The Buddha abolishes the earlier practice by which could be conferred by reciting the three times, and has the confer it instead through a formal act of voting: one motion is announced, followed by three readings, and the act passes if no one objects; this is called the act with one motion and three announcements. The Pali Vinaya says the occasion was a who asked to go forth but whom none of the monks was willing to ordain; Sāriputta remembered that the man had once given him a ladleful of rice, so the Buddha allowed Sāriputta to ordain him, and at the same time announced the new method of ordination. The Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya says that from then on ten monastics were required to confer full ordination. Taishō Canon
Pali Canon
More sources (1)
Different Accounts
Year: the Chinese Sapoduo pini piposha (a Vinaya commentary of the Sarvāstivāda, one of the early schools of Buddhism) lists three views side by side, one, four or eight years after the Awakening, and holds that eight years is correct; the same work also says that ordination by reciting the refuges three times was valid only within eight years of the Awakening. The Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya places this event among the rules laid down after “the fifth year after the Awakening”. Taishō Canon
More differences between accounts (3)
Occasion: the Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya says that monks imitated the Buddha and ordained people by calling out “Come, ” (the words the Buddha spoke when ordaining someone), and the newly ordained behaved improperly; Sāriputta asked the Buddha, who then ruled that ten monastics acting in concord should confer ordination by a formal act. Taishō Canon
Relation to the establishment of preceptors: the Pali Vinaya and the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya first establish and lay down this rule afterwards; the Chinese Sarvāstivāda Vinaya allows the establishment of preceptors and teachers and ordination by a formal act of ten monastics at the same time.
When ordination by reciting the refuges three times ceased: the Chinese Sapoduo pini piposha says eight years after the Awakening; the Pali Vinaya says it was abolished on this occasion.
Dating
Provisionally placed here in Year 4 after the Awakening (the Buddha aged thirty-eight); the three year counts recorded in the treatises convert to a start in Year 2, Year 5 or Year 9 after the Awakening respectively (the Buddha aged thirty-six, thirty-nine or forty-three), while the Pali Vinaya, following the sequence, places it after the establishment of preceptors; the year is uncertain.
Related Entries
- Year
- Places
- People
- Discourses
Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
The episode of “laying down ordination by the act with one motion and three announcements” is recorded by four schools: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (Sifen lü), the Chinese Sarvāstivāda Vinaya (Shisong lü) and the Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya (Mohe sengqi lü). Attested across multiple schools. The “number of years” within it is not found in the early sutras and Vinayas of any school.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Stated in the canonical text (the text itself gives the time); 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 uncertain.
Sources
- Pali Canon巴利律 Kd 1:28.1.1–28.4.1
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.799c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.412b–413a
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1435 p.148a–b
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1440 p.510b
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1440 p.512b
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1435 p.148b
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.798c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.412b
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1435 p.148a
- Pali Canon巴利律 Kd 1:28.3.5
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.412c–413a