The End Times? The World is Ending!

There's an orange clown on the TV every day!

Will the world end? How will the world end? When will the world end? Why will the world end? Questions, questions. Of course, the world will end. Not any time soon, but never mind about that. It's always ending, constantly hurtling towards destruction. "Change is the only constant," some wise person once said. That person was talking about what the Buddha called anicca. We translate this as "impermanence," but that's very limited and misleading. We prefer flux, dissolution, or radical impermanence, though "change" also works.

The idea is that, that something will change is no kind of message to the world. Of course, things are impermanent. We all know that. Only a child would think things are going to stay the same. (Guilty! And we're old enough to know better). It might be better to investigate how things are going to change because that sort of explains the why. The when is easy! Right now. Now. The eternal now. When is a mountainside not crumbling? Even as geological forces send it up, it is already disintegrating. When aren't human cells dying? They are always dispatching and falling off. That's what it means to have a body, though we don't much notice, know, or want to know.

How are things changing? Little by little until they give way to a noticeable amount. The more closely we investigate and notice, the more and more we become aware of when and how this is happening. It can become so upsetting that we stop clinging. Why, being ourselves impermanent, would we chase and cling to impermanent things?

It's all in the mind?

(Buddhism Podcast) When we understand the mind, our life begins to change

The Fire Sermon

Once upon a time, the Buddha was walking along the river and he came upon 1,000 fire worshippers with their matted locks or jatas, wandering ascetics in search of truth. They saw him and were moved by his gravitas, charisma, and appearance. He himself was a wandering ascetic but a Scythian (Shakyian) from the West, serene, and delightful to look upon. What could he possibly have to say about ultimate truth? See "The Fire Sermon."

• After Skool, "These Unprecedented Times"; Buddhism Podcast; Dhr. Seven (text), Amber Larson (ed.), Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha: The Fire Sermon

The Fire Sermon: "All is burning"

The Fire Sermon (Buddhistdoor.net)

(Ādittapariyāya Sutta, SN 35.28) In the Pali language canon there is a discourse (sutra) called the "Fire Sermon Discourse," popularly referred to as the Fire Sermon [1].

In this discourse, the Buddha teaches that achieving liberation (vimutti, moksha) from all suffering (pain, disappointment, rebirth, and unsatisfactorinesss) through letting go everything (ALL) mind and the five senses obsessively CLING to as personal, as sources of pleasure, and/or as enduring.

• The Three Poisons of the Heart/Mind in Buddhism

This sutra is also found in the Buddhist Monastic Code (Vinaya) at Vin I 35 [5].

English speakers might be familiar with the name of this discourse due to T. S. Eliot's titling the third section of his celebrated poem "The Waste Land" as The Fire Sermon. In a footnote, Eliot states that this Buddhist discourse "corresponds in importance to the Sermon on the Mount" in Christianity [6].

Background

Let us cut off our jatas and follow this sage!

In the Pali canon's "Collection of Discourses" (Sutta Pitaka), the Fire Sermon is the third sutra delivered by the Buddha (after the first discourse, called the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta, and the Anattalakkhana Sutta), several months after his great awakening/enlightenment, on top of Gayasisa Hill, near Gaya, in what is now India (formerly the maha-janapada Kingdom of Magadha before there was an "India").

He delivered it to 1,000 newly converted wandering ascetics (samanas) who formerly practiced a sacred fire ritual (Pali aggihutta, Sanskrit agnihotra) [7].

The 5th-century CE post-canonical Pali commentary called the Sāratthappakāsini (the Spk.), attributed to the Theravada scholar-monk Buddhaghosa, draws a direct connection between the ascetics' prior practices and this discourse's main rhetorical device:

Having led the 1,000 ascetics to Gayā's Head, the Buddha reflected, "What kind of Dhamma talk would be suitable for them?"

