Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.s1.t2.3

c8.s1.t2.3

The standing formula with which Buddha is supposed to have received the first believers into this circle has been preserved to us: "Come hither, O monk; well preached is the doctrine, walk in purity, to make an end of all suffering." We know not whether this tradition rests on any authentic memory, but the thought which here finds expression seems quite correct, that the circle of Buddha’s disciples was from the very beginning a monastic brotherhood, into which the postulant had to be admitted by an appointed step, with the utterance of a prescribed formula.