Dilemma the Fifty-FourthIs It More Advantageous To Be A Layman, Or To Enter the Order?

‘Venerable Nāgasena, it was said by the Blessed One:
“I would magnify, O brethren, the Supreme Attainment either in a layman or in a recluse. Whether he be a layman., O brethren, or a recluse, the man who has reached the Supreme Attainment shall overcome all the difficulties inherent therein, shall win his way even to the excellent condition of Arahatship.”
‘Now, Nāgasena, if a layman, clad in white robes, enjoying the pleasures of sense, dwelling in a habitation encumbered with wife and children, making constant use of the sandal wood of Benares, of garlands and perfumes and unguents, accepting gold and silver, wearing a turban inlaid with jewels and gold, can, having reached the Supreme Attainment, win his way to the excellent condition of Arahatship—and if a recluse, with his shaven head and yellow robes, dependent for his livelihood on the alms of other men, perfectly fulfilling the fourfold code of morality, taking upon himself and carrying out the hundred and fifty precepts, conducting himself according to the thirteen extra vows without omitting any one of them, can also, having reached the Supreme Attainment, win his way to the excellent condition of Arahatship—then, Sir, what is the distinction between the layman and the recluse? Your austerity is without effect, your renunciation is useless, your observance of the precepts is barren, your taking of the extra vows is vain. What is the good of your therein heaping up woes to yourselves, if thus in comfort the condition of bliss can be reached?’
‘The words you ascribe to the Blessed One, O king, are rightly quoted. And that is even so. It is the man who has reached to the Supreme Attainment who bears the palm. If the recluse, O king, because he knows that he is a recluse, should neglect the Attainments, then is he far from the fruits of renunciation, far from Arahatship—how much more if a layman, still wearing the habit of the world, should do so! But whether he be a layman, O king, or a recluse, he who attains to the supreme insight, to the supreme conduct of life, he too will win his way to the excellent condition of Arahatship.
‘But nevertheless, O king, it is the recluse who is the lord and master of the fruit of renunciation. And renunciation of the world, O king, is full of gain, many and immeasurable are its advantages, its profit can no man calculate. just, O king, as no man can put a measure, in wealth, on the value of a wish-conferring gem, Saying: “Such and such is the price of the gem"—just so, O king, is the renunciation of the world full of gain, many and immeasurable are its advantages, its profit can no man calculate—no more, O king, than he could count the number of the waves in the great ocean, and say: “So and so many are the waves in the sea!”
‘Whatsoever the recluse, O king, may have yet to do, all that doth he accomplish straightway, without delay. And why is that? the recluse, O king, is content with little, joyful in heart, detached from the world, apart from society, earnest in zeal, without a home, without a dwelling-place, righteous in conduct, in action without guile, skilled in duty and in the attainments—that is why whatsoever may lie before him yet to do, that can he accomplish straightway, without delay—just as, the flight of your javelin, O king, is rapid because it is of pure metal, smooth, and burnished, and straight, and without a stain.’
‘Very good, Nāgasena! That is so, and I accept it as you say.’
Here ends the dilemma as to the recluse having no advantages over the layman.