He then realized, "In the past they worshipped fire morning and evening. I will teach them that the 12 sense bases (āyatana) are burning and blazing. In this way they will be able to attain full enlightenment" [8]. More

• The Fire Sermon: The Third Sermon of the Buddha (Buddhistdoor Global)
• Buddha's Wisdom; Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

The Contentment Sutra (SN 16.1)

150 inspiring quotes on the quality of contentment for spiritual progress (quote.cc)

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Long Discourses of the Buddha

"Contentment"? What the Avici is that? Imagine a disposition of mind, a mood, of everything being fulfilled, everything being fine, having enough... The Laws of Attraction and Vibration and One would be so proud we made it. Here we are, at peace. There is a useful opposing force we sometimes cultivate called "a sense of urgency" or samvega. Most of us being lazy, it's probably better to develop enthusiasm and a spiritual quickening. But, actually, too much striving does not help and is counterproductive. It ruins a practice: efforting, manly (virility or viriya) energy, straining. There's a place for it. But it's better to follow the Buddha's "gradual or progressive instruction" (anupubbikathā) to peace: calm (the result of virtue), wakeful stillness (cultivated as the absorptions), and fourfold mindfulness for insight the is the Middle Way that avoids extremes and is the direct path to enlightenment and nirvana.

In this spirit, here is British translator of Wisdom Publications' The Long Discourses of the Buddha (Digha Nikaya) Maurice Walshe:

SUTRA: "Contentment"

"Meditators, Kassapa [1] here is content with any old patchwork robe. He praises contentment with any robe, and he commits no offense of rule or etiquette [2] on account of his wardrobe.

"If he has no robe, he worries not; if he has, he enjoys the use of it without clinging or foolish attachment, committing no offense, aware of the danger [of developing attachment and clinging] he wisely avoids it [3].

"Kassapa is content with whatever food offerings he gets... whatever lodgings... whatever medicinal requisites... he enjoys the use of these without clinging or foolish attachment, committing no offense, aware of the danger, he wisely avoids it.

"Therefore, meditators, train yourselves in this way: We will be content with whatever robe... food offerings... lodgings... medicines... that we might get... We will enjoy the use of them without clinging or foolish attachment, committing no offense, aware of the danger, we will wisely avoid it.

"Meditators, I exhort you all using Kassapa as the example, or someone like Kassapa. Exhorted in this way, practice to gain the goal" [4].

NOTES

1. Maha (Great) Kassapa, one of the Buddha's chief disciples who later became the leader of the Monastic Sangha, who convened the First Buddhist Council, organized the Dhamma into a religion after the Buddha's final nirvana, and who was declared by the Buddha as the foremost in the practice of the sane ascetic practices.
2. Unlike, for example, the Buddha's half-brother, the princely monk Nanda (SN 21.8).
3. Nissara napañño: literally, "wise as to liberation."
4. Tathatta: the state of "thusness" or "suchness," nirvana (nibbana). With a different suffix there is the almost equivalent term tathata, found mainly in Mahayana texts, but also occurring in The Path of Purification (VM XVII, 6), etc., where it means "the state of being really so."

• Maurice O'Connell Walshe (trans.), Santuttham Sutta: "Discourse on Contentment" (SN 16.1 PTS: S ii 194 CDB i 662), with Pali title based on the PTS (Feer) edition; edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha holds up a flower (Zen)

Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede | Zen Bow | Spring 2019, Vol. XLI, No. 1 via Rochester Zen Center (RZC.org); Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Philip Kapleau Roshi (hvzc.org)

ROSHI PHILIP KAPLEAU HAS SAID that when he was at Hosshin-ji, the monastery where he spent his first three years of training in Japan, at the end of each sesshin Harada Roshi would publicly recognize, in the zendo, the participants who had achieved kensho that week. It was done as a brief ritual, but imagine what it put people through: Besides inviting feelings of envy on the part of the “losers,” the ritual might well have been hard on the “winners,” too; in Japan, you never want to stand out from the group. So why did Harada Roshi do this?

Two reasons come to mind. First, by publicly presenting those who had just seen into their nature, he hoped to boost others’ faith that they, too, could break through. Second, now that those who had glimpsed their True Self were “outed,” they would feel a greater responsibility to live up to that Self in their daily lives. However well these strategies may have worked at Hosshin-ji, for an American Sangha I would expect them to do more harm than good. They would too likely reinforce the delusion that there is something to be “attained” in Zen. On the contrary, if awakening gives us anything, it’s the realization that from the very beginning all beings are endowed with the same originally enlightened nature....

