The Buddha gave them a progressive talk—on generosity, morality, and heaven; on the downside, degradation, and defilement of worldly pleasures; and he revealed the benefits of renunciation. When the Buddha knew that their minds were ready, supple, without hindrances, joyful, and confident, he revealed the teaching unique to the Buddhas: suffering, its origin, its end, and the path. And just as a clean and stainless cloth absorbs dye properly, so too, while they were sitting right there, they experienced the stainless vision of the Truth: “Anything that has a beginning has an end.”

They had seen the Truth, had reached, understood, and penetrated it. They had gone beyond doubt and uncertainty, had attained to confidence, and had become independent of others in the Teacher’s instruction. And they said to the Buddha, “Wonderful, sir, wonderful! … We go for refuge to the Buddha, the Teaching, and the Sangha of monks. Please accept us as lay followers who have gone for refuge for life.” And they were the first women in the world to become lay followers by means of the triple refuge.

Yasa’s mother, father, and ex-wife personally served various kinds of fine foods to the Buddha and Yasa. When the Buddha had finished his meal, they sat down. The Buddha then instructed, inspired, and gladdened them with a teaching, before getting up from his seat and leaving.

Now Yasa had four friends—Vimala, Subāhu, Puṇṇaji, and Gavampati—who were from the wealthiest merchant families in Benares. When they heard that Yasa had shaved off his hair and beard, put on ocher robes, and gone forth into homelessness, they said to one another, “This must be an extraordinary spiritual path, an extraordinary going forth, for Yasa to have done this.”

And they went to Yasa and bowed down to him.