To Gotamī Gotamī Sutta (AN 8:51)

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A second time.⦠A third time she said to him: "It would be good, lord, if women might obtain the Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata." "Enough, Gotamī. Donât advocate womenâs Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata."1 So Mahṅpajṅpati Gotamī, (thinking,) "The Blessed One does not allow womenâs Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata"—sad & unhappy, crying, her face in tears—bowed to the Blessed One and left, keeping him to her right. The Blessed One, having stayed as long as he liked in Kapilavatthu, set out for Vesṅlī. After wandering in stages, he arrived at Vesṅlī. There he stayed near Vesṅlī at the Gabled Hall in the Great Forest. Then Mahṅpajṅpati Gotamī, having had her hair cut off, having donned ochre robes, set out for Vesṅlī together with a large number of Sakyan women. After wandering in stages, she arrived at Vesṅlī and went to the Gabled Hall in the Great Forest. Then she stood there outside the porch, her feet swollen, her limbs covered with dust, sad & unhappy, crying, her face in tears. Ven. ṅnanda2 saw her standing there outside the porch, her feet swollen, her limbs covered with dust, sad & unhappy, crying, her face in tears, and so asked her, "Why, Gotamī, why are you standing here outside the porch, your feet swollen, your limbs covered with dust, sad & unhappy, crying, your face in tears?" "Because, venerable sir, the Blessed One does not allow womenâs Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata." "In that case, Gotamī, stay right here3 while I ask the Blessed One to allow womenâs Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata." Then Ven. ṅnanda went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he said to the Blessed One: "Lord, Mahṅpajṅpati Gotamī is standing outside the porch—her feet swollen, her limbs covered with dust, sad and unhappy, crying, her face in tears, because the Blessed One does not allow womenâs Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata. It would be good if women might obtain the Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata." "Enough, ṅnanda. Donât advocate womenâs Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata." A second time.⦠A third time, Ven. ṅnanda said, "⦠It would be good, lord, if women might obtain the Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata." "Enough, ṅnanda. Donât advocate womenâs Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata." Then the thought occurred to Ven. ṅnanda, "The Blessed One does not allow womenâs Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata. What if I were to find some other way to ask the Blessed One to allow womenâs Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata." So he said to the Blessed One, "Lord, if a woman were to go forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata, would she be able to realize the fruit of stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, or arahantship?" "Yes, ṅnanda, she would.â¦" "In that case, lord, Mahṅpajṅpati Gotamī has been of great service to the Blessed One. She was the Blessed Oneâs aunt, foster mother, nurse, giver of milk. When the Blessed Oneâs mother passed away, she gave him milk. It would be good if women might obtain the Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata." "ṅnanda, if Mahṅpajṅpati Gotamī accepts eight rules of respect [garu-dhamma], that will be her Acceptance [as a nun]. [1] "A nun who has been fully accepted even for a century must bow down, rise up from her seat, salute with hands palm-to-palm over her heart, and perform forms of respect due to superiors to a monk even if he has been fully accepted on that very day. This rule is to be honored, respected, revered, venerated, never to be transgressed as long as she lives. [2] "A nun must not spend the Rains in a residence where there is no monk (nearby).⦠[3] "Every half-month a nun should expect two things from the Saṃgha of monks: (permission to) ask for the date of the uposatha and (permission to) approach for an exhortation.⦠[4] "At the end of the Rains-residence, a nun should invite (accusations from) both Saṃghas [the Saṃgha of monks and the Saṃgha of nuns] on any of three grounds: what they have seen, what they have heard, what they have suspected.⦠[5] "A nun who has broken any of the rules of respect must undergo penance for half a month under both Saṃghas.⦠[6] "Only after a female trainee has trained in the six precepts for two years can she request Acceptance from both Saṃghas.⦠[7] "A monk must not in any way be insulted or reviled by a nun.⦠[8] "From this day forward, the admonition of a monk by a nun is forbidden, but the admonition of a nun by a monk is not forbidden. This rule, too, is to be honored, respected, revered, venerated, never to be transgressed as long as she lives. "If Mahṅpajṅpati Gotamī accepts these eight rules of respect, that will be her Acceptance." Then Ven. ṅnanda, having learned the eight rules of respect in the Blessed Oneâs presence, went to Mahṅpajṅpati Gotamī and, on arrival, said to her, "Gotamī, if you accept these eight rules of respect, that will be your Acceptance. [And he repeated the eight rules.]" "Ven. ṅnanda, just as if a young woman—or man—fond of ornamentation, with bathed head, having been given a garland of lotuses or jasmine or scented creepers, having accepted it in both hands, were to place it on her head, in the same way I accept the eight rules of respect, never to transgress them as long as I live." Then Ven. ṅnanda returned to the Blessed One and, having bowed down, sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said, "Venerable sir, Mahṅpajṅpati Gotamī has accepted the eight rules of respect, never to transgress them as long as she lives."4 "But, ṅnanda, if women had not obtained the Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata, the holy life would have lasted long, the true Dhamma would have lasted 1,000 years. But now that they have obtained the Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathṅgata, the holy life will not last long, the true Dhamma will last only 500 years.5 "Just as a clan in which there are many women and few men is easily plundered by robbers and thieves, in the same way, in whatever Dhamma & Vinaya women obtain the Going-forth from home life into homelessness, the holy life does not last long. "Just as, when the white blight falls on a field of ripening wheat, that field of wheat does not last long, in the same way, in whatever Dhamma & Vinaya women obtain the Going-forth from home life into homelessness, the holy life does not last long. "Just as, when the rust disease falls on a field of sugar cane, that field of sugar cane does not last long, in the same way, in whatever Dhamma & Vinaya women obtain the Going-forth from home life into homelessness, the holy life does not last long. "Just as a man might make an embankment in advance around a great reservoir to keep the waters from overflowing, in the same way I have set forth in advance the eight rules of respect for nuns that they are not to transgress as long as they live."6 Notes 1. DN 16 reports a conversation between the Buddha and Mṅra shortly after the Buddhaâs awakening in which the former declines to totally unbind until he has established both a Saṃgha of monks and a Saṃgha of nuns on a firm foundation. Thus there is the question: Why did the Buddha refuse Mahṅpajṅpatiâs first request to allow a Saṃgha of nuns? The apparent answer is that he had already thought through the conditions on which he would establish that Saṃgha, and suspected that Mahṅpajṅpati would reject them unless she was fully sincere in her request. Only when she later showed her sincerity, and Ven. ṅnanda brought up a telling reason for allowing her ordination—that women would be able to attain the noble attainments if they were allowed to ordain—did the Buddha set forth his conditions. Although the most common pattern in the Vinaya is for the Buddha to wait for complaints about a monkâs or nunâs behavior before establishing rules, many rules were established in a way that does not follow this pattern. In some cases, monks bring the Buddha questions about how to behave, and he establishes rules in response to their request. In other cases, such as the rules for the kaṭhina (Mv VII), the Buddha simply sets out conditions even without being asked. Thus there is nothing out-of-character in his setting out conditions prior to the establishing of the Saṃgha of nuns. 2. According to the Commentary, the events in this sutta took place soon after the Buddhaâs first return to Kapilavatthu shortly after his awakening. The Commentary elsewhere states that Ven. ṅnanda did not become the Buddhaâs permanent attendant until twenty years after the Buddhaâs awakening. The Canon is silent on both of these points, but if the Commentaryâs claims are true, then these events would have occurred when ṅnanda was serving as a temporary attendant, or simply happened to be near the Buddha, prior to his later permanent appointment to the post. However, given the Buddhaâs references to Rains-residence, uposatha, and Invitation in this account, itâs more likely that these events took place later in his career, after a fair number of rules and procedures for the bhikkhus had already been established. 3. The Thai edition of Cv X, which also contains this account, adds here "for a moment." 4. In Cv X, Ven. ṅnandaâs statement is: "Venerable sir, Mahṅpajṅpati Gotamī has accepted the eight rules of respect. The Blessed Oneâs foster mother is fully accepted." 5. As SN 16:13 explains, the "survival of the true Dhamma" means not simply the brute survival of the teachings but the survival of the teachings unadulterated with "synthetic Dhamma" (saddhamma-paṭirūpa), later "improvements" that would call the authenticity of the true Dhamma into question. One possible example of this sort of adulteration—the early Prajā±ṅ-paramitṅ literature, with its teachings on the non-arising of dhammas—actually did begin to appear approximately 500 years after the Buddhaâs lifetime. The hypothesis suggested in note 1—that the Buddha did want to establish a Saṃgha of nuns, but wanted Mahṅpajṅpati to be in a position where she would accept his conditions—is supported by the fact that the Buddha did not bring up the question of the survival of the True Dhamma until after she had accepted them. Had he not wanted to establish a Saṃgha of nuns, he would have mentioned this point to Ven. ṅnanda immediately when the issue was broached, and ṅnanda would have probably abandoned his efforts to argue Mahṅpajṅpatiâ case. 6. The early nuns did not accept these eight rules docilely. Soon after vowing to adhere to them for the rest of her life, Mahṅpajṅpati Gotamī requested that the nuns be relieved of the most onerous one—the first (Cv.X.3). The fact that she was asking to renege on her word to the Buddha doomed the request to failure. According to the Vibhaṃga to the Bhikkhunī Pṅṭimokkha, individual nuns at later dates disobeyed the second, third, fourth, sixth, and seventh rules of respect, leading the Buddha to add pṅcittiya rules forbidding these transgressions to their Pṅṭimokkha (respectively, Bhikkhunī Pc 56, 59, 57, 63 (66), & 52). Cv.X.20 reports that nuns tried to initiate accusations against monks in violation of the eighth rule of respect, leading the Buddha to declare such attempts invalid and to impose a dukkaṭa on them. The existence of these rules meant that any nun who broke them would have to confess her transgression to her fellow nuns. Because disciplinary transactions can be imposed only on those who confess their actions, the act of confessing these transgressions would thus open the way for both Saṃghas to impose penance on the offender in line with the fifth rule of respect. Interestingly, the first rule of respect was enforced by a rule for the monks. Cv.X.3 imposes a dukkaṭa on a monk who bows down to a woman, rises up from his seat for her, salutes her with hands palm-to-palm over his heart, or performs forms of respect due to a superior to her. Thus if a monk broke this rule, he would have to confess the fact; the nun in question would be confronted with his confession, thus setting in line proceedings that could lead to her observing penance. - --> - - - -