THE BUDDHA HOLDS UP A FLOWER

Koan commentary

Art in the Rochester Zen Center (rzc.org)

How can we convey the teaching beyond words and letters…in words? Once, when the World-Honored One (the Buddha) in ancient times was upon Vulture's Peak (named such because of the shape of the rocks), he held up a flower before the assembly of monastics.

At this all were silent. Venerable Great Kashyapa (Maha Kassapa) alone broke into a smile. The World-Honored One said, “I have the all-pervading Eye of the True Dharma, the Secret Heart of Incomparable Nirvana, the True Aspect of Formless Form. It does not rely on letters and is transmitted outside the sutras. I now hand it on to Maha Kashyapa.”

The Commentary

You don't get it like I do (Demystifying Reality).

Golden-faced Kudon is certainly outrageous. He turns the noble into the lowly and sells dog flesh advertised as sheep’s head — though with some genius. However, supposing that at the time all the monastics had smiled, how would the “All-including Eye of the True Dharma” have been handed on?

Or again, if Kashyapa had not smiled, how could he have been entrusted with it? If you say that the True Dharma can be handed on, the golden-faced old man with his loud voice deceived the simple villagers. If you say it can’t be transmitted, why did the Buddha say he had handed it on to Kashyapa?

The Verse

Holding up a flower

The snake shows its tail.

Kashyapa smiles,

And people and devas are confounded.

THIS CASE IS BASED ON A FAMOUS STORY. Some have called it a fable and said it never really happened, but it doesn’t matter in terms of its value as a koan (a public case). Whether it has historical veracity or not is not important; it’s a rich koan.

About Maha Kashyapa: “Kashyapa” is the short form of Mahakashyapa. The prefix “Maha” means “great” or “large,” and here it is an honorific. With this incident of him on Vulture's Peak smiling in response to the Buddha holding up a flower, he became the first patriarch of Zen.

For the scant biographical information available on Mahakashyapa, let’s turn to The Transmission of Light (Denkoroku in Japanese), a collection of koans compiled by the Japanese Zen Master Keizan, the Dharma Heir of Dogen.

This text purports to be Zen’s ancestral line, presented in stories — enlightenment accounts — of each of the 52 or so earliest masters. It says that Kashyapa was born in an Indian Brahmin family, and his name in Sanskrit means "drinker of light."

When he was born, supposedly a golden light filled the room and went into his mouth; hence the name. We’re also told that his complexion was golden. As a monk he was renowned for his ascetic self-discipline and moral strictness, and these qualities enabled him to assume the leadership of the Sangha after the passing of the Buddha.

It was Kashyapa who convened the First Buddhist Council in order to counteract tendencies toward a less strict lifestyle within the Sangha. He had differences of opinion with Ananda, the Buddha’s attendant, but in the end authorized Ananda as his Dharma Heir in Zen’s ancestral line.

IN THE CHINESE TEMPLES and in [the Rochester Zen Center] Buddha Hall in Rochester, the figure of Mahakashyapa stands on the Buddha’s right and Ananda on the Buddha’s left. Iconographically, Mahakashyapa is often identified by his cracked and wrinkled face, meant to show his age and his asceticism.

When Kashyapa met the Buddha, the latter said, “Welcome, mendicant” [Ehi bhikkhu or "Come, monastic"] — so by that time, apparently, Kashyapa was already wearing the patchwork robe of a monk. [The saying makes someone a monk ordained by the Buddha, so one would not need to be wearing a robe yet.]

The Denkoroku says that “Kashyapa had practiced austerities and never wasted any time.” Remember that the Buddha himself began his journey to enlightenment by first spending six years practicing severe austerities, but then gave them up when he realized they would not lead to enlightenment.

The Buddha then warned that self-punishment [penance, severe asceticism] was not the way, but Kashyapa stuck to his ways, drawing the disapproval of others in the Sangha:

“Only seeing the ugly emaciation of his body and the wretchedness of his clothing, everyone doubted Kashyapa.” Still, we’re told, “every time the Buddha was going to give a talk in someplace or other, he shared his seat with Kashyapa, who thenceforth was the senior member of the community.” More

The Buddha holds up a flower and smiles

CC Liu, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wikipedia edit Mahākāśyapa smiles at the lotus flower

The Buddha shows Maha Kassapa a lotus in an apocryphal Mahayana sutra (Hishida Shunso)

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This monk gets it. He understands.

