BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

Pali formulae: Confessionwhich means, "You should restrain yourself in the future."Appendix VIIMN 104 gives some variations on this formula. To begin with, it notes that if thebhikkhu confessing the offense is junior to the one acknowledging his confession,he should first arrange his upper robe over one shoulder, bow down to the seniorbhikkhu, sit in a kneeling position with his hands palm-to-palm over his heart, andstate his confession. At the conclusion of the formula, the senior bhikkhu shouldadvise restraint by saying,Āyatiṃ saṃvaraṃ āpajjeyyāsi.which means, "You should achieve restraint in the future."The bhikkhu confessing the offense then replies,Saṃvaraṃ āpajjissāmi.which means, "I will achieve restraint."The formula most generally used at present in Thailand is expanded from thesepatterns. Following MN 104, the confessant vows to exercise restraint at the end ofthe formula, but the vow is worded to follow the pattern set in Cv IV.14.30. Also, inhis original confession, he includes the words "many" and "of various sorts" toqualify the word, "offenses." This latter change is meant to streamline theconfession. Rather than confessing each offense of a particular class separately,one gathers them into a single statement. As one is allowed to confess moreoffenses than one has actually committed, and as it is possible in some cases tocommit offenses unknowingly, the current formula has been adopted to cover suchunwitting offenses. In this context, the phrase, "I see," in the confession means, "Isee that I may have committed an offense unknowingly." Thus it is not a lie.Because the formula is repeated by every bhikkhu before the recitation of thePāṭimokkha, the procedure has become little more than a formality. The Vinayamukhathus recommends that a bhikkhu conscious of having committed a particularoffense should mention it to the other bhikkhu in their own language before makinguse of the Pali formula.If the bhikkhu making confession is junior to the one acknowledging him, theexchange is as follows (taking dukkaṭa offenses as an example):Confessant: Ahaṃ bhante sambahulā nānā-vatthukāyo dukkaṭāyo āpattiyoāpanno. Tā paṭidesemi.Acknowledger: Passasi āvuso?C: Āma bhante, passāmi.A: Āyatim āvuso saṃvareyyāsi.C: Sādhu suṭṭhu bhante saṃvarissāmi. (Three times.)489