[taryal]

In AN 8.51: Gotamī Sutta, Buddha says:

“Ānanda, if females had not gained the going forth from the lay life to homelessness in the teaching and training proclaimed by the Realized One, the spiritual life would have lasted long. The true teaching would have remained for a thousand years. But since they have gained the going forth, now the spiritual life will not last long. The true teaching will remain only five hundred years.

It’s like those families with many women and few men. They’re easy prey for bandits and thieves. In the same way, the spiritual life does not last long in a teaching and training where females gain the going forth.

It’s like a field full of rice. Once the disease called ‘white bones’ attacks, it doesn’t last long. In the same way, the spiritual life does not last long in a teaching and training where females gain the going forth.

It’s like a field full of sugar cane. Once the disease called ‘red rot’ attacks, it doesn’t last long. In the same way, the spiritual life does not last long in a teaching and training where females gain the going forth.

Buddha’s prediction that the true teaching will go underground after five hundred years seems to have been accurate as it coincided with the rise of Mahayana and subsequent contamination of Theravada. But what I don’t understand is why he said that it would have lasted a 1000 years if women didn’t become nuns in his order. Shouldn’t it be a good thing for the females to join the spiritual journey?

[Lal]

These are issues that only a Buddha can fully understand. However, we can try to get an idea with the following observations.

1. It is not necessary to become a bhikkhu/bhikkhuni to attain any magga phala. Of course, once attaining Arahanhood, one must become a bhikkhu/bhikkhuni within seven days because a “householder” cannot “bear” Arahanthood for longer than that.

• We know that many women and men attained all stages of magga phala without becoming bhikkhu or bhikkhuni.

2. Women did not live alone, especially in the days of the Buddha. So, bhikkhunis‘ living quarters were near those of the bhikkhus. The Vinaya Pitaka provides accounts of various issues associated with that issue. We also note that the Buddha enacted more Vinaya rules for bhikkhunis than bhikkhus.

3. As you pointed out, we also know that the prediction of the Buddha was correct.

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