One of the Buddha's Great Disciples, Maha Kassapa (Mahākāśyapa) smiles at a lotus flower the Buddha shows instead of delivering a Dharma talk.

In East Asia, there is a Chan and Zen tradition, first recounted in the The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp (Chinese 景德傳燈錄, Pinyin Tiansheng Guangdeng-lu), which is a 1036 genealogical record about Chan Buddhism.

According to this tradition, Venerable Mahākāśyapa once received a direct "transmission" from the historical Siddhartha Gautama Buddha.

Artist Hishida Shunsō

Chan and Zen purport to lead their adherents to insights akin to that mentioned by the Buddha in the [apocryphal] "Flower Sermon" (Chinese 拈華微笑, Pinyin Nianhua weixiao, literally, "Holding up a flower and smiling subtly") given on Vulture's Peak, Rajagriha (India), in which the Teacher held up a white flower and just admired it in his hand, without speaking.

All the disciples just looked on without knowing how to react, but only Ven. Mahākāśyapa smiled faintly, and the Buddha picked him as one who truly understood him and was worthy to be the one receiving a special "mind-to-mind transmission" (Pinyin yixin chuanxin).

The painting (wikiart.org) is by Hishida Shunsō, 1897, in the Nihonga style. Source

Bhikkhu Bodhi: A Mahā Kassapa for Today

American monk Bhikkhu Bodhi via Ven. Ānandajoti (dharma-records.buddhasasana.net, May 13, 2012); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Painting of one the Buddha's great disciples Ven. Maha Kassapa (Kizil Caves, China)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This reflection about Ven. Ñāṇavimala by Bhikkhu Bodhi is part of series of articles. Others include Ajahn Brahm meets Ven. Ñāṇavimala, Chittapala’s Ven. Ñāṇavimala’s Advice, and Ven. Ñāṇatusita’s Life of Ñāṇavimala Thera.

A Mahākassapa for Our Time

Ven. Ñāṇavimala (formerly Friedrich Möller) circa 1955

It has often struck me that certain Buddhist monks I [American Theravada Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Bodhi] have known bear an uncanny resemblance to great disciples of the Buddha, at least in so far as we know them through the sutra texts.

This has raised in my mind the intriguing question whether the great disciples represent human archetypes (fixed molds that shape human character and behavior) or whether, to the contrary, Buddhist monastics tend to model themselves on their great predecessors.

I have no way to answer my question with any certainty, but I believe the correspondence I have noted is real and not merely my projecting or a figment of my imagination.

There is no doubt at all which of the great disciples the late Ven. Ñāṇavimala represents. Ven. K. Ñāṇananda (author of Concept and Reality, The Magic of the Mind, and other works) expressed the fact most succinctly one day when I met him in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

He said, “If you want to get a sermon from Mahā Kassapa, go see Ven. Ñāṇavimala.” The austere deportment, the ascetic bent of character, the firm self-assurance, the individualistic mode of practice: all these traits of Ven. Ñāṇavimala are reminiscent of Mahā Kassapa [Thera] (a kind of founding father of Buddhism).

 

Chinese painting of Mahākāśyapa in patched robes

And though we have, of course, no portraits of the great elder, I could not help noting the resemblance in physical stature and facial features between Ñāṇavimala and Mahā Kassapa as he is depicted in Chinese Buddhist statuary.

They even share the same penetrating eyes, the broad forehead, and the large ears. My relationship with Ven. Ñāṇavimala goes back almost 40 years, to my first year as an American Theravada Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka.

In June 1973 a few weeks after my higher ordination, my teacher, Ven. Balangoda Ānandamaitreya, brought me to the Kanduboda Meditation Centre for a course in insight (vipassanā) meditation.

At the time, another American monk, a novice (samanera) named Samita, was living at Kanduboda. When I arrived, he was in Colombo taking medical treatment, but he returned to the center a few days after I started my retreat.

One day after the midday meal, he came to see me, and we struck up a conversation. He told me that he had recently met Ven. Ñāṇavimala in the General Hospital in Colombo and had been deeply impressed, even awed, by the encounter.

