The Twenty-Four Buddhas – 94
4. The congregation takes place on the full moon day of the month, on the
Observance Day (
Uposatha
) of the fifteenth.
The story above of the divine Yakkha, Naradeva, comes from the Chronicles of
the Buddhas (
Buddha-vaṁsa
) commentary.
52
In the Chronicles of the Buddhas, however, just this simple narration is given
(Bv 3.11):
Again, when Buddha Dīpaṅkara had gone into solitude on the top of
Mount Nārada, there gathered one billion Arahats who were free from
the defilements.
Once, Buddha Dīpaṅkara observed the Rains Retreat (
Vassa
) on Mount
Sudassana. When the Rains Retreat was over, the people of Jambudīpa went to
the mountain to celebrate their annual mountain-top festival. They then
happened to encounter the Buddha. They listened to his
[120]
discourse and were
so delighted with it that they became monks. When the Buddha taught them
again on the Great Invitation (
Mahā-pavāraṇā
) day, at the full moon of October
(
Assayuja
), the newcomers became Arahats through the stages of insight
(
vipassanā
) and of the path (
magga
) as a result of their contemplation of
conditioned things in the three planes of existence. The Buddha held the
Invitation ceremony with 900 billion Arahats.
The Invitation is a formal ceremony concluding the Rains Retreat in
which each monastic invites criticism from his fellow monastics in respect
of what has been seen, heard or suspected about his conduct.
The ordinary sermons, given by Buddha Dīpaṅkara, led to the realization of the
four truths, and the attainment of liberation by thousands of beings, by countless
individuals.
At that time, the thoroughly purified teaching of the Buddha spread far and
wide; it was understood by innumerable beings, such as humans, Devas and
Brahmas; it was full and complete with exhortations on morality and such
virtues.
52
[See PTS 254 ff, but it is included in the story of Buddha Kakusandha, not Buddha
Dīpaṅkara].