Ordination Traditions during the Time of the Buddha : หน้า 33/105

There are numerous stories of those who had enough faith to push them to be ordained since the time of the Buddha. In each and every story, there are many lessons that can be learned, one common theme in all these stories, is that you must strive and persevere to do your best, in order to be free from suffering in this life. *Ordination Traditions during the Time of the Buddha* In the early Buddhists era, all of Lord Buddha’s disciples were monks, without any novices. When young Prince Siddhattha was ordained, his ordination was referred to as “lower ordination” (pabbajjā), a term which nowadays is used to refer to novices who were ordained. However, he was already too old to be considered a novice. From the time Lord Buddha allowed novices to be ordained, the ordination of monks became known as higher ordination or (upasampadā). The very first novice ordained during the time of Lord Buddha, was his son Rahula. He was ordained when Buddha returned to his hometown of Kapilavatthu, to give a sermon to his parents and relatives. The reason Rahula became a novice was due to his mother’s encouragement for him to seek out Buddha, and asked him for his inheritance and throne, over which Lord Buddha could still lay claim despite his being a monk. Lord Buddha felt that his son deserved more than mere worldly riches, and that his son deserved true happiness, which was worth more than all the world’s riches. Lord Buddha asked Sariputta, a disciple, to ordain Rahula as a novice according to the ritual of "Taking the