Upali belonged to the Shudra caste, the lowest caste in India. They mostly worked as craftsmen or even slaves. He was a hairdresser in the palace in Kapilavastu, and he grew up in the palace with all the princes . Hence, the princes and Upali got along very well.

When the Buddha went back to his hometown for the first time after he had left home years earlier, Upali was ordered to give him a haircut. Some royal princes, including Aniruddha and Ananda, decided to join the assembly of monks too. They sneaked out late at night with Upali, and they asked him to shave their heads.

Upali felt very sad when he realized that these princes were leaving home to become monks. Prince Aniruddha asked him why he looked so sad. "Prince Aniruddha," he replied, "it is just that I realize that all of you will become monks and join the sangha, and you won't be here anymore. You will be travelling all around India."

Aniruddha stared at him with a sad look. He turned to the other princes. "Upali has been serving us for a long time, and he's been a diligent worker. Now since we are leaving home, we can help him with his life. Here is a blanket. Take off your jewels and put them on the blanket, since we won't be needing them anymore after joining the sangha. They can be given to Upali to make his life better."

They wrapped up all the jewelry in the blanket, handed it over to Upali, said good-bye to him and left. "They have given up their personal pleasures to follow the Buddha and become monks," Upali thought. "If I go home now, the king and everyone else will blame me for allowing the princes to leave home, and they will kill me for that. So how can I go back? Besides, if princes like them can give up their wealth and become monks, then I should become a monk too."

So, he hung the blanket with the jewels inside on a tree branch. "I also want to become a monk like the princes, so I don't need the jewelry anymore. I am delighted to offer these to anyone who is lucky enough to come by here and take them."

After he had walked a few paces, he recalled his status as a hairdresser , and he became very sad. He sat down by the road and shed tears. "How can I be a monk like the princes? I am only a lowly slave! How can I be a monk like the noble princes?"

Suddenly, a voice came to him, "Why are you crying?"

Upali raised his head. Sariputra, one of the Buddha's greatest disciples , was standing before him. Upali wiped away his tears and knelt before Sariputra. "Venerable one, you are the Buddha's disciple. Can you tell me if a person like me, a Shudra, can be a monk too? I know this is an impossible dream for me."

Sariputra asked him, "Who are you?"

"My name is Upali."

Sariputra then recalled the barber who gave the Buddha a haircut. It was said that the barber had entered into deep meditation while cutting the Buddha's hair. "The Buddha's teachings are based on freedom, compassion and equality. It doesn't matter whether a person is wise or not, or rich or poor, or what his profession is. Anyone can become the Buddha's disciple as long as he can abide by the precepts, and anyone can attain enlightenment like the Buddha. Come! The Buddha will be happy to have you join us."

With delight, Upali followed Sariputra. The Buddha agreed happily to accept him as a new disciple. "I know one day you will spread my teachings," he told Upali. "The princes have already arrived, but I have told them to stay away from the other monks for seven days. During this time, they must carry out spiritual formation to forget their princely identity. Then, they will come back to join us."

Seven days passed, and the Buddha summoned Aniruddha and the other six to meet with the sangha, the assembly of monks. When they saw Upali dressed up like a monk, they were dumbfounded and did not know what to do.

The Buddha looked at them sternly. "Why are you hesitating? When you become monks, the first thing to do is to get rid of your arrogance. I allowed Upali to become a monk first, so you should prostrate yourselves before him, since he is senior to you."

The princes then prostrated themselves humbly before Upali, and they were quite content to do so. But Upali was rather uncomfortable. The Buddha then said to him, "You should treat them now like your own brothers."

This surely transformed Upali's life, because he who once was a Shudra could now sit and eat together with monks who had come from the higher castes. He was also treated as an equal by the other monks and the Buddha.

Upali was very good at following the precepts. He remembered quite well all the precepts the Buddha had laid down for the monks to follow, and he also constantly asked the Buddha to clear up his confusion. For example, one day he asked the Buddha whether monks or nuns were allowed to be matchmakers. Buddha replied that monks or nuns were prohibited from doing so, because relationships between men and women always created problems. In addition, marriage was for common people and was not something that monks or nuns should get involved with. However, they could be witnesses to a marriage.

