Bi Pc 9696. Not wearing a chest wrap
Pāli / Sanskrit:Saṁkakṣikā
A nun who enters an inhabited area without a bust cover 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 96. Not wearing a chest wrap
Origin story
At one time when the Buddha was staying at Sāvatthī in Anāthapiṇḍika’s Monastery, a nun had gone to the village for alms without wearing her chest wrap. While she was walking along a street, a whirlwind lifted up her upper robes. People shouted out, “She has beautiful breasts and belly!” Because she was teased by those people, she felt humiliated.
After returning to the nunnery, she told the nuns what had happened. The nuns of few desires complained and criticized her, “How could a nun enter an inhabited area without wearing her chest wrap?” … “Is it true, monks, that a nun did this?”
“It’s true, sir.”
The Buddha rebuked her … “How could a nun do this? This will affect people’s confidence …” … “And, monks, the nuns should recite this training rule like this:
Final ruling
‘If a nun enters an inhabited area without wearing her chest wrap, 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. Without wearing her chest wrap: not wearing her chest wrap. Chest wrap: it is for the purpose of concealing the body below the collar bone and above the navel. Enters an inhabited area: if she crosses the boundary of an enclosed inhabited area, she commits an offense entailing confession. If she enters the vicinity of an unenclosed inhabited area, she commits an offense entailing confession.
Non-offenses
There is no offense: if her robe is stolen; if her robe is lost; if she is sick; if she is not mindful; if she does not know; if there is an emergency; if she is insane; if she is the first offender.
The thirteenth training rule is finished.
The ninth subchapter on sunshades and sandals is finished.
“Venerables, the one hundred and sixty-six rules on confession have been recited. In regard to this I ask you, ‘Are you pure in this?’ A second time I ask, ‘Are you pure in this?’ A third time I ask, ‘Are you pure in this?’ You are pure in this and therefore silent. I will remember it thus.”
The section on minor rules has been completed.
The chapter on offenses entailing confession in the Nuns’ Analysis 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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