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Śrāvaka or Shravaka (Sanskrit) or Sāvaka (Pāli) means
"a hearer" or, more generally, "disciple."[1]
This term is used by both Buddhists and Jains. In Jainism, a
shravaka is any lay Jain. Thus the term shravaka has been used for
the Jain community itself (for example see Sarak and Saraogi).
In Buddhism, the term is sometimes reserved for distinguished
disciples of the Buddha.
Buddhist
references
In Nikaya
Buddhism, sāvaka (m.) or
sāvikā (f.) is a disciple who
accepts:
In Mahayana texts,
śrāvakas (or arhats) are sometimes contrasted with bodhisattvas (Sanskrit;
Pāli: bodhisatta).[5]
Who's a "disciple"?
In the Pali canon, the term "disciple" transcends
monastic-lay divisions and can refer to anyone from the following
"four assemblies":[6]
-
Buddhist
texts further mention three types of disciples based on
spiritual accomplishment:[7]
- Chief Disciple (Pāli: aggasāvaka;
Sanskrit: agraśrāvaka):
- In the Pali canon, the Chief Disciples are Sāriputta (Pāli;
Sanskrit: Śāriputra) and Mahāmoggallāna (Pāli;
Sanskrit: Maudgalyāyana).
- Great Disciple (Pāli: mahāsāvaka;
Sanskrit: mahā-śrāvaka):
- Examples of Great Disciples are Mahākassapa (Pāli;
Sanskrit: Mahākāśyapa), Ānanda, Anuruddha and Mahākaccāna.[8]
- Ordinary Disciple (Pāli:
pakatisāvaka; Sanskrit: prakṛtiśrāvaka):
- Ordinary disciples, who constitute the majority of disciples,
while devoted to the Buddha and his teaching and while having
planted seeds for future liberation, have not yet irreversibly
entered the path to emancipation and are still subject to infinite
rebirths.[9]
"Ariya-sāvaka"
In the traditional Pali commentaries, the Pali term
"ariya-sāvaka" is explained as "the disciple of the Noble One (i.e.
Buddha)".[10]
Accordingly Soma Thera and Thanissaro Bhikkhu translate this term
as "The disciple of the Noble Ones" [11]
However Bhikkhu Bodhi interprets this term as "noble disciple",
and according to him, in the Pali suttas, this term is used in two
ways:[12]
- broadly: any lay disciple (Pāli: upasaka,
upasika) of the Buddha;
- narrowly: one who is at least on the path to enlightenment (Pāli: sotāpatti
maggattha). In this sense, "ordinary people"
(puthujjana) can be contrasted with this narrow definition
of "noble disciple" (ariya-sāvaka).[13]
The canon occasionally references the "four pairs" and "eight
types" of disciples.[14] This
refers to disciples who have achieved one of the four stages of
enlightenment:
-
For each of these stages, there is a "pair" of possible
disciples: one who is on the stage's path (Pāli:
magga); the other who has achieved its fruit
(Pāli: phala). Thus, each stage represents a "pair" of
individuals: the path traveler (Pāli: maggattha) and the
fruit achiever (Pāli: phalattha). Hence, the community of
disciples is said to be composed of four pairs or eight types of
individuals (Pāli: cattāri purisayugāni attha
purisapuggalā).[16][17]
In the Pali canon, the Buddha often contrasts the "instructed
disciple of the Noble Ones" (Pāli: sutavā ariya-sāvaka)
with the "uninstructed worlding" (Pāli: assutavā
puthujjana).[18] For
instance, in the "Sabbasava Sutta," the Buddha states:
- The well-instructed disciple of the noble ones — who has regard for noble ones,
is well-versed & disciplined in their Dhamma; who has regard for
men of integrity, is
well-versed & disciplined in their Dhamma — discerns what ideas
are fit for attention and what ideas are unfit for attention.[19]
"Foremost" disciples
In the "Etadaggavagga" ("These are the Foremost Chapter," AN 1.14), the
Buddha identifies 80 different categories for his "foremost" (Pāli:
agga) disciples: 47 categories for monks, 13 for nuns, ten
for laymen and ten for laywomen.[20] Some
of these categories and the associated disciples are identified in
the table below.[21]
In addition, in SN 17.23,[22] SN
17.24[23] and
AN 4.18.6,[24] the
Buddha identifies four pairs of disciples "who have no compare" and
who should thus be emulated. These four pairs are a subset of the
80 foremost disciples identified in the aforementioned sutta AN
1.14. These four pairs of disciples to be most emulated are:
In Buddhism, there are two traditional communities (Pāli:
sangha):
- The "community of monks" (Pāli: bhikkhu-sangha or sammati-sangha)
refers to a community of four or more monks. (See the article on
"Sangha" for more
information.)
