Then the householder Sandhāna realized, “Obviously, now these wanderers want to listen to what the Buddha says. They’re paying attention and applying their minds to understand!”

So he said to the wanderer Nigrodha, “Nigrodha, remember you said this to me: ‘Surely, householder, you should know better! With whom does the ascetic Gotama converse? With whom does he engage in discussion? With whom does he achieve lucidity of wisdom? Staying in empty huts has destroyed the ascetic Gotama’s wisdom. Not frequenting assemblies, he is unable to hold a discussion. He just lurks on the periphery. He’s just like the nilgai antelope, circling around and lurking on the periphery. Please, householder, let the ascetic Gotama come to this assembly. I’ll sink him with just one question! I’ll roll him over and wrap him up like a hollow pot!’ Now the Blessed One, perfected and fully awakened, has arrived here. Why don’t you send him out of the assembly to the periphery like a nilgai antelope? Why don’t you sink him with just one question? Why don’t you roll him over and wrap him up like a hollow pot?” When he said this, Nigrodha sat silent, embarrassed, shoulders drooping, downcast, depressed, with nothing to say.

Knowing this, the Buddha said to him, “Is it really true, Nigrodha—are those your words?”

“It’s true, sir, those are my words. It was foolish, stupid, and unskillful of me.”

“What do you think, Nigrodha? Have you heard that wanderers of the past who were elderly and senior, the teachers of teachers, said that when the perfected ones, the fully awakened Buddhas of the past came together, they made an uproar, a dreadful racket as they sat and talked about all kinds of unworthy topics, like you do in your tradition these days? Or did they say that the Buddhas frequented remote lodgings in the wilderness and the forest that are quiet and still, far from the madding crowd, remote from human settlements, and fit for retreat, like I do these days?”

“I have heard that wanderers of the past who were elderly and senior, said that when the perfected ones, the fully awakened Buddhas of the past came together, they didn’t make an uproar, like I do in my tradition these days. They said that the Buddhas of the past frequented remote lodgings in the wilderness, like the Buddha does these days.”

“Nigrodha, you are a sensible and mature man. Did it not occur to you: ‘The Blessed One is awakened, tamed, serene, crossed over, and extinguished. And he teaches Dhamma for awakening, taming, serenity, crossing over, and extinguishment’?”