Mahâ-Parinibbâna-Suttanta: The Book of the Great Decease

p. 42 5. A second and a third time did the Blessed One [say the same thing, and a second and a third time was Ânanda's heart thus hardened]. 6. Now the Blessed One addressed the venerable Ânanda and said: 'You may leave me, Ânanda, awhile, and do whatever seemeth to thee fit.' 'So be it, Lord!' said the venerable Ânanda, in assent, to the Blessed, and rising from his seat he saluted the Blessed One, and passing him on the right, sat down at the foot of a certain tree not far off thence. ------------------------ 7. Now not long after the venerable Ânanda had been gone, Mâra, the Evil One, approached the Blessed One, and stood beside him. And so standing there, he addressed the Blessed One in these words: 'Pass away now, Lord, from existence; let the Blessed One now die. Now is the time for the Blessed One to pass away--even according to the p. 43 word which the Blessed One spoke: when he said[1]: "I shall not die, O Evil One! until the brethren and sisters of the order, and until the lay-disciples of either sex[2] shall have become true hearers, wise and well-trained, ready and learned, versed in the Scriptures, fulfilling all the greater and the lesser duties, correct in life, walking according to the precepts--until they, having thus themselves learned the doctrine, shall be able to tell others of it, preach it, make it known, establish it, open it, minutely explain it and make it clear--until they, when others start vain doctrine, shall be able by the truth to vanquish and refute it, and so to spread the wonderworking truth abroad!"'