Learning the Last Days of the Buddha (excerpt) in Mahā-parinibbāna Sutta (DN 16) of Digha Nikaya from the Tipitaka. The Blessed One relating Māra's former temptation and renounces his will to live on, to Venerable Ānanda. It is not explicitly clear and certain here, if it was the Buddha's initial intention to have bhikkhunis in the Holy Order or was it another prophecy of the Buddha that He would have bhikkhunis in the Holy Order, when He answers to Māra's temptation soon after His supreme Enlightenment. Further meanings (pls. rely on your own investigation):- [English - Pāli] Tathāgata -- the Blessed One, Buddha, One thus gone, fully-awakened One. god or men -- deva vā manussa. deva - divine beings, celestial beings, heavenly gods. Parinibbāna -- complete extinguishment; total Unbinding; final passing away. ordained monks & nuns -- bhikkhus & bhikkhunis. supreme Enlightenment -- abhisambujjhati. Māra (Pāli)/Evil One (Buddhist cosmology) -- personifies unwholesome impulses, unskillfulness, the "death" of the spiritual life. He is a tempter, distracting humans from practicing the spiritual life by making the mundane alluring or the negative seem positive. A brief historical chronology of the first bhikkhuni:- Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī was the first woman to request ordination from the Buddha and to join the Sangha, after the Buddha's fifth year of Enlightenment. Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī was both the Buddha's maternal aunt and adoptive mother, raising him after her sister, Queen Maya (Mahāmāyā), the Buddha's birth mother, died. Mahapajapati Gotami went to the Buddha and asked to be ordained into the Sangha. The Buddha refused and went on to Vesāli. Undaunted, Gotami cut off her hair and donned yellow robes and with a large number of Sakyan ladies followed the Buddha to Vesāli on foot. Upon arrival, she repeated her request to be ordained. Ānanda, one of the principal disciples and an attendant of the Buddha, met her and offered to intercede with the Buddha on her behalf. The Buddha again refused, but Ānanda interceded on their behalf and their request was granted, subject to eight strict conditions (i.e. the eight garudhammas). According to history of Buddhism, in Theravada lands the nun's lineage or Theravada line of bhikkhunis died out around the turn of the first millennium and traditionalists do not believe that it can or should be revived because there are no nuns to ordain new nuns. However, the Mahayana nuns' lineage continues in most Mahayana countries. To be properly ordained, a nun must be ordained first by a quorum of nuns and then a second time by a quorum of monks. For source of above extract, please go to:- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.16.1-6.vaji.html [An acknowledgment of appreciation and thanks to Sister Vajira & Mr. Francis Story and "accesstoinsight.org" for the text available online.] "The gift of truth excels all other gifts." ~ Buddha

• published: 21 Dec 2013
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