Upāli
A figure from the books
#Upali
Upāli · c. 6th–5th century BCE
In the books · 1 chapter
Who this is
Monastic law — master, referee and living archive of the Vinaya, the legal code of the Buddhist order.
“A civilization that ranked people by birth watched a barber outrank six princes because a rule said so — and the rule held for the rest of their lives, which is more than any sermon on equality has ever managed.”
The big idea, in the book's words:
“Equality can be engineered. The Buddha's order ranked its members by one thing only — the moment of ordination — so when six princes asked that their own barber be ordained ahead of them, they were asking to bow to him for the rest of their lives. On purpose.”
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