THE BUDDHA AS TEACHER 47Nevertheless, the Buddha's policy was not one of simple capitulation to
the status quo. He refuted the predominant caste system, opening member-
ship in the Sangha to all regardless of caste and refusing to allow the Sangha to
use or even to mention caste rank in the course of its internal dealings. As for
the Sangha's external relations with the rest of society, the Buddha realized
that the smooth practice of the religion required a stable and peaceful society,
which in turn depended on the wide distribution of material wealth among
the people. Thus absolute monarchies, in which kings were free to confiscate
and hoard wealth as they pleased, did not provide an environment conducive
for the religion to prosper. Therefore, the Buddha praised the ideal society as
one in which the king obeyed the law and freely dispensed seed grants of
money for his subjects to use to set themselves up in business. Interestingly
enough, he never mentioned this ideal to the kings who were his followers.
Instead, he taught the ideal to people at large, perhaps secure in the knowl-
edge that as it gained wider acceptance, it would ultimately affect those who
actually wielded power. This in fact did occur approximately two hundred
years after his death, when Kirtg Asoka-who had ascended to the throne of
an empire covering almost all of India-began putting the Buddha's social and
political agenda into practice, at the same time fostering the spread of the
Sangha beyond the Indian cultural sphere (see Section 3.3).
2.5 THE PARINIRVA#YA
(THE BUDDHA'S PASSING AWAY)
(Strong £8, sec. 1. 7)
For 45 years the Buddha journeyed around the central Ganges River plain, re-
ceiving all callers:--ascetics, brahmins, royalty, and commoners-answering
their questions, displaying miraculous powers, spreading the Dharma, and aid-
ing followers in spiritual growth.
In his seventy-ninth year, he set out on his last journey, leaving Rajagrha
and walking by stages north and west until he reached Vaisali. The Sutta cif the
Great Total Nibbiina (D.16) relates how he told Ananda that through the devel-
opment of the four bases of attainment (discussed later in this section), he
could stay alive for a kalpa (aeon), but Ananda failed to request him to do so.
Then Mara approached the Buddha and told him that the time had come for
him to attain final nirval).a. The latter agreed, saying, "Trouble not, Evil One.
Very soon the Tathagata's Parinirvii1Ja [total nirval).a, final release from sarp.sara]
will take place. Three months from now he will be totally unbound."
These episodes may betray the notions of a later age puzzled by the seem-
ing failure of the great master to avert his own death. Control of one's life
span is a yogic power, and even today India and the Buddhist world are full of
reports about holy persons who have lived well beyond a hundred years or
who have predicted or determined the date of their death. As the Blessed One
had explained to Mara, he had fully completed the task he had set for himself