Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c27.1043

v2.c27.1043

Paribbājakā.—The name given to the ascetics and recluses (not otherwise classified) of the Buddha’s time. They were not exclusively brahmin. Their presence seems to have been recognized and respected from earlier times. Generally speaking, their creed is formulated as a belief in perfect bliss after death for the self purged from evil, and as a conviction that this bliss can be won by brahmacariyā, by freedom from all evil in acts, words, aims, and mode of livelihood.¹ All these four standards of conduct were bodily incorporated in the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, and the last of the four gave to the Ājīvakas (q.v.) their specific name as a separate sect. The Paribbājakas claimed to be identical with the followers of the Buddha in their tenets and teaching,² but the Buddha maintained that the two teachings were quite distinct. This is clearly indicated³ in connection with the conversion of Sāriputta and Moggallāna, who were Paribbājakas under Sañjaya. The goal of the Paribbājakas was deathlessness (amata) which, to them, probably meant birth in the world of Brahmā. Their conversion to the Buddha’s Doctrine followed the recognition that Gotama dealt, not with effects but with causes, and that he went to the root of the matter by teaching how casual states of consciousness arose and how they could be banished for ever.⁴