Masturbation (PLI-TV-BI-VB-PC3)

Theravāda Collection on Monastic Law

The Nuns’ Analysis

The chapter on offenses entailing confession

The subchapter on garlic

Masturbation

Origin story

At one time when the Buddha was staying at Sāvatthī in Anāthapiṇḍika’s Monastery,

two nuns who were plagued by lust entered their room and slapped their genitals with the palms of their hands.

Hearing the sound, the nuns rushed up and asked them,

“Venerables, are you having sex with a man?”

“No, we’re not,” and they told them what had happened.

The nuns of few desires complained and criticized them,

“How can nuns slap their genitals with their hands?” …

“Is it true, monks, that nuns did that?”

“It’s true, sir.”

The Buddha rebuked them,

“How could nuns do that?

This will affect people’s confidence …” …

“And, monks, the nuns should recite this training rule like this:

Final ruling

‘If a nun slaps her genitals with the palm of her hand, she commits an offense entailing confession.’”¹

Definitions

Slaps her genitals with the palm of her hand:

if, consenting to the contact, she hits her genitals, even with a water-lily leaf, she commits an offense entailing confession.

Non-offenses

There is no offense:

if she does it because she is sick;

if she is insane;

if she is the first offender.

The third training rule is finished.