elements, d1b

According to One’s Nature People Flow Together

Twenty-one arhats are listed in Chapter 1:

Ājñāta-Kauṇḍinya
Mahā-Kāśyapa
Uruvilvā-Kāśyapa
Gaya-Kāśyapa
Nadi-Kāśyapa
Śāriputra
Great Maudgalyāyana
Mahā-Kātyāyana
Aniruddha
Kapphina
Gavampati
Revata
Pilindavatsa
Bakkula
Maha-Kausthila
Nanda
Sundarananda
Pūrṇa who was the son of Maitrāyanī
Subhūti
Ananda
Rahula.

The Etadaggavagga (Aṅguttara-Nikāya) lists the Buddha’s disciples in terms of their specialized abilities. For example, the ten great disciples are classified as follows1:

  1. Sāriputta [Śāriputra], the foremost in deep wisdom,
  2. Mahāmoggallāna [Maudgalyāyana], the foremost in transcendental faculties,
  3. Anuruddha [Aniruddha], the foremost in divine sight,
  4. Mahākassapa [Mahākāśyapa], the foremost in observance of ascetic practices,
  5. Puṇṇa Mantāniputta [Pūrṇa, son of Maitrāyanī], the foremost in expounding the teaching,
  6. Mahākaccāyana [Mahākātyāyana], the foremost in ability to analyze and explain the teachings,
  7. Rāhula, the foremost of all who loved learning,
  8. Revata Khadiravaniya, the foremost of the forest dwellers,
  9. Ānanda, the foremost of those who had heard and memorized the teachings, and
  10. Upāli, the foremost of those who had memorized the Vinaya.

The chapter goes on to list other bhikkhus, bhikkhuṇis, upāsakas, and upāsikās and describes their special abilities.

It is understandable that those leading disciples who responded to the Buddha’s teachings in the way that suited them best then became teachers of those special abilities, guiding new followers in their own particular expertise. The disciples who gathered under them appear to have formed groups according to their interests, as is hinted by a sentence in the Saṃyutta-Nikaya: “According to one’s nature/selfdom (dhātu) people flow together, meet together.” The Buddha pointed out that the groups that formed around the various leaders tended to have the same leanings as those leaders (Saṃyutta-Nikāya), commenting that the disciples who were walking with Śāriputra were people of great wisdom; those around Mahāmoggallāna were of transcendental powers; those around Mahākassapa were of ascetic tendencies; those around Anuruddha were of divine sight; those around Puṇṇa Mantāniputta were expounders of the teaching; those around Upāli were memorizers of the Vinaya; those around Ānanda were those who had “heard much” (bahussuta); and those who had followed Devadatta were people of evil.
Source elements of the Lotus Sutra, p 169-170

1
Lotus World and the Oxford dictionary of Buddhism list Subhuti, foremost in understanding emptiness, among the 10 disciples. While Revata Khadiravaniya, the younger brother of Śāriputra, is not listed in those lists, other lists have him as foremost among forest dwellers. return