They rebuked Channa in many ways and then told the Buddha. Soon afterwards he had the Sangha gathered and questioned Channa: “Is it true, Channa, that you do this? “It’s true, sir.” The Buddha rebuked him … “Foolish man, 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 is difficult to correct, and he makes himself incorrigible when legitimately corrected by the monks concerning the training rules that are recited, saying,

“Venerables, don’t say anything to me, either good or bad, and I won’t say anything to you, either good or bad. Please refrain from correcting me,” then the monks should correct him like this: “Be easy to correct, venerable, not incorrigible. And please give legitimate correction to the monks, and the monks will do the same to you. For it’s in this way that the Buddha’s community has grown, that is, through mutual correction and mutual clearing of offenses.” If that monk continues as before, the monks should press him up to three times to make him stop. If he then stops, all is well. If he does not stop, he commits an offense entailing suspension.’”

Definitions