Bu Pc 5555. Scaring a monk
Pāli / Sanskrit:Bhiṁsāpana
A monk who frightens another monk must confess the offense.
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Theravāda Collection on Monastic Law The Great Analysis
The chapter on offenses entailing confession The subchapter on drinking alcohol 55. Scaring a monk
Origin story
At one time when the Buddha was staying at Sāvatthī in Anāthapiṇḍika’s Monastery, the monks from the group of six were scaring the monks from the group of seventeen. They cried. Other monks asked them why, and they told them.
The monks of few desires complained and criticized them, “How can the monks from the group of six scare other monks?” … “Is it true, monks, that you do this?”
“It’s true, sir.”
The Buddha rebuked them … “Foolish men, how can you do this? This will affect people’s confidence …” … “And, monks, this training rule should be recited like this:
Final ruling
‘If a monk scares a monk, he commits an offense entailing confession.’”
Definitions
A: whoever … Monk: …The monk who has been given the full ordination by a unanimous Sangha through a legal procedure consisting of one motion and three announcements that is irreversible and fit to stand—this sort of monk is meant in this case. A monk: another monk. Scares: if one who is fully ordained, wishing to scare another who is fully ordained, arranges a sight, a sound, a smell, a taste, or a physical contact, then whether the other monk is scared or not, he commits an offense entailing confession. If he tells him about a wilderness inhabited by criminals, predatory animals, or demons, then whether the other monk is scared or not, he commits an offense entailing confession.
Permutations
If the other person is fully ordained, and he perceives him as such, and he scares him, he commits an offense entailing confession. If the other person is fully ordained, but he is unsure of it, and he scares him, he commits an offense entailing confession. If the other person is fully ordained, but he does not perceive him as such, and he scares him, he commits an offense entailing confession.
If, wishing to scare someone who is not fully ordained, he arranges a sight, a sound, a smell, a taste, or a physical contact, then whether the other person is scared or not, he commits an offense of wrong conduct. If he tells him about a wilderness inhabited by criminals, predatory animals, or demons, then whether the other person is scared or not, he commits an offense of wrong conduct.
If the other person is not fully ordained, but he perceives them as such, he commits an offense of wrong conduct. If the other person is not fully ordained, but he is unsure of it, he commits an offense of wrong conduct. If the other person is not fully ordained, and he does not perceive them as such, he commits an offense of wrong conduct.
Non-offenses
There is no offense: if he arranges a sight, a sound, a smell, a taste, or a physical contact, or he tells about a wilderness inhabited by criminals, predatory animals, or demons, but not because he wishes to scare anyone; if he is insane; if he is the first offender.
The training rule on scaring a monk, the fifth, 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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