BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

Buddhist Monastic Code 1Cutting down: all steps prior to the next to the last chop needed to cut the plantthrough: dukkaṭas. The next to the last chop: a thullaccaya.Causing the owner to give up efforts (§) to regain possession of objects handed toone for safe keeping: all steps up through telling the owner, "I didn't receive (§) it":dukkaṭas. Inducing doubt in the owner's mind as to whether he/she will get theobject back: a thullaccaya. If the case goes to court and the bhikkhu loses, heincurs another thullaccaya.Causing the owner to give up efforts (§) to regain possession of land: all steps usto laying claim to the land: dukkaṭas. Inducing doubt in the owner's mind as towhether he/she will lose the land: a thullaccaya. Again, if the case goes to courtand the bhikkhu loses, he incurs another thullaccaya.Shifting a boundary marker: all steps up through removing the boundary marker fromits original place: dukkaṭas. Any steps between that and putting the boundarymarker in a new place: thullaccayas.Taking a dutiable item through a customs area without paying duty: all steps upthrough touching the object with the intent of taking it out of the customs area:dukkaṭas. Making the object move without fully moving it from the customs area: athullaccaya.The commentaries state that when a heavier penalty is incurred in offenses of thissort, only that penalty is counted, and the preceding lighter ones are nullified. Theyderive this principle from a passage in the Vibhaṅga to Sg 10-13 and, using theGreat Standards, apply it to all the rules. Thus, for example, if a bhikkhu trying tosteal a book simply touches it, he incurs a string of dukkaṭas for each step inwalking up to the book and taking hold of it. If he budges the book slightly but notso much as to move it completely from its place, the dukkaṭas are nullified andreplaced with a thullaccaya. If he actually takes the book, that nullifies thethullaccaya and replaces it with a pārājika.There is some question, though, as to whether the compilers of the Canon intendedthe passage under Sg 10-13 to be taken as a general principle. They don't mentionit under any of the other saṅghādisesa rules or in the otherwise parallel passage inthe Vibhaṅga to Pc 68. Thus, the principle seems intended only for those four rules.To be on the strict side, it seems best to say that, unless otherwise noted, abhikkhu who completes an act must make amends for all the offenses incurred inleading up to it. Under the pārājika rules this is a moot point, for once the pārājikais committed the offender is no longer a bhikkhu. But under the lesser rules thisprinciple is still relevant.As for the derived offenses related to the factor of perception, these deal with thesituation in which an article does not qualify as not given under this rule — e.g., ithas no owner, or the owner has given it up or thrown it away — and yet the bhikkhuperceives it as not given. If he takes it with intent to steal, he incurs a dukkaṭa foreach of the three stages of effort. In the case of an object that can be stolen bymoving it from its place, these would be: touching the object, making it budge,38