After the first sermon the Buddha keeps the first , lasting three months, at Isipatana, the Deer Park, at Bārāṇasī. Most of the events from the first sermon to the permission for ordination in the regions take place during this period. Source text
Different Accounts
Start of the retreat: the later commentaries of the Southern tradition say it was the day of the first sermon; the Buddha biography Fo benxing ji jing says from the sixteenth day of the sixth month to the fifteenth day of the ninth month. Source text
More differences between accounts (3)
The text of the Pali Vinaya says only “when the rains retreat was over”, and the place is inferred from the context to be Bārāṇasī; only the later commentaries and the Buddha biographies state Isipatana explicitly.
The Buddha biography Fo benxing ji jing also records the Buddha keeping a rains retreat at the place where Kassapa performed the fire sacrifice and at the Bamboo Grove; taken literally, there may have been more than one retreat in the first year.
The Chinese Shi'er you jing counts the eighth day of the fourth month to the fifteenth day of the seventh month as “one year”, so the rains retreat after the first sermon already belongs to the second year. Source text
Dating
Year 1 after the Awakening, the Buddha aged thirty-five, the three months of the rains retreat (from Āsāḷha to Kattika); the three-month period is given by the later commentaries, known only to fall within these three months.
Related Entries
- Year
- Places
- People
- Discourses
Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
Recorded only in the Pali canon of the Southern tradition. Recorded by one school.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Commentarial dating (the canonical texts give no date; later commentaries record it). Time precision: month only.
Sources
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Ap-a，s0510a，PTS 頁標 0.0091／VRI 1.0099
- 大正藏大正藏 T03 no.190 p.835b
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.194 p.144b
- 巴利三藏巴利律 Kd 1:13.1.1
- 大正藏大正藏 T03 no.190 p.841a
- 大正藏大正藏 T03 no.190 p.861a
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.195 p.147a