Bi Pc 4040. Not wandering after the rainy season
Pāli / Sanskrit:Cārikanapakkamana
A nun who does not go wandering after the rainy season 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 40. Not wandering after the rainy season
Origin story
At one time the Buddha was staying at Rājagaha in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrel sanctuary. At that time the nuns were staying right there at Rājagaha for the rainy season, the winter, and the summer. People complained and criticized them, “The nuns are leaving the districts in darkness and obscurity. They don’t brighten them up by their presence.”
The nuns heard the complaints of those people. They then told the monks, who in turn told the Buddha. Soon afterwards the Buddha gave a teaching and addressed the monks: “Well then, monks, I will lay down a training rule for the nuns for the following ten reasons: for the well-being of the Sangha … for the longevity of the true Teaching, and for supporting the training. And, monks, the nuns should recite this training rule like this:
Final ruling
‘If a nun who has completed the rainy-season residence does not go wandering at least 65 to 80 kilometers, 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. Who has completed the rainy-season residence: who has completed the first three or the last three months of the rainy-season residence.
If she thinks, “I won’t go wandering, not even 65 to 80 kilometers,” then by the mere fact of abandoning her duty, she commits an offense entailing confession.
Non-offenses
There is no offense: if there is an obstacle; if she searches for a companion nun, but is unable to find one; if she is sick; if there is an emergency; if she is insane; if she is the first offender.
The tenth training rule is finished.
The fourth subchapter on lying down 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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