In Kapilavastu, there was a law that women of the Sakya tribe could not marry men from another tribe, or they would be punished. The husband of a beautiful young Sakya woman died, and many men from other tribes wanted to marry her. So did her husband's brother. However, this woman did not want to marry her brother-in-law, so he became very angry with her. He believed that she was having an affair with someone else. He put drugs in her drink one day, and when she fell unconscious he beat her up severely. He also reported to the government that she was his wife, and that she had had an affair with a man of another tribe.

The young woman knew she could not fight it, so she fled to Sravasti and became a nun. When the government of Kapilavastu heard of her escape, they demanded that King Prasenajit of Sravasti return her to them. However, since she had become a nun, the king informed Kapilavastu that she should not be prosecuted.

Upali heard about all this and reported it to the Buddha. "Upali," the Buddha said, "whether the law is reasonable or not, that is between the government and the citizens. So before she is declared innocent, the assembly of nuns cannot accept her."

Of course, the Buddha was always compassionate. Anyone in the sangha would be expelled for breaking the precepts, so anyone who broke the law had to be punished too. The sangha could not protect those who committed crimes, so in order to protect the sangha and not let the precepts contravene the law, the Buddha made that decision.

Because of his knowledge of the precepts and his fairness, Upali was often assigned by the Buddha to solve disputes among monks and nuns. However, quite a few monks and nuns also disliked him because of his understanding of the precepts. Whenever Upali went out, some ill-behaved monks or nuns would even scold him for making their lives difficult with these precepts. Upali simply ignored them.

One day, the Buddha heard about Upali's problem, so he gathered those unruly monks and nuns who disliked Upali and admonished them. "You are all very ignorant. If you do not respect a disciple who abides by the rules, who will you respect? You must realize that the precepts are your instructors. With the precepts, my teachings will abide forever. Your disrespect towards Upali shows that you have bad intentions!"

Upali's principles in solving disputes were to investigate thoroughly, not to be biased toward either party involved, and not to talk about the dispute after it was settled.

One day, Upali noticed that a monk was sick, and another monk purposely walked around him to avoid him. He asked the Buddha how a sick monk should be properly cared for. "When a monk is sick, he should live in a place with good air and a lot of sunlight," the Buddha replied. "His student or another monk should clean the room and help him in any way he can. Everyone else should provide food and medicine for the patient. If they cannot do so, they can take his robe, bowl, or other items and exchange them for food. Otherwise, the other monks should go out and beg for the best food for the patient."

When the Buddha passed away, Upali was about seventy years old. At the first gathering of the sangha, he was asked by Kasyapa to recite all the precepts. He was able to state that the Buddha had set down a specific precept because he could recall that someone did something wrong at a specific place and time, and he could also remember the punishment. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his excellent memory. He recited all 250 precepts for monks, 500 for nuns, five precepts for upasakas and ten for upasikas. After the convocation, he traveled around lecturing on the Buddha's teachings.

Purnamaitrayaniputra, or Purna for short, is usually known as the disciple who was best at preaching the Buddha's teachings. He knew how to lecture according to the intelligence of the audiences. Thus, he could explain the Buddha's ideas in various ways so that people from all walks of life could understand the meaning of his teachings.

For example, when he lectured to medical doctors, he would remind them that they could treat patients' physical illnesses, but they could hardly cure people's mental poisons of greed, anger and delusion. However, the Buddha's wisdom was like the pure morning dew which could help purify people's mental defilement. The three immeasurable studies of precepts, meditation and wisdom proclaimed by the Buddha were the best medicine to cope with the three poisons.

When Purna lectured to government officials, he told them that they could jail anyone who broke the law, but they could not prevent people from breaking the law, because people's minds were still influenced by their environment. Only the Buddha's teaching could purify their minds to prevent them from breaking any law.

"You plant crops so people can have food to eat," he once said to a farmer. "However, you should also plant the field of good fortune to nurture your wisdom. Planting the field of good fortune means believing in the Buddha's instructions , respecting the Three Precious Treasures of the Buddha, the dharma and the sangha, helping the sick, assisting your parents, and no killing."

