# Talk:Mahākāśyapa

This is an appalling article. There are dozens of early texts that feature Mahakassapa, as well as an extensive legendary biogrpahy, all of which are ignored in this article, which uses only very late east Asian sources, which have nothing to do with the historical figure.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.44.28.32 (talk) 20:52, 10 January 2010 (UTC) 

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On a similar note, the robe, which in the early accounts was a rag-robe, is a symbol of rebirth and In this context, the rag-robe was also associated in several Asian cultures with gestation, birth, rebirth, impermanence: rag-robes have historically been associated much with death, and in the early texts, the robe came from a corpse. In a late Pāli account, the same robe is also associated with birth, an association that has also been found in the fieldwork of anthropologist François Bizot, done in Cambodian temples. On a similar note, from the fourteenth century onward, Japanese esoteric kirigami texts describe the robe transmitted from Gautama Buddha to Mahākāśyapa as a symbol of birth and gestation.p=220–221}}South-east Asian scholar Paul Mus (1902–1969) compared the transmittance of the robe of Gautama Buddha to Maitreya Buddha with Indian consecration rituals for kings, in which a king's robe is equated with the placenta, through which rebirth takes place.
In one early discourse, he was asked by Pāyāsi, a philosopher with materialist teachings, why virtuous Buddhist monks do not commit suicide. Since they have done much good karma, and since Buddhists believe in an afterlife in which this karma gives fruit, he argued, why not go there straight away? Mahākāśyapa responded that virtuous monks would not do that, because they live with compassion for other people, and do much good by teaching them: their purpose "is gained by life".
In some early texts, accounts of Mahākāśyapa and Bhadra's previous lives are told, which illustrate how they vowed to lead celibate lives. In one life, they were making love in a forest and disturbed a pratyekabuddha (Pali: paccekabuddha) who was living and meditating there. When they discovered they had broken his meditative concentration, they felt so ashamed they took a vow together that from then onward, they would be reborn without sexual desire. In another life, in the time of the previous Buddha Padumuttara, he was born in a wealthy family and was called Videha. He saw a disciple of Patumuttara Buddha who was declared to be eminent in ascetic practices, and wanted to be like him in a future life. In subsequent lives, he strove to achieve this aim by doing meritorious deeds, which involved offering robes and cloaks to Buddhas and pratyekabuddhas.


### Sources
Clarke, S. (2014), Family Matters in Indian Buddhist Monasticisms, University of Hawai'i Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-3647-4
Faure, Bernard (1995), "Quand l'habit fait le moine: The Symbolism of the Kāsāya in Sōtō zen", Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, 8 (1): 335–369, doi:10.3406/asie.1995.1101
Harvey, P. (1998), "A Response to Damien Keown's Suicide, Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Buddhist Perspective" (PDF), Journal of Law and Religion, 13 (2): 407–412, archived (PDF) from the original on 7 March 2020 {{citation}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 7 March 2019 suggested (help)
Karaluvinna, M. (2002), "Mahākassapa", in Malalasekera, G.P.; Weeraratne, W.G. (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. 6, Government of Sri Lanka, fascicle 3, pp. 435–441
Strong, J.S. (2007), Relics of the Buddha, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-11764-5
Wiltshire, M.G. (1983), "The" Suicide" Problem in the Pāli Canon", Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies: 124–140, archived from the original on 17 February 2020