- The "community of disciples" (Pāli:
sāvaka-sangha or ariya-sangha) refers to
the community of monks, nuns, and male and female
layfollowers, especially those who are on the path to
enlightenment.
For an example of a traditional stock reference to the
sāvaka-sangha in the Pali canon, in "The Crest of the
Standard" discourse (SN 11.3), the Buddha advises his monks
that, if they experience fear, they can recollect the Buddha or the Dhamma or the
Sangha; and, in recollecting the Sangha they should recall:
- 'The Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples
[sāvaka-sangha] is practising the good way, practising the
straight way, practising the true way, practising the proper way;
that is, the four pairs of persons, the eight types of
individuals....'[27]
A similar phrase can also be found in the lay disciple's daily
chant, "Sangha
Vandanā" ("Salutation to the Sangha").[28]
Mahayana
view
According to Je
Tsongkhapa (founder of the Tibetan Gelug School): "The Sutra on
the Ten Levels says that those who have cultivated these ten
[virtuous practices, i.e. not killing, not stealing, not lying
etc.] through fear of cyclic existence and without [great]
compassion, but following the words of others, will achieve the
fruit of a Śrāvaka."[29]
Jain
references
Sravaka (श्रावक) in Jainism is a lay Jain. He is the
hearer of Jinavani i.e. discourses of Jain
munis and scholars. The Jain chaturvidha sangha includes monks,
nuns, lay men and women.
See also
Notes
- ^
See, for instance, PTS (1921-25), p. 707, entry for "Sāvaka."[1], which
identifies the etymological root of "sāvaka" to be śru. In
Nyanaponika, Hecker & Bodhi (2003), p. xvii, Bhikkhu Bodhi
provides a seemingly different derivation, stating that "sāvaka"
comes from sāveti, meaning "to declare," and refers either
to one declaring the Buddha as their teacher or to one to whom the
Dhamma has been declared.
- ^
At times, in the Nikayas, depending on the context,
sāvaka can also refer to a disciple of a teacher other
than the Buddha (Nyanaponika, Hecker & Bodhi, 2003, p.
xvii).
- ^
Following the Buddha's teaching includes understanding the Four Noble
Truths, ridding oneself of the unreality of the phenomenal,
and pursuing nibbana. See,
for instance, the Anguttara Nikaya's second "Metta
Sutta" (AN 4.126) (Thanissaro, 2006b) when, taken in consideration
of the first "Metta Sutta" (AN 4.125) (Thanissaro, 2006a), a
disciple is described as one who "regards whatever phenomena there
that are connected with form, feeling, perception, fabrications,
& consciousness [see Skandha], as inconstant, stressful, a disease,
a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a
disintegration, an emptiness, not-self [compare Three marks of
existence]."
- ^
Nyanaponika, Hecker & Bodhi (2003), p. xvi.
- ^
Ibid., p. xvii.
- ^
Ibid., pp. xvi-xvii.
- ^
Acharya (2002), pp. 100-101. (On-line, see the "Glossary" entry for
āriya.[2].) Also see Webu
& Bischoff (1995); and, Nyanaponika, Hecker & Bodhi (2003),
pp. xxi-xxiii.
- ^
See, for example, Nyanaponika, Hecker & Bodhi (2003),
passim.
- ^
Nyanaponika, Hecker & Bodhi (2003), pp. xviii-xix.
- ^
See the entry for "ariya" in Pali Text Society Pali-English
dictionary, and Pali commentaries: Itivuttaka-Atthakatha 2.73,
Ekanipata-Atthakatha 1.63, Patisambhidamagga-Atthakatha 1.167,
Sammohavinodani-Atthakatha 119, Nettippakarana-Atthakatha
Mya:112.
- ^
See the translation of Kalama sutta by Soma Thera [3] and Thanissaro
Bhikkhu [4]. In the Bhikkhu
Bodhi's translation of the Kalama sutta the term "noble disciple"
is used instead.
- ^
Nyanaponika, Hecker & Bodhi (2003), p. 379, n. 4.
- ^
Ibid., pp. xviii-xix. Also see, Nyanatiloka (1952)'s entry
for "sāvaka"[5] where he states:
- "sāvaka: ... refers, in a restricted sense (then
mostly ariya-sāvaka, 'noble disciple'), only to the 8 kinds of
noble disciples (ariya-puggala, q.v.)." [Italics added.]
