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Explaining a remark made by Ajahn Brahm

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I came across this statement made by Ajahn Brahm: > After he became enlightened under the banyan tree, Mara came to him and said, ‘Okay, you’re enlightened, I admit it. Now don’t go teaching, it’s just too burdensome. Just enter parinibbana now, just disappear.’ The Buddha said, ‘No, I will not enter parinibbana. I will not leave this life until I have established the bhikkhu sangha, bhikkhuni sangha, laymen, and laywomen Buddhists: the four pillars of Buddhism.’ Forty-five years later, at the Capala Shrine, Mara came again and said, ‘You’ve done it! There are lots and lots of bhikkhunis enlightened, lots of bhikkhus enlightened, great laymen and laywomen Buddhists . . . so keep your promise,’ and [the Buddha] said, ‘Okay, in three months, I’ll enter parinibbana.’ What those two passages from the suttas demonstrate is that it was the Buddha’s mission; it was why he taught—to establish those four pillars of the sangha. I wonder what passages he's referring to? I understood the Buddha's immediately-post-enlightenment stance on teaching to have been a little more reluctant than this puts it, and ditto with his stance on an order of nuns.
Asked by zeno (131 rep)
May 18, 2024, 11:55 AM
Last activity: May 19, 2024, 08:54 AM