6.2 The Story about the Followers of Assaji and Punabbasu
Assajipunabbasukānaṁ Vatthu
Dhp 77
CST4: Assajipunabbasukavatthu
Burlingame: The Insolent Monks
Compare: Vin Cv 1.3
The Buddha asked the Chief Disciples to advise and instruct some of their wayward disciples; some accepted the advice, some returned to lay life, and others were later expelled; the Buddha spoke a verse by way of instruction.
Assajipunabbasuka Bhikkhus, Elder Sāriputta, Elder Mahā Moggallāna
Keywords: Chief Disciples, Compliance, Great Disciples
**
“One should both advise and instruct,” this Dhamma teaching was given by the Teacher while he was in residence at Jetavana with reference to the Assajipunabbasuka bhikkhus.
These bhikkhus, we are told, were two pupils of the Chief Disciples, but in spite of that fact were shameless and wicked. While they were in residence at Kīṭāgiri with their retinues of five hundred bhikkhus, they planted and caused to be planted flowering trees and were guilty of all manner of misconduct besides. They violated homes and procured thence the monastic requisites on which they lived. They rendered that monastery uninhabitable for the well-behaved bhikkhus.
Hearing of their doings, the Teacher determined to expel them from the Saṅgha. For this purpose he summoned the two Chief Disciples, together with their retinues, and said to them: “Expel those who will not obey your commands, but admonish and instruct those who will obey. He who admonishes and instructs is hated by those that lack wisdom, but is loved and cherished by the wise.” And joining the connection and instructing them in the Dhamma, he pronounced the following verse:
77. Ovadeyyānusāseyya, asabbhā ca nivāraye,
sataṁ hi so piyo hoti, asataṁ hoti appiyo.
One should both advise and instruct,
and forbid whatever is vile,
for it is dear to the good,
but it is not dear to the bad.
At the end of the teaching many reached the fruition of Stream-entry and so on. Sāriputta and Moggallāna went there and admonished and instructed those bhikkhus. Some of them received the admonitions of the elders and corrected their behavior, others returned to the household life, while still others were given suspension. AJ: Pabbājanīyakamma, suspension, not expulsion as Burlingame gave it.
