Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.178

c8.178

“Then Brahma Sahampati left the heaven of Brahma as quickly as a strong man stretches out his bent arm or bends his outstretched arm, and he appeared before the Exalted One. Then Brahma Sahampati made bare one of his shoulders from under his robe,† bowed his right knee to the earth, raised his folded hands to the Exalted One, and spake to the Exalted One thus: ‘May it please, O sire, the Exalted One, to preach the Doctrine, may it please the Perfect One to preach the Doctrine. There are beings, who are pure from the dust of the earthly, but if they hear not the preaching of the Doctrine, they are lost: they will be believers of the Doctrine.’ Thus spake Brahma Sahampati; when he had spoken thus, he went on to say:—