Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.s1.t3.5

c8.s1.t3.5

We are told, and some trustworthy memory may possibly be at the bottom of this tradition, that for a long time only men were permitted to be received into Buddha's order, and that it was only with grave misgiving that Buddha yielded to the pressure of his foster-mother, Mahâpâjâpatî, to receive women also as his disciples.* "As in a field of rice, Ânanda, which is in full vigour, the disease breaks out which is called mildew,—then the vigour of that field of rice continues no longer,—so also, Ânanda, if women be admitted in a doctrine and to an order to renounce the world and go into homelessness, holy living does not last long.—If, Ânanda, in the doctrine and the order, which the Perfect One has founded, it were not conceded to women to go out from their homes into homelessness, holy living would remain preserved, Ânanda, for a long time; the pure doctrine would abide for a thousand years. But now, Ânanda, that, in the doctrine and order, which the Perfect One has founded, women renounce the world and go into homelessness, under these circumstances, Ânanda, holy living will not be long preserved; only five hundred years, Ânanda, will the doctrine of the truth abide.”