- ^
See, for instance, "The Crest of the Standard" discourse (SN 11.3)
(Bodhi, 2000, p. 320) as well as Nyanatiloka (1952), entries for
"ariya-puggala" ("noble ones")[6] and "sāvaka"[7].
- ^
In regards to disciples achieving arahantship, Bodhi (2005), p.
226, states:
- In principle the entire practice of the Noble Eightfold Path is
open to people from any mode of life, monastic or lay, and the
Buddha confirms that many among his lay followers were accomplished
in the Dhamma and had attained the first three of the four stages
of awakening, up to nonreturning (anāgāmi; Theravāda
commentators say that lay followers can also attain the fourth
stage, arahantship, but they do so either on the verge of death or
after attainment immediately seek the going forth [that is,
homelessness, associated with becoming a monastic]).
- ^
Nyanaponika, Hecker & Bodhi (2003), pp. xix-xxi; and, Prayudh
(1986).
- ^
Nyanatiloka (1980), in his entry for "ariya-puggala,"[8] further
references the Visuddhimagga, Ch. XXI, verse 73, for a
"sevenfold grouping" of noble disciples who have achieved
stream-entry as follows: the faith-devotee (Pāli:
saddhānusārī); the faith-liberated one (Pāli:
saddhā-vimutta); the body-witness (Pāli: kāya-sakkhī); the
both-ways-liberated one (Pāli: ubhato-bhāga-vimutta); the
Dhamma-devotee (Pāli: dhammānusārī); the vision-attainer
(Pāli: ditthippatta); and, the wisdom-liberated one (Pāli:
paññā-vimutta). For more detailed information, see
Buddhaghosa & Nanamoli (1999), pp. 680 (§ 66), 682-83 (§§
74-78).
- ^
See, for instance, Bodhi (2005), pp. 21ff. See also
Thanissaro (1997).[9]
- ^
Thanissaro (1997).
- ^
The number of foremost disciple categories is evident from scanning
Uppalavanna (n.d.-b) as well as mentioned in Nyanaponika, Hecker
& Bodhi (2003), p. xxiii. While the disciples identified with
these categories are declared to be the Buddha's "foremost" or
"chief" (Pāli: agga), this is different than his
"Foremost" or "Chief Disciples" (Pāli: aggasavaka) who are
consistently identified solely as Sariputta and Mahamoggallana. In
this article, in order to avoid confusion regarding this use of the
Pāli word agga, the aggasavakas will be referred
to as "Chief Disciples" while those disciples simply referred to as
being agga will be called "foremost" disciples.
- ^
Based on Uppalavanna (n.d.-b).
- ^
Bodhi (2000), p. 688.
- ^
Bodhi (2000), p. 689.
- ^
Uppalavanna (n.d.-a).
- ^
According to AN 1.14, Hatthaka of Alavaka is foremost "to establish
liberality, kind speech, leading an useful life and a state of
equality among the others" (Uppalavanna, n.d.-b).
- ^
According to AN 1.14, Velukandakiya is foremost in jhanic
meditation (Bodhi, 2000, p. 812, n. 329; and, Uppalavanna,
n.d.-b).
- ^
Bodhi (2000), p. 320.
- ^
Indaratana (2002), pp. 7-8.
- ^
From The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to
Enlightment (Lam-Rim Chenmo), Pg.239, Volume One. Snow
Lion Publications. Ithaca, NY.
Bibliography
- Bodhi,
Bhikkhu (trans.) (2000). The Connected Discourses of the
Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya. Boston: Wisdom
Publications. ISBN 0-86171-331-1.
- Bodhi, Bhikkhu (ed.) (2005). In the Buddha's Words: An
Anthology of Discourses from the Pāli Canon.Boston: Wisdom
Pubs. ISBN 0-86171-491-1.
- Buddhaghosa,
Bhadantācariya & Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli (trans.) (1999). The
Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga. Seattle, WA: BPS
Pariyatti Editions. ISBN 1-928706-00-2.
- Nyanaponika Thera, Hellmuth Hecker
& Bhikkhu Bodhi (ed.) (2003). Great Disciples of the
Buddha: Their lives, their works, their legacy. Somerville,
MA: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-381-8.
- Prayudh Payutto (1986). Sangha: The Ideal World
Community. A lecture delivered in January 2529/1986 at the
Fourth International Congress of the World Buddhist Sangha Council,
held at Buddha's Light Vihara, Bangkok. Available on-line at: http://www.saigon.com/~anson/ebud/ebdha062.htm.
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