Bhikkhuni Vinaya Inconsistency

Discussion
21

Warm greetings Cara,

Here is my thinking, which is influenced by what I have heard from several Bhikkhunis.

For bhikkhus:

A bhikkhu who commits an offense against any of these thirteen sanghadisesa rules is duty-bound to inform a fellow bhikkhu and to ask a Community of at least four bhikkhus to impose a six-day period of penance (manatta) on him. … … Once the bhikkhu has completed his penance, he may ask a Community of at least 20 bhikkhus to give him rehabilitation. Once rehabilitated, he returns to his previous state as a full-fledged bhikkhu in good standing. - Buddhist Monastic Code

For bhikkhunis:

If a bhikkhunī has committed one or other of these offences, she must spend half a month on penance before both Saṅghas. When the bhikkhunī has completed the penance, she is to be reinstated by a Bhikkhunī Saṅgha of twenty. - Bhikkhuni Patimokkha Third Edition

It seems compassionate then that an offense of this nature would not require a woman to confess it to a group of men.

With kind regards,
Sister Niyyanika

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22

That’s also what I have heard about the sexual rules for bhikkhunis: That they made them either parajika or pacittiya, but not sanghadisesa, so that a nun does not have to go through the sanghadisesa procedure because of a sexual rule.

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23

:anjal: Anjali Sister Niyyanika! I hope you and all the nuns at Dhammadharini are well.

Thanks for your contribution, and excellent point - that’s an aspect which I hadn’t even considered, but makes a lot of sense. It seems to reveal a careful approach to the compilation of the bhikkhuni vinaya.

Thanks so much! :pray:

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