Whenever Purna lectured on the Buddha's teachings, he always kept the following ten regulations in mind: (1) comprehending the true meaning of the Buddha's teachings; (2) being able to lecture about it; (3) not being intimidated by the crowd; (4) being eloquent; (5) lecturing according to the ability of the audience to comprehend; (6) carrying out the teachings accordingly; (7) being dignified; (8) working diligently; (9) not showing physical and mental exhaustion, and (10) achieving great strength. Buddha therefore praised him for being the best in preaching, and he hoped that everyone else could learn from him.

Purna was from Kapilavastu. His father was King Suddhodana's preceptor. After his parents were married, his father went to a lakeside, worshipped Brahman, and asked for a child. That evening, he dreamed of various treasures flying into his wife's belly. Less than one year later , Purna was born. When Prince Siddartha (who later became the Buddha) fled the palace to seek enlightenment, the whole country was surprised by the news. So was Purna, because although he had known the prince for years, he had not expected that the prince would leave behind his place, father, wife, son, a luxurious life, and all his treasures. This came as a great blow to Purna. He pondered the prince's act, and finally he also left the palace in search of a good religious instructor. After some time, he went to the Buddha, became his disciple, and attained the arhathood.

One day, Purna and Maudgalyayana went to pay a visit to King Bimbisara of Magadha. The first king to become the Buddha's disciple, he was a devoted Buddhist. Later, the infamous Devadatta came to his country and incited the king's son, Ajatasatru, to take over the throne and to jail the king. The prince planned to starve his own father, the king, to death by prohibiting anyone from sending him food. However, the king's wife was able to feed him by smearing honey and cream over her body, visiting the king, and allowing the king to eat the honey and cream to stay alive. Unfortunately , the prince later discovered their stratagem, so he banned his mother from seeing the king.

The king believed that his son treated him this way because he had done something bad to his son in their previous lives , so the king was now suffering from the effects of the causes that he had planted then. With this in mind, he felt very peaceful.

When the Buddha learned that the king was in jail, he sent Purna and Maudgalyayana to comfort the king. The two disciples entered the prison by means of their supernatural powers. "Your Majesty, the Buddha sent us to console you," they said to the king. "He would like you to know that our existence in the world is created by our own karma. We can eliminate our bad karma and obtain mental tranquillity through moral cultivation."

"Anyone in jail has no freedom," they continued. "In the same way, anyone in this world is not free either, because we are all shackled by money, prestige, power, and the charm of beautiful women. Whether we are jailed or not, we are never totally free, so there is no need to be afraid of that . Whenever there is birth, there is ultimately death. Unfortunately, many people are reborn again in this world and once again they have to succumb to the power and the influence of bad karma, just like in their previous lives. The Buddha has said that one could recite the name of Amitabha Buddha and be reborn in the Pure Land." Hearing that, the king felt much more peaceful and relieved.

Whenever Purna went to preach the Buddha's teachings, he would usually go to the toughest places. He was once told that Sanaparantaka was a country filled with brutal, violent people. One day, Purna went to the Buddha and said to him, "Buddha, I plan to go to a land in the west called Sanaparantaka to preach your teachings."

"The people there are quite violent, cruel and barbaric," the Buddha observed. "Many people have lost their lives there. Aren't you afraid?"

"No, I am not," Purna replied. "Ever since I became a monk, I have given my life and body to the order. You love us dearly, and that is why I want to go there to propagate your teachings to the people who have had no chance to hear them. It's a chance for them to be helped by your teachings."

The Buddha was delighted that Purna had this devotion to the propagation of his teachings, but he still asked Purna, "If they insulted you and refused to listen to what you said, what would you do?"

"I would think that they were nice people, because they did not attack me with stones."

"What if they attacked you with stones?"

"I would think that they were nice, because they did not use clubs or knives."

"What if they clubbed you?"

"I would think that they were nice, because they did not kill me."

"What if they killed you?"

"I would still want to thank them for that, because I would then attain nirvana and become spiritually unencumbered."

"You are my good disciple indeed," the Buddha praised him. "You are very good at tolerating hardships, doing spiritual formation and spreading my teachings, so you are qualified to go to that tough country."

Purna left the next day. When he arrived, he decided not to preach the Buddha's teachings. Instead, he first wanted to improve the local inhabitants' quality of life. With his simple medical knowledge, he went to help look after poor patients. Many patients were moved by his good intentions and thoughtful treatment, and they recovered from their diseases.