{"id":242,"date":"2020-10-27T23:42:40","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T23:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dhammapada.outside-looking-in.com.au\/?p=242"},"modified":"2020-10-30T06:11:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T06:11:49","slug":"009-devadatta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/?p=242","title":{"rendered":"009. Devadatta"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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He who is not free from taints of moral defilements (kilesas) and yet dons the yellow robe, who lacks restraint in his senses and (speaks not the) truth is unworthy of the yellow robe.<\/p>Translated by Daw Mya Tin, M.A.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Devadatta<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There is a commentary<\/a> on the Dhammapada attributed to Buddhaghosa<\/a>, the 5th century Indian Buddhist scholar. In this, he singles out Devadatta, a disciple of the Buddha, as one who wears the yellow robe but is unworthy of it. The story is that a particularly fine piece of cloth was offered to Devadatta who<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[\u2026] promptly made the cloth into robes and moved about pompously, wearing them. Then, a certain bhikkhu from Rajagaha came to Savatthi to pay homage to the Buddha, and told him about Devadatta and the robe, made out of cloth worth one hundred thousand. The Buddha then said that it was not the first time that Devadatta was wearing robes that he did not deserve [\u2026]<\/p>Abhayar\u0101jakum\u0101ra Sutta<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But who was Devadatta and why did he not deserve his fine robes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like several of the Buddha’s followers, Devadatta was a close relative of the Buddha. Initially Devedatta was an exemplary disciple, indeed his name meant ‘God Given’ in Pali. However he became obsessed with his own worth and increasingly convinced he should lead the Sangha. When he suggested this to the Buddha, the Buddha’s response was blunt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Buddha retorted that he did not even let his trusted disciples Sariputta or Moggallana run the Sangha, much less one like him, who should be vomited like spittle<\/p>Cullavagga VII<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The situation didn’t improve and Devadatta made several attempts to kill the Buddha, all of which failed. He then tried to form an alternative Sangha, instigating a schism in the community, which again failed. Ultimately, Devadatta sickened, died and reportedly was sucked down into the Hell realm. Truly, he did not deserve to wear the yellow robes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But is he as darker character as he is painted? In his excellent biography<\/a> of the Buddha, Vishvapani suggests that Devadatta may have been making a sincere attempt to return the Sangha to it’s wilderness origins and away from a drift into a more settled urban life. His schism was more a attempt to reformulate the monastic rules and return the followers into a simpler way of living. The Buddha however preferred a more inclusive approach and rejected this more austere reformulation. So less of a classic villain and more of an earnest reformer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever happened, a Sanhga is in essence a collection of people and until we are enlightened we will carry with us all our squabbles, faults and foibles. I’ve never tried to kill another Sangha member with a boulder or wild elephant<\/a> as Devadatta allegedly did. But I have been a bit grumpy and short with people in study groups and I do smoulder with resentment a little when people are a bit short and grumpy with me. We are all heading in the same direction within our respective Sanghas but the road might get a little bit bumpy and grumpy at times. Just try not to send a wild elephant after another Sangha member, no matter how annoyed you are with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He who is not free from taints of moral defilements (kilesas) and yet dons the yellow robe, who lacks restraint in his senses and (speaks not the) truth is unworthy of the yellow robe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-01-twin-verses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions\/253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}