī in Anāthapiṇḍika’s Monastery, the nun Caṇḍakāḷī quarreled with the nuns and then cried after repeatedly beating herself. The nuns of few desires complained and criticized her, “How could Venerable Caṇḍakāḷī cry after repeatedly beating herself?” … “Is it true, monks, that the nun Caṇḍakāḷī did this?”
“It’s true, sir.”
The Buddha rebuked her … “How could the nun Caṇḍakāḷī act like this? This will affect people’s confidence …” … “And, monks, the nuns should recite this training rule like this:
Final ruling
‘If a nun cries after repeatedly beating herself, she commits an offense entailing confession.’”
Definitions
A: whoever … Nun: … The nun who has been given the full ordination in unanimity by both Sanghas through a legal procedure consisting of one motion and three announcements that is irreversible and fit to stand—this sort of nun is meant in this case. Herself: oneself.
If she cries after repeatedly beating herself, she commits an offense entailing confession. If she beats herself, but does not cry, she commits an offense of wrong conduct. If she cries, but does not beat herself, she commits an offense of wrong conduct.
Non-offenses
There is no offense: if she cries, but does not beat herself, because of loss of relatives, loss of property, or loss of health; if she is insane; if she is the first offender.
The tenth training rule is finished.
The second subchapter on the dark of the night is finished.
The “…” is an abbreviation carried over from the Pāli original itself, called peyyāla. The early canon was memorized and recited, so passages repeated verbatim from a preceding discourse were commonly contracted to an elision mark rather than written out in full. Venerable Thích Minh Châu's translation preserves this convention. Some texts therefore look short — but that is the canonical form, not missing content or a truncated translation. The elided passages can be read in full in the preceding discourses of the same chapter.
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