The Gotami Sutta

The Buddha’s teachings to Mahāpajāpati Gotami

Access to Insight contains a more literal and scholarly translation of this sutta by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

I have heard that at one time the Honored One was staying at Vesali, in the Peaked Roof Hall in the Great Forest.

Then Mahāpajāpati Gotami went to the Honored One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, stood to one side and spoke: “It would be good, Sir, if the Honored One would teach me the Dhamma in brief; then, having heard the Dhamma from the Honored One, I might dwell alone, secluded, mindful, ardent, & determined.”

“Gotami, consider qualities of which you know, ‘These qualities lead to passion, not to dispassion; to being bound, not to being free; to acquiring more, not to living with less; to pride, not to modesty; to discontent, not to contentment; to needing others, not to being comfortable in solitude; to laziness, not to energetic persistence; to being evasive, not to being forthright’. Regarding those qualities, you may be certain, ‘This is not the Dhamma, this is not the Vinaya, this is not the Teacher’s instruction.’

“As for the qualities of which you know, ‘These qualities lead to dispassion, not to passion; to being free, not to being bound; to living with less, not to acquiring more; to modesty, not to pride; to contentment, not to discontent; to comfort in solitude, not to needing others; to energetic persistence, not to laziness; to being forthright, not to being evasive’: of those qualities, you may be certain, ‘This is the Dhamma, this is the Vinaya, this is the Teacher’s instruction.’”

That is what the Honored One said. Gratified, Mahāpajāpati Gotami delighted at his words.

From the Anguttara Nikaya, Chapter on the Eights

“Mahāpajāpati Gotami”

Mahāpajāpati Gotami was the Buddha’s aunt and stepmother; she had married Gotama Siddhata’s father after her sister, Siddhata’s mother, died shortly after he was born. Gotami, by all the accounts we have of her in the discourses, was a good person, smart, kind, and determined. It was Gotami, with the help of Ānanda, who persuaded the Buddha to found the order of bhikkhunis. Interestingly enough, Gotami was not the first to be ordained as a bhikkhuni. Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, in “The Life of the Buddha”, summarizes the story from the Vinaya Pitaka: “When [Gotami, after accepting eight points that the Buddha had set for the creation of an order of bhikkunis] asked … for instructions about the Sakyan women who had accompanied her, the Buddha directed that the bhikkhus should give them full admission as bhikkhunis. The bhikkhunis thus fully admitted then claimed that unlike themselves Mahāpajāpati was not fully admitted. She appealed through the Elder Ānanda to the Buddha, who settled the dispute by repeating that her acceptance of the eight points was the full admission in her case.”

Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, “The Life of the Buddha”, p. 107

“Dhamma”

This term refers, in different contexts, to a number of different, but related things: to the full body of the Buddha’s teachings regarding our human condition; to the “Natural Law” of the universe, the set of laws and principles that keeps everything in order, all happening as it must; and to the Noble Path that, properly cultivated and integrated into one’s life, leads to an end to suffering—it’s a Path with eight factors: Right Understanding, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. In this context, Gotami is probably using Dhamma to refer to the Buddhadhamma, the particular teachings of the Buddha.

“Vinaya”

his term refers to the practices of meditation, concentration, renunciation, and mindful living, that allow one to come to a full appreciation of the meaning of the Dhamma and to create for oneself a life marked by the eight factors of the Noble Path. It is also used to refer to the rules set down for the behavior of the Buddha’s followers and the governance of their communal assembly, known as the Sangha. The compound term Dhammavinaya is found many times throughout the teachings, especially in those suttas in which the Buddha is addressing the Sangha about the life they’ve undertaken, what’s often presented in translations as “the holy life”. Dhammavinaya is usually translated as “the Path and the Practice”.