Bi Pc 8989. Bathing with sesame paste
Pāli / Sanskrit:Vāsitaka
A nun who bathes with scents and oil-seed flowers 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 sunshades and sandals 89. Bathing with sesame paste
Origin story
At one time when the Buddha was staying at Sāvatthī in Anāthapiṇḍika’s Monastery, the nuns from the group of six were bathing with scented sesame paste. People complained and criticized them, “How can nuns bathe with scented sesame paste? They’re just like householders who indulge in worldly pleasures!”
The nuns heard the complaints of those people. The nuns of few desires complained and criticized them, “How can the nuns from the group of six bathe with scented sesame paste?” … “Is it true, monks, that those nuns do this?”
“It’s true, sir.”
The Buddha rebuked them … “How can the nuns from the group of six do this? This will affect people’s confidence …” … “And, monks, the nuns should recite this training rule like this:
Final ruling
‘If a nun bathes with scented sesame paste, 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. Scented: any kind of scent. Sesame paste: ground sesame is what is meant. Bathes: is bathing. For the effort there is an act of wrong conduct. At the end of the bath, she commits an offense entailing confession.
Non-offenses
There is no offense: if she does it because she is sick; if she bathes with unscented sesame paste; if she is insane; if she is the first offender.
The sixth 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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