Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c19.s1.1

v1.c19.s1.1

Buddha started his mission as an eremetical teacher and had hardly any intention of forming a Saṅgha. The Vinaya tradition shows that the idea of a Saṅgha was thrust upon him, but once he had taken it up, he did his best to place it on as thorough a basis as possible. Every delinquency on the part of a bhikkhu reported to him had his immediate attention, and a rule was framed to avert its future repetition, and this was done with a view to, in the words of Buddha, *appasannānaṃ va pasādāya pasannāṃ va bhiyyobhāvāya* (to make the non-believers believing and the believers doubling their faith).