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

------------------------ End of the Hiraññavatiya portion, being the Fifth Portion for Recitation. [1. That is, Nirvâna. Compare Mangala Sutta V, 11, and the Dhammapada, verses 180, 354, and above Chap. I, § 7. 2 Buddhaghosa says that the last five words in the text (the last twelve words in my translation) were added by the Theras who held the Council. On Subhadda's ordination he has the following interesting note: 'The Thero, (that is, Ânanda), they say, took him on one side, poured water over his head from a water vessel, made him repeat the formula of meditation on the impermanency of the body(Taka-pañkaka-kammatthanam; see my "Buddhist Birth Stories," p. 161), shaved off his hair and beard, clad him in the yellow robes, made him repeat the "Three Refuges," and led him back to the Blessed One. The Blessed One himself admitted him then into the higher rank of the brotherhood, and pointed out to him a subject for meditation (kammatthanam; see "Buddhist {footnote p. 111} Birth Stories," p. 147). He accepted this, and walking up and down in a quiet part of the grove, he thought and meditated upon it, till overcoming the Evil Spirit, he had acquired Arahatship, and with it the discriminating knowledge of all the Scriptures (Patisambhidâ). Then, returning, he came and took his seat beside the Blessed One.' According to this, no set ceremony for ordination (Sangha-kammam), as laid down in the Vinaya, took place; and it is otherwise probable that no such ceremony was usual in the earliest days of Buddhism.]