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The Meaning And Benefits Of Ordination
Seven years after Shakymuni Buddha attained enlightenment, the Blessed One returned to Kapilavastu, the ancient city state of the Sakya clan, where as Siddhartha Gautama, he lived until the age of twenty-nine before he renounced worldly life and departed from home. Upon his return, many members of the royal family such as his cousins Ananda and even his son Rahula joined the ordained saṅgha in Kapilavastu.
One day, the Blessed One visited the home of his younger half-brother Nanda and asked him why he has not yet join the ordained sangha. Nanda then requested the Buddha to explain the reasons behind renouncing the worldly life of a householder. After hearing the many advantages of becoming an ordained, Nanda still felt reluctant to abandon the worldly life of a lay person. Instead he prefer to make various offerings to the Buddha and his sangha.
The Blessed One then used two analogies to illustrate the rarity of having a precious human birth and the even more rare auspicious conditions to have met the Buddha. The resulting discourse is preserved in the Nandapravrajya Sutra - The Sutra Of Nanda Renouncing Worldly Life.
- Extract from a teaching by Lama Dondrup Dorje Rinpoche. The full text is available to read under the feature of Gateway to Tibetan Buddhism. Click here to see the full list of articles available.