Words of the Buddha · 6th–5th century BCE
Ananda
Keeper of the Buddha's word · the Pali Canon · Suttas opening with the words "thus have I heard"
The one who for twenty-five years stayed close and remembered every word, so that it might reach you.
The essence of the teaching: The teaching is kept not in stone, but in living memory and in friendship. Good companionship is not half of the path, the Buddha told Ananda, but the whole of the path entire.
Transmission
Ananda was the Buddha's cousin and his personal attendant for twenty-five years. He had a rare memory – he held in it thousands of discourses, and almost every sutta begins with his words: thus have I heard. When the Buddha was passing away, it was Ananda who wept at his bedside, not yet free himself. The teacher consoled him: all that is born must pass; do not grieve. And he added that Ananda would come to freedom soon. After the Buddha's passing the elders gathered, and Ananda restored the whole teaching from memory, word for word. Without him almost nothing would have come down to us.
The full transmission — for members of the School. Here is its essence and its taste.
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