Bi Pc 44. Using a dildo
Pāli / Sanskrit:Jatumaṭṭhaka
A nun who uses a dildo 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 garlic 4. Using a dildo
Origin story
At one time the Buddha was staying at Sāvatthī in the Jeta Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s Monastery. At that time a woman who had previously belonged to the king’s harem had gone forth as a nun. Another nun who was plagued by lust went to that nun and said, “Venerable, the king only came to you at long intervals. How did you cope?”
“With a dildo.”
“What’s a dildo?”
That nun described a dildo to her. The other nun then used a dildo. But she forgot to wash it before disposing of it in a certain place. The nuns saw it covered with flies, and they said, “Who did this?”
“I did it,” she replied.
The nuns of few desires complained and criticized her, “How could a nun use a dildo?” … “Is it true, monks, that a nun did this?”
“It’s true, sir.”
The Buddha rebuked her, “How could a nun use a dildo? This will affect people’s confidence …” … “And, monks, the nuns should recite this training rule like this:
Final ruling
‘If a nun uses a dildo, she commits an offense entailing confession.’”
Definitions
A dildo: made of resin, made of wood, made of flour, made of clay. Uses: if she consents to the contact and inserts it into her vagina, even if it is just a water-lily leaf, she commits an offense entailing confession.
Non-offenses
There is no offense: if she does it because she is sick; if she is insane; if she is the first offender.
The fourth 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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