I had earlier heard of Ven. Ñāṇavimala from another German monk but was led to believe that, because of his itinerant lifestyle (always wandering in the style of the ancient Buddhist ascetics), it was almost impossible to meet him in person.

Now that door was about to open. As a result of his encounter with Ven. Ñāṇavimala, Samita said he had lost faith in the type of vipassanā meditation that was taught at Kanduboda, the “dry insight” practice stemming from the Burmese meditation teacher Mahasi Sayadaw, under whom the Kanduboda meditation master, Ven. Sumatipāla, had trained in the 1950s.

The novice Samita told me that Ven. Ñāṇavimala had claimed that absorption (jhāna) is necessary as a basis for insight (vipassanā) and that there can be no genuine insight not rooted in the absorptions.

Since I was just beginning to read the Sutra Collection (Nikāyas) in Pāli, I had been struck by the role that the absorptions/i played in the “gradual training” sequence of the Middle Length Discourses (Majjhima Nikāya).

I felt this report (on the firm conviction of Ven. Ñāṇavimala) conveyed an important point. More

The German Dharmaduta Society

Society Founder Asoka Weeraratna, Sri Lanka

Eight prominent Theravada Buddhist monks led by the German monk Ven. Ñânatiloka Mahâthera and including Ven. Balangoda Ânanda Maitreyya, Ven. Galle Anuruddha, Ven. Akuretiye Amaravamsa, Ven. Ñânaponika Thera (German), Ven. Kudawella Vangîsa, and Ven. Vappo (German) were attached to the Center. These monks offered their services to train German Buddhists and others in the study of Buddhist philosophy. Friedrich Möller, a teacher from Hamburg and the first German recruit of the Society, arrived in Sri Lanka in 1953. He completed his period of training and received ordination under the name of Ven. Ñânavimala. More

Ananda as a young teacher (Robe Sutra)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), Cīvara Sutra, "Connected Discourses with Kassapa" (SN 16.11), "The Robe" Discourse; edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

The Robe*

Ven. Ananda was a stream enterer.

(SC 1) On one occasion Venerable Maha Kassapa was living in Rajagaha (Rajgir) in the Bamboo Grove, in the Squirrel's Sanctuary.

On that occasion Ven. Ānanda [who was not yet appointed the Buddha's personal attendant] was wandering on tour in Dakkhiṇagiri together with a large community (saṅgha) of monks (bhikkhus).

On that occasion 30 monks — pupils of Ven. Ānanda — most of them youngsters, had given up the monastic training and had returned to the lower life. (sn.ii.218)

(SC 2) When Ven. Ānanda had wandered on tour in Dakkhiṇagiri as long as he wanted, he came back to Rajagaha, to the Bamboo Grove, the Squirrel Sanctuary.

He approached Ven. Maha Kassapa, bowed, and sat respectfully to one side. Ven. Maha Kassapa said: “Friend Ānanda, for how many reasons did the Blessed One lay down the rule that monks should not take meals among families in groups of more than three?”

(SC 3) “The Blessed One laid down this rule for three reasons, Ven. Kassapa:

1. for restraining ill-behaved persons and for the comfort of well-behaved monastics,
2. with the intention, ‘May those of harmful wishes, by forming a faction, not create a schism in the Monastic Saṅgha!’
3. out of sympathy towards families.

It is for these three reasons, Ven. Kassapa, that the Blessed One laid down this rule.”

• Ten principal disciples of the historical Buddha

(SC 4) “Then why, friend Ānanda, are you wandering about with these young monks who are unguarded in their sense faculties, immoderate in eating, and not devoted to mindfulness [wakefulness, vigilance, bare awareness, presence of mind]?

Painting of Ven. Maha Kassapa with beard and hair, Kizil Caves, carbon dated to 422-529 CE

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“One would think you were wandering about trampling crops. One would think you were wandering about destroying families. Your retinue is breaking apart, friend Ānanda. Your young followers are slipping away. But still this youngster does not know his measure!”

(SC 5) “Grey hairs are growing on my head, Ven. Kassapa. Can’t one avoid being called 'youngster' by Ven. Maha Kassapa?” (sn.ii.219)

(SC 6) “Friend Ānanda, it is just because you wander around with these young monks who are unguarded in their sense faculties…. But still this youngster does not know his measure!”

