Bi Pc 3131. Lying on the same bed
Pāli / Sanskrit:Ekamañcatuvaṭṭana
A nun who lies down on the same bed as another nun 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 lying down 31. Lying on the same bed
Origin story
At one time when the Buddha was staying at Sāvatthī in Anāthapiṇḍika’s Monastery, two nuns were lying down on the same bed. When people walking about the dwellings saw this, they complained and criticized them, “How can two nuns lie down on the same bed? They’re just like householders who indulge in worldly pleasures!”
The nuns heard the complaints of those people, and the nuns of few desires complained and criticized them, “How can nuns do this?” … “Is it true, monks, that nuns do this?”
“It’s true, sir.”
The Buddha rebuked them … “How can nuns do this? This will affect people’s confidence …” … “And, monks, the nuns should recite this training rule like this:
Final ruling
‘If two nuns lie down on the same bed, they commit an offense entailing confession.’”
Definitions
Two: whoever … Nuns: fully ordained is what is meant. If two lie down on the same bed: if, when one is lying down, the other lies down, they commit an offense entailing confession. If both lie down together, they commit an offense entailing confession. Every time they get up and then lie down again, they commit an offense entailing confession.
Non-offenses
There is no offense: if, when one is lying down, the other sits down; if both sit down together; if they are insane; if they are the first offenders.
The first training rule 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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