The Buddha comes to Vesālī and stays in the mango grove of the courtesan Ambapālī. Before Ambapālī arrives, the Buddha first teaches the monks to maintain mindfulness and clear comprehension (clear awareness at all times of one's body, mind and conduct). Pali Canon
Different Accounts
Timing: most accounts place it before Ambapālī's arrival; the Chinese Youxing jing places it before the arrival of the Licchavis.
More differences between accounts (2)
The Chinese Fo bannihuan jing says the Buddha stopped at a park seven li from the city and gave the simile of the “painted vase”.
Content: the Sanskrit Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra matches the three items “energy, clear comprehension and mindfulness” respectively with the four right efforts, clear awareness while walking, standing, sitting and lying down, and the four contemplations of body and mind (the four establishments of mindfulness); the Pali canon of the Southern tradition has only the four establishments of mindfulness and clear comprehension.
Dating
Year 45 after the Awakening, the Buddha aged seventy-nine to eighty, before the ; inferred from the sequence of events, only the year is known.
Related Entries
- Year
- Places
- People
- Discourses
Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
Recorded by five schools: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Dīrgha Āgama, the Sanskrit Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the Chinese Mahīśāsaka Vinaya (Wufen lü) and the Chinese Fo bannihuan jing and Bannihuan jing. Attested across multiple schools.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Inferred from the sequence of events (neither the canonical texts nor the commentaries give the time; the year is worked out from the order of this event and those around it). Time precision: year only.
Sources
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Sv，§161
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Sv
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 241b1–242a5
- 梵文原典梵文《大般涅槃經》（Waldschmidt）§10.7–10.15
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.5 p.163b
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.6 p.178c
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 241b4–242a5
- 梵文原典梵文《大般涅槃經》§10.9–10.14
- Pali Canon巴利 DN 16:2.11.2–2.13
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.1 p.13c–14a
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.5 p.163c
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.6 p.179a
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1451 p.385c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.135b
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.192 p.41c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.135a–136a