I forgot to mention there is an example of two puthujunas who will become paccekabuddhas in several Kappas. Lord Buddha predicted that Devadatta and King Ajatasattu would become Paccekabuddhas after they experienced the results of their negative Kamma in the Nirayas. Ajatasattu had the necessary qualities to become a sotāpanna after listening to a discourse of Lord Buddha. However, he killed his father, King Bimbisāra, which is considered an anantariya Kamma. A person who commits an anantariya Kamma is unable to achieve magga phala in the same lifetime where the action was committed. As a result, his Kusulas and Paramis were blocked.
Not long after the King’s Ajātasattu’s departure, the Buddha addressed the monks: “Monks, the King has destroyed his position. Monks, if King Ajātasattu had not killed his father, King Bimbisāra, the righteous monarch, who ruled his kingdom lawfully, the Sotāpatti Path-Wisdom would have occurred to him on the spot. (He would have become a sotāpanna-ariya.)”
The Buddha added: “Monks if he had not put his father to death, he would have attained the Sotāpatti-Path while seated here as he heard this Sāmañña-phala Sutta. But now, on account of his association with his wicked friend, his potential to attain that Path has been injured. Nevertheless, since he has taken refuge in the Triple Gem and since his refuge which is my threefold Teaching is supreme, he may be compared to a man who, after having been sentenced to death for murder, escapes the death penalty by getting good support and by giving just a handful of flowers (as a small fine). Although he ought to suffer in the Avīci hell for his heinous crime of parricide, he will suffer only in the Lohakumbhī hell after his death, for he has good support in my teaching. He will land in that hell and remain there for thirty thousand years and come up and stay on the surface for thirty thousand years. Then (after sixty thousand years) he will be released from Lohakumbhī Niraya.
(Herein Ajātasattu’s gain will be mentioned according to the Commentary. One may ask: “Had he benefited from his hearing of the Sāmañña-phala Sutta?”) The answer is: Yes, he had, and his benefit is enormous. Since the moment of his parricide, he had known no sleep, by day or by night, for there appeared to him signs of his woeful rebirth. Only after listening to the sweet and soothing Sāmaññaphala Sutta, he could sleep well whether it was day or night. And he lavishly honoured the Three Jewels. No other worldling had faith (pothujjanika-saddhā) that was equal to Ajātasattu’s. (Sound sleep, merit accrued from his honour done to the Triple Gem, possession of unique faith of a worldling, etc. were his gain that was realized in his present life. His afterlife benefit would be his attainment of Parinibbāna after becoming a Paccekabuddha, by the name of Vijitāvī.)
The disciples bearing Devadatta laid down the couch on the bank of the pond near the Jetavana monastery and stepped into the pond to bathe. Devadatta sat up on the couch putting his two feet on the ground. Then his feet sank into the earth irresistibly. Down he went, the parts of his body sinking one after another, the ankle, the kneecap, the waist, the chest, and the neck, and the earth had gorged him up to the jaw-bones when he uttered the following verse:
Imehi aṭṭhīhi tam aggapuggalaṃ
devātidevaṃ naradammasārathim.
Samantacakkhuṃ satapunnalakkhaṇaṃ
pāṇehi Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ upemi.
I, Devadatta, on my deathbed, seek refuge in the Exalted One with these bones and this lingering life force. With an intelligent, noble, joyous mind motivated by the three noble root conditions (I seek refuge in the Omniscient Buddha, the Supreme Being in the world, the All-seeing Teacher who can discipline all worthy beings and who possesses the thirty-two splendid marks of an extraordinary man by His countless good deeds.
(It was because the Buddha knew Devadatta’s repentance that the Buddha ordained him. Even if he had not been a monk, he would certainly have committed the same heinous crime as a layman and later on he would not have been able to do the good deed that would contribute to his liberation from saṃsāra.
(The Buddha knew that after ordination Devadatta would do the two most evil deeds: causing the spilling of the Buddha’s blood and creating schism in the Sangha and that later on he would do the good deed for his release from saṃsāra. So the Buddha ordained him. Indeed, because of this good deed, Devadatta will be a Paccekabuddha by the name of Atthissara, after one hundred thousand kappas.)