• Uposatha Suttā

1. Uposatha Suttā. Suttas dealing with questions asked by monks of the Buddha as to why certain Nāgas (egg-born, womb-born, moisture-born and born without parents) should keep the fast day, divesting themselves of their Nāga forms! The Buddha replies that they do so because they wish to be born in happy states. S. iii.241f.

2. Uposatha Sutta. One Uposatha-day, the Buddha, surrounded by the company of monks, was seated in the Migāramātu-pāsāda, in Sāvatthi. Looking round and finding them seated in silence, he spoke their praises, saying how some of them had won access to the devas, some to Brahma, others to the Imperturbable (ānejja), and yet others to the Ariyan state. A.ii.183f.

3. Uposatha Sutta. One uposatha-night, during the first watch, Ananda approaches the Buddha and asks him to recite the Pātimokkha. Three times he asks, but the Buddha remains silent, and at last says that the assembly is impure. Mahāmoggallāna, who is present, looks round, and seeing there a monk given up to wicked ways, asks him to leave. On his refusing to do so, Moggallāna takes him by the hand and leads him away. Thereupon the Buddha proceeds to explain how, just as the sea is full of eight kinds of marvels, so is the Dhamma. A.iv.204ff.

4. Uposatha (v.l. Uposathanga) Sutta. Visākhā, having taken the uposatha vows, visits the Buddha at noontide in the Migāramātu-pāsāda. The Buddha explains to her that there are various ways of observing the sabbath; these he describes as the herdsman's sabbath, the sabbath of the naked ascetics and the sabbath of the Ariyans. A.i.206f.