"Elders, Great Sound-Hearers"

     This passage of the Smaller S�tra on the Land of
Happiness, (the Amit-abha S-utra), continues to establish
the Assembly for whom žkyamuni Buddha spoke the S�tra.
Recent Sanskrit lessons have discussed the immediate
disciples of the Buddha:  mahat bhikŒusa†ghena srdham,
ardhatrayoda�abhir bhikŒu�atair, abhij‰nbhij‰tai‚,
"together with a great Bhiksu community, 1250 Bhiksus,
known for knowledge."   It now continues, sthavirair,
mah�rvakai‚, "Elders, great Sound-Hearers."

    Sthavira, means "elder."  Sthavira-
is the stem, and the word ends in -air in
the text because the preposition srdham, "together
with," governs the dative case which takes this ending.
The root is sth, "to stand."  A Sthavira is one of
standing.  There are basically three kinds of Elders:
the Elder in years, the Elder by blessings and virtue,
and the Dharmanature Elder.  The Elder in years is old
in years and has held the Bhiksu precepts for a long
time.  The Elder by blessings and virtue enjoys the
retribution from virtuous acts performed in past lives.
The Dharmanature Elder may be young, but he thoroughly
understands the Buddhadharma, and speaks with unobstructed
eloquence to teach and transform living beings.

       Mah�rvaka. Mah means "great." It was
thoroughly  discussed in a previous lesson.  A žrvaka
is a Sound-Hearer, someone who hears the sound
of the Buddha speaking Dharma and enlightens to the Way.
The root involved is �r�- "to hear."   žrvaka- is the
stem, and the word with the dative plural case ending is
sravakai‚.  The Bhiksu disciples of hte Buddha are not
only Elders, but also great Sound-Hearers, žrvakas, who
study the four  Noble Truths, i.e. suffering, accumula-
tion, stopping, and the Way.  With the Pratyekabuddhas,
who study the Twelve Links of Conditioned Co-production,
they constitute the Hƒnayna (hƒna "lesser," yna
"vehicle").  Three great žrvakas however are all
great Bodhisattvas of the Mahyna (the Great Vehicle),
manifesting provisionally with limited understanding in
order to help žkyamuni Buddha establish the Dharma.