the entrance till they were taken up.

The introduction to the Ariyapariyesana-Sutta gives a fairly complete
picture of a day in his life at Savatthi. It relates how in the morning
he took his bowl and mantle and went to the town to collect food. While
he was away, some monks told his personal attendant Ananda that they
wished to hear a discourse from him, as it was long since they had had
the privilege. Ananda suggested that they had better go to the hermitage
of the Brahman Rammaka near the town. The Buddha returned, ate his meal
and then said "Come, Ananda, let us go to the terrace of Migara's
mother[353] and stay there till evening." They went there and spent the
day in meditation. Towards evening the Buddha rose and said "Let us go
to the old bath to refresh our limbs." After they had bathed, Ananda
suggested that they should go to Rammaka's hermitage: the Buddha
assented by his silence and they went together. Within the hermitage
were many monks engaged in instructive conversation, so the Buddha
waited at the door till there was a pause in the talk. Then he coughed
and knocked. The monks opened the door, and offered him a seat. After a
short conversation, he recounted to them how he had striven for and
obtained Buddhahood.

These congregations were often prolonged late into the night. We hear
for instance how he sat on the terrace belonging to Migara's mother[354]
in the midst of an assembly of monks waiting for his words, still and
silent in the light of the full moon; how a monk would rise, adjusting
his robe so as to leave one shoulder bare, bow with his hands joined and
raised to his forehead and ask permission to put a question and the Lord
would reply, Be seated, monk, ask what you will. But sometimes in these
nightly congregations the silence was unbroken. When King Ajatasattu
went to visit him[355] in the mango grove of Jivaka he was seized with
sudden fear at the unearthly stillness of the place and suspected an
ambush. "Fear not, O King," said Jivaka, "I am playing you no tricks. Go
straight on. There in the pavilion hall the lamps are burning ... and
there is the Blessed One sitting against the middle pillar, facing the
east with the brethren round him." And when the king beheld the assembly
seated in perfect silence, calm as a clear lake, he exclaimed "Would
that my son might have such calm as this assembly now has."

The major part of the Buddha's activity was concerned with the
instruction of his