Rahula, the Buddha, and Ananda (but no Bimba)

(SC 7) The Buddhist nun Ven. Thullananda heard: “Master Maha Kassapa has disparaged Master Ānanda, the Videhan Sage, by calling him 'youngster.'”

Then, being displeased at this, she expressed her displeasure in this way: “How can Master Maha Kassapa, who was formerly a member of another sect, think to disparage Master Ānanda, the Videhan Sage, by calling him 'youngster'?”

(SC 8) Ven. Maha Kassapa overheard the nun Ven. Thullananda making this statement and said to Ven. Ānanda: “Surely, friend Ānanda, the nun Thullananda made that statement rashly, without consideration. For since I shaved off my hair and beard, put on saffron robes, and went forth from the home life into the left-home life, I do not recall ever having acknowledged any other teacher except the Blessed One, the Arhat, the Supremely Awakened One.

(SC 9) “In the past, friend, when I was still a householder, it occurred to me: ‘Household life is confinement, a path of dust, whereas going forth [into the left-home life] is like the open air. It is not easy for one living at home to lead the perfectly complete, perfectly purified supreme life [of a Buddhist monastic], which is like polished conch.

“Let me then shave off my hair and beard, put on saffron robes, and go forth from the household life into the left-home life.’ Some time later (sn.ii.220) I had an outer robe made from patches of cloth; then, acknowledging those who were arhats [fully enlightened ones] in the world as models, I shaved off my hair and beard, put on saffron robes, and went forth from the household life into the left-home life.

(SC 10) “When I had thus gone forth, I was travelling along a road when I saw the Blessed One sitting by the Bahuputta Shrine between Rajagaha and Nalanda. Having seen him, I thought: ‘If I should ever see the Teacher, it is the Blessed One himself that I would see. If I should ever see the Fortunate One, it is the Blessed One himself that I would see. If I should ever see the Supremely Enlightened One, it is the Blessed One himself that I would see.’

“Then I bowed right there at the Blessed One’s feet and said to him: ‘Venerable sir, the Blessed One is my teacher, and I am his disciple. Venerable sir, the Blessed One is my teacher, and I am his disciple.’

(SC 11) “When I had said this, the Blessed One said to me: ‘Kassapa, if one who does not know-and-see should say to a disciple so single-minded as yourself: “I know, I see,” his head would split [into seven pieces]. But knowing, Kassapa, I say, “I know”; seeing, I say, “I see.”

“‘Therefore, Kassapa, train yourself thus: “I will rouse a keen sense of shame and fear of wrongdoing towards elders, the newly ordained, and those of middle status.” Thus train yourself.

(SC 12) “‘Therefore, Kassapa, train yourself thus: “Whenever I listen to any Dharma connected with the wholesome, I will listen to it with eager ears, attending to it as a matter of vital concern, applying my whole mind to it.” Thus train yourself.

(SC 13) “‘Therefore, Kassapa, train yourself thus: “I will never relinquish mindfulness directed at the body associated with joy.” Thus train yourself.’

(SC 14) “Then, having given me this exhortation, the Blessed One rose from his seat and departed. (sn.ii.221) For seven days, friend, I ate the country’s alms food as a debtor [an ordinary worldling], but on the eighth day final knowledge arose.

(SC 15) “Then, friend, the Blessed One descended from the road and went to the foot of a tree. I folded in four my outer robe of patches and said to him: ‘Venerable sir, let the Blessed One sit down here. This will lead to my welfare and happiness for a long time.’

“The Blessed One sat down on the seat I prepared and said to me: ‘Your outer robe of patches is soft, Kassapa.’

“‘Venerable sir, let the Blessed One accept my outer robe of patches, out of compassion [for me].’

“‘Then will you wear my worn-out hempen rag-robes?’

“‘I will, venerable sir.’ Thus, I offered the Blessed One my outer robe of patches and received from him his worn-out hempen rag-robes.

(SC 16) “If, friend, one speaking rightly could say of anyone: ‘He is a son of the Blessed One, born of his breast, born of his mouth, born of the Dharma, created by the Dharma, an heir to the Dharma, a receiver of worn-out hempen rag-robes,’ it is of me that one could rightly say this.

