Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Who were Buddha's early disciples?

After Buddha's enlightenment, Yasa was the Buddha's first disciple, he attained arahantship and received higher ordination directly from the Buddha and became a Bhikkhu. Yasa was a millionaire’s son living at Benares, he had abundant material wealth.

Yasa's father was the first layman in the world to have taken refuge in the Triple Gem.

Yasa’s mother and former wife were the Buddha’s first female lay followers.

Four of Yasa’s close friends; Vimala, Subahu, Punnaji and Gavampati also became monks and attained arahantship

Then later fifty of Yasa’s friends joined the order and attained arahantship.

Together with the five monks ( Kondanna, Vappa, Bhaddiya, Mahanama, Assaji)  there were 61 arahants ( 1 + 5 + 1 + 4 + 50 = 61) within 2 months of Buddha's enlightenment.