“I have another question. As far as I can see, how can all these people be Arhats?
Because most of them are not monks,” I asked.

“I want to clarify this understanding on behalf of the Buddha. He never said that only
those who ordain as monks have the right to be Arhats. Everyone can be an Arhat.
Those who live in households, have children, spouses, those who still live a worldly life
like ordinary humans, who can use all their senses for physical perception, as long as
they use them with the Buddha-mind, the mind filled with love and goodwill, and a
bright, joyful mind ready to experience everything. They will realize for themselves
that if they indulge in those experiences or use them excessively until they cannot
control themselves appropriately, it will completely overshadow the feeling of the
Buddha-mind, which is subtle, with their gross conscious mind. Then it is as if they
have lost their Buddhahood. So, they tend to be careful about this themselves because
they are wise.

On the other hand, if someone doesn’t understand the balance in this and chooses to
strictly follow rules and regulations, without using wisdom, doing it by suppressing,
because they must be under the rules, that person may have external behavior that
shows they can control themselves, but may lack the important consideration of
appropriateness. Therefore, anyone who can create balance in this, no matter who they
are, what their status is, how old they are, all have the equal right to be Arhats,” he
replied.

“Therefore, the important quality of being an Arhat is not about adhering to rules and
regulations, but about being Buddha, which results in love and goodwill that can be
given to everyone and everything with pure sincerity,” he added.

“If so, if I desire Nirvana, desire to be an Arhat, I don’t need to ordain, I don’t need to
observe precepts, right? Then why did the Buddha encourage everyone to ordain and
tell everyone to observe precepts?” I asked.

“This question must be answered in two parts. The first part is that when he
encouraged everyone to ordain as monks, it was a declaration that they would
volunteer to propagate the principles of being Buddha, without caring about making a
living, without caring about where to live and sleep, having to travel everywhere to
carry out the mission. So, the daily routine of monks at that time was similar to that of
ascetics, but different in that ascetics would stay in one place and adhere to precepts,
or what is called observing precepts, to appear pure, which is an external image to
show their simplicity, frugality, and lack of unnecessary possessions, without knowing
what is inside. This is different from the Buddha’s monks, who had the mission of
propagating the principles of being Buddha, having to travel and wander, without a
fixed residence. And their principles were to ‘have’ morality, not to ‘hold’ morality,
because they understood the workings of the gross mind and knew the consequences
that would occur to the subtle mind or Buddha-mind if they used the gross mind too
much, which would cause it to dominate the subtle mind or Buddha-mind. So, they reduced and abandoned it themselves, without adhering to any rules, which is more
about understanding the processes from within, rather than external displays,” he
explained.

“The second answer is that what appears as the form of observing precepts of
Buddhist monks today is the original form of observing precepts of Hinduism, which
was later adopted by Buddhist monks, along with the Hindu method of learning
Dharma, which is learning by memorization, recording, and composing those Dharmas
into many chants. When they adopted this form, the chance of people attaining
Arhatship decreased to almost none. Therefore, Buddhist monks became those who
lacked wisdom, unable to consider appropriateness, and full of clinging, elevating
themselves to be worshipped, dividing themselves into a superior gender, using rules
and regulations or precepts as a criterion to claim superiority. In reality, anyone who is
wise calls themselves ‘having morality,’ without needing to ‘hold morality.’ If they still
use the word ‘hold morality,’ it means that person does not yet have morality,” Lord
Phoche explained.

“Wow…” I exclaimed, without commenting.

“This form of adopting Hindu customs occurred more than 200 years after the
Buddha’s passing,” he explained.

“Does that mean the event where the Arhats came to see the Buddha on Shivaratri
night happened twice, once in the first year of his enlightenment and again tonight?” I
asked.

“Not just twice, but it happened every year on Shivaratri day, from the first year of
propagating Buddhahood. But the number of people who gathered was not large.
Sometimes there were 100 or so people, some years there were 200 people. The
highest was never more than 500 people. The first gathering at Veluvana Temple after
the Buddha’s enlightenment, just 9 months later, had only a hundred or so monks,”
Lord Phoche replied.

“Then why is it recorded that 1,250 people gathered that night?” I asked.

“You have to ask the people who wrote that record. In the early days of recording the
Buddha’s Dharma, the story of this event was not mentioned. It was just a story passed
down from generation to generation. The gathering of monks and laypeople on
Shivaratri night happened for almost 40 years, from the Buddha’s enlightenment until
the last year, which is the year you are in now.”

“Does that mean this is the last year before the Buddha’s passing?” I asked.

“Yes. Now the Buddha is 79 years old. And today is the day of handing over the mission
to those who will be called ‘Buddhas’ in the future, that is, you and your 1,249 friends,”
Lord Phoche said.

“Lord, I can’t believe that everyone sitting here is an Arhat, because most of them are
laywomen, and some are even children,” I asked.

“What do you think the qualities of an Arhat are?” Lord Phoche asked.