(SC 17) “Friend, to whatever extent I wish, secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, I enter and dwell in the first meditative absorption (jhana), which is accompanied by thought and examination (sn.ii.222), with rapture and happiness born of seclusion…. [As in §9, down to:]

(SC 18) “Friend, by the destruction of the taints, in this very life I enter and dwell in the taintless liberation of mind, liberation by wisdom, realizing it for myself with direct knowledge.

(SC 19) “Friend, one might just as well think that a bull elephant seven or seven and a half cubits high could be concealed by a palm leaf as think that my six direct knowledges could be concealed.”

(SC 20) But the nun (bhikkhunī) Ven. Thullananda fell away from the monastic life. Source

*Why would Maha Kassapa want the Buddha's old, worn-out hempen robe?

Together the Buddha and Maha Kassapa returned to Rājagaha. Great Kassapa bore on his body seven of the 32 Marks of a Great Being, following the Buddha who bored all 32.

On the way, the Buddha desired to sit at the foot of a tree by the roadside, so Kassapa folded his outer robe (pilotikasanghāti) for him as a seat. The Buddha sat on it and, feeling it with his hand, praised its softness.

Therefore, Kassapa asked him to accept it. "And what would you wear?" inquired the Buddha. Kassapa then begged that he might be given the rag robe worn by the Buddha. "It is faded with use," said the Buddha, but Kassapa said he would prize it above the whole world. The robes were exchanged.

(The robe which Kassapa exchanged with the Buddha was Punnā's cloak. See Punnā 6). Kassapa always recalled this incident with pride (e.g., S.ii.221).

It is said that the Buddha paid him this great honor because he knew that Kassapa would hold a recital after his final nirvana (his passing) and thus help in the perpetuation of this Dharma (SA.ii.130).

Ven. Mahākāśyapa (Wikipedia)

The earth quaked again in recognition of Kassapa's virtues, for no ordinary being would have been fit to wear the Buddha's cast-off robe.

Kassapa, conscious of the great honor, took upon himself the 13 Sane Ascetic Practices (austere vows or dhutagunā) and, after eight days, became an arhat (fully enlightened).

In the past Kassapa and Bhaddā had been husband and wife and companions in good works in many rebirths. In the time of Padumuttara Buddha, Kassapa was a very rich householder named Vedeha and married to Bhaddā and very devoted to that Buddha.

One day he heard that Buddha's third disciple in rank (Ven. Nisabha) being awarded the place of preeminence among those who observed austere practices, so he registered a wish for a similar honor for himself in the future.

He learned from the Buddha of the qualities in which Ven. Nisabha excelled the Buddha himself, and he determined to obtain them. With this end in view, during rebirth after rebirth, he expended all his energies in goods deeds. More

Bhikkhu Bodhi: Absorptions and Knowledges

Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), Jhānābhiñña Sutta (Saṁyutta Nikāya, 16.9, Connected Discourses with Kassapa); edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

The Meditative Absorptions (Jhanas) and Direct Knowledges

Thus have I heard. At Savatthī. “Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, I enter and dwell in the first absorption (jhana or meditation), which is accompanied by thought and examination, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion (sn.ii.211). Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, enters and dwells in the first meditative absorption.

“Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, with the subsiding of thought and examination, I enter and dwell in the second absorption, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is free of thought and examination, and has rapture and happiness born of concentration. Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, with the subsiding of thought and examination, enters and dwells in the second absorption.

“Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, with the fading away as well of rapture, I dwell equanimous, and mindful and clearly comprehending, I experience happiness with the body; I enter and dwell in the third absorption of which the noble ones declare: ‘One is equanimous, mindful, who dwells happily.’ Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, enters and dwells in the third absorption.

“Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, with the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous passing away of joy and displeasure, I enter and dwell in the fourth absorption, which is neither painful nor pleasant and includes the purification of mindfulness by equanimity. Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, enters and dwells in the fourth absorption.

“Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, with the complete transcendence of perceptions of forms, with the passing away of perceptions of sensory impingement, with nonattention to perceptions of diversity, aware that ‘space is infinite,’ I enter and dwell in the base of the infinity of space. Kassapa too, to whatever extent he wishes, enters and dwells in the [fifth meditative absorption known as the] base of the boundlessness of space.

“Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, by completely transcending the [sixth meditative absorption known as the] base of the boundlessness of space, aware that ‘consciousness is boundless,’ I enter and dwell in the base of the boundlessness of consciousness (sn.ii.212). Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, enters and dwells in the base of the boundlessness of consciousness.

“Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, by completely transcending the [seventh meditative absorption known as the] base of the boundlessness of consciousness, aware that ‘there is nothing,’ I enter and dwell in the base of nothingness. Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, enters and dwells in the base of nothingness.

“Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, by completely transcending the base of nothingness, I enter and dwell in the [eigth meditative absorption known as the] base of neither-perception-nor-nonperception. Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, enters and dwells in the base of neither-perception-nor-nonperception.

“Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, by completely transcending the base of neither-perception-nor-nonperception, I enter and dwell in the [attainment available only to noble ones known as the] cessation of feeling and perception. Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, enters and dwells in the cessation of feeling and perception.

“Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, I wield the various kinds of spiritual [magic] power: Having been one, I become many; having been many, I become one; I appear and vanish; I go unhindered through a wall, through a rampart, through a mountain as though through space; I dive in and out of the earth as though it were water; I walk on water without sinking as though it were earth; seated cross-legged, I travel in space like a bird; with my hand I touch and stroke the moon and sun so powerful and mighty; I exercise mastery with the body as far as the brahma world. Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, wields the various kinds of spiritual power.

“Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, with the divine ear element, which is purified and surpasses the human, I hear both kinds of sounds, the divine and human, those that are far as well as near. Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, with the divine ear element, which is purified and surpasses the human, hears both kinds of sounds (sn.ii.213).

“Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, I understand the minds of other beings and persons, having encompassed them with my own mind. I understand a mind with lust as a mind with lust; a mind without lust as a mind without lust; a mind with hatred [or fear] as a mind with hatred; a mind without hatred as a mind without hatred; a mind with delusion [wrong view or ignorance] as a mind with delusion; a mind without delusion as a mind without delusion; a contracted mind as contracted and a distracted mind as distracted; an exalted mind as exalted and an unexalted mind as unexalted; a surpassable mind as surpassable and an unsurpassable mind as unsurpassable; a concentrated mind as concentrated and an unconcentrated mind as unconcentrated; a liberated mind as liberated and an unliberated mind as unliberated. Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, understands the minds of other beings and persons, having encompassed them with his own mind.

“Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, I recollect my manifold past abodes [former lives], that is, one rebirth, two rebirths, three rebirths, four rebirths, five rebirths, ten rebirths, 20 rebirths, 30 rebirths, 40 rebirths, 50 rebirths, 100 births, 1000 births, 100,000 rebirths, many aeons (kalpas) of world-contraction, many aeons of world-expansion, many aeons of world-contraction and expansion thus:

“‘There I was so named, of such a clan, with such an appearance, such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such my life span; passing away from there, I was reborn elsewhere, and there, too, I was so named, of such a clan, with such an appearance, such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such my life span; passing away from there, I was reborn here.’

“Thus I recollect my manifold past abodes with their modes and details. Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, recollects his manifold past abodes with their modes and details.

“Meditators, to whatever extent I wish, with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, I see beings (sn.ii.214) passing away and being reborn, inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate, and I understand how beings fare on according to their karma [previous actions] thus:

“‘These beings who engaged in misconduct of body, speech, and mind, who reviled the noble ones, held wrong view, and undertook actions [karma] based on wrong view, with the breakup of the body, after death, have been reborn in a state of misery, in a bad destination, in the nether world, even in hell. But these beings who engaged in skillful conduct of body, speech, and mind, who did not revile the noble ones, who held right view, and undertook action based on right view, with the breakup of the body, after death, have been reborn in a fortunate destination, even in a heavenly world.’

“Thus, with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, I see beings passing away and being reborn, inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate, and I understand how beings fare on according to their karma. Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, sees beings passing away and being reborn, inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate, and he understands how beings fare on according to their karma.

“Meditators, by the destruction of the taints, in this very life I enter and dwell in the taintless liberation of mind, liberation by wisdom, realizing it for myself with direct knowledge. Kassapa also, by the destruction of the taints, in this very life enters and dwells in the taintless liberation of mind, liberation by wisdom, realizing it for himself with direct knowledge.”