Friends:

Gentleness and Self-Control Balances the Mind:


The wanderer Sabhiya once asked the Blessed Buddha:
What defines a Bhikkhu, a gentle one, a self-controlled, and an Enlightened One?
The Blessed Buddha Gotama answered:
He who has reached calm stilling by a path developed by himself, who has crossed
over all doubt and uncertainty, who by giving up both this life and any new becoming,
who has lived the Noble life, whose renewed existence has become fully destroyed,
such one is a Bhikkhu....
Any recluse, who does not harm anyone in the whole world, who just looks on every
being in aware equanimity, imperturbable, humble, without pride, is a gentle one...
Anyone whose senses are all controlled, whether the object is internal or external,
who has understood both this world and the next, who being developed just awaits
his last moment, like a waiter waits for his salary, such quiet one, is self-controlled!
Having comprehended all fabrications, journeying-on, dying here and re-arising there,
whose mental fermentations have faded away, clean, who is without blemish, stainless,
purified, arrived at the destruction of the rebirth, him they call enlightened...
This elated the mind of Sabhiya, who approving, delighted, glad, enraptured by joy,
asked for permission to join the Buddha's Sangha. After the usual probationary
period of four months, Sabhiya in this very life awakened himself as an Arahant.
Sutta-Nipāta verses 513-517 Edited excerpt.



More on these events, institutions and individualities:
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Sangha_Contemplation.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/wtb/b_f/bhikkhu.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/SammaSambuddho.short.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/In_this_very_Life.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/sa/sabhiya.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/g/gotama.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/b/buddha.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/V/The_Sage.htm

Gentle and Controlled..