26.8 The Story about Mahā Pajāpatī Gotamī
Mahāpajāpatigotamīvatthu
Dhp 391
Burlingame: Mahā Pajāpatī Gotamī Receives the Precepts
Compare: Vin Cv 10.1
After Elder Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī was ordained by the acceptance of the eight serious rules, the other bhikkhunīs were ordained by the bhikkhus; later they were in doubt about her ordination and reported the matter to the Buddha who confirmed her ordination, and rebuked the bhikkhunīs with a verse.
Keywords: Bhikkhunīs, Ordination, Discipline
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“For whom there is no wrong-doing,” this Dhamma teaching was given by the Teacher while he was in residence at Jetavana with reference to Mahā Pajāpatī Gotamī.
For previous to the occasion of the public promulgation of the eight serious rules, the Fortunate One proclaimed them privately, and Mahā Pajāpatī Gotamī accepted them by bowing her head, just as a person accustomed to the wearing of ornaments accepts a garland of fragrant flowers by bowing his head. So likewise did all the members of her retinue. No preceptor or teacher did she have other than the Fortunate One himself. Thus did she receive her higher ordination.
On a subsequent occasion the members of her retinue commented on the manner in which this bhikkhunī took higher ordination, saying: “Mahā Pajāpatī Gotamī has no teacher or preceptor; by herself alone and with her own hand she received the yellow robes.” On hearing this, the other bhikkhunīs were dissatisfied and thenceforth refused to keep Observance Day or to celebrate the Invitation with her. And going to the Realised One, they reported the matter to him.
The Teacher listened to what they had to say and then replied: “I myself conferred the eight serious rules on Mahā Pajāpatī Gotamī. I alone am her teacher; I alone am her preceptor. They that have renounced the wrong bodily deeds and so on, those without pollutants, such persons should never entertain feelings of dissatisfaction.” And teaching the Dhamma, he pronounced the following verse:
391. Yassa kāyena vācāya manasā natthi dukkataṁ,
saṁvutaṁ tīhi ṭhānehi, tam-ahaṁ brūmi brāhmaṇaṁ.
For whom there is no wrong-doing
by body, by voice or by mind,
being restrained in these three things,
that one I say is a Brahmin.
At the end of the teaching many reached the fruition of Stream-entry and so on.