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Talk on early Sangha Events & Devadatha Schism at Vulture Peak
The physician Jivaka advises the Buddha to renounce Devadatta, leading Sariputra and Moggallana to publicly declare that Devadatta no longer belongs to the community. Concurrently, Prince Ajatasattu, influenced by Devadatta, usurps the throne from his father, King Bimbisara. Despite the King’s abdication, he is imprisoned and starved, eventually dying despite the Queen’s secret efforts to sustain him. Devadatta orchestrates three attempts on the Buddha’s life: sending an assassin who is converted by the Buddha; rolling a boulder down Vulture Peak which injures the Buddha’s foot; and releasing a wild elephant, which the Buddha tames using the call of the elephant queen.
Sariputra and Moggallana visit Devadatta’s new community at Gayasisa. While Devadatta rests, they teach the Dharma with such clarity that they convince over three hundred monks to return to the Buddha. King Ajatasattu, now tormented by nightmares and mental illness following his father’s death, is overwhelmed by remorse after recalling his father’s tender care. Jivaka guides the fearful King to the Mango Grove to seek the Buddha’s counsel.
The King asks about the tangible effects of the spiritual life, prompting the Buddha to deliver the Samannaphala Sutta on the fruit of the monk’s practice. The Buddha details these fruits:
- The recovery of human dignity, where a person recovers their value as a human being.
- Safety and a lack of fear through the observation of precepts.
- Lightness and freedom, possessing only a robe and bowl with nothing to lose.
- Perfect peace and fearlessness, living without enemies in the world.
Following this teaching, the King recovers his health, and Devadatta eventually returns to take refuge in the Buddha before his death.