Śrāvaka

Śrāvaka (Sanskrit) or Sāvaka (Pali) means "hearer" or, more generally, "disciple". This term is used in Buddhism and Jainism. In Jainism, a śrāvaka is any lay Jain so the term śrāvaka has been used for the Jain community itself (for example see Sarak and Sarawagi). Śrāvakācāras are the lay conduct outlined within the treaties by Śvetāmbara or Digambara mendicants. "In parallel to the prescriptive texts, Jain religious teachers have written a number of stories to illustrate vows in practice and produced a rich répertoire of characters.". In Buddhism, the term is sometimes reserved for distinguished disciples of the Buddha. The ten principal disciples In early Buddhism, a śrāvaka or śrāvikā is a disciple who accepts: the Buddha as their teacher the Buddha's teaching (the Dhamma), including understanding the Four Noble Truths, ridding oneself of the unreality of the phenomenal, and pursuing nirvana. See, for instance, the Anguttara Nikayas second Metta Sutta (AN 4.126) when, taken in consideration of the first "Metta Sutta" (AN 4.125), a disciple is described as one who "regards whatever phenomena there that are connected with form, feeling, perception, fabrications, & consciousness, as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a disintegration, an emptiness, not-self." the community rules of conduct: the Five Precepts for laypersons, the prātimokṣa for monastics. In the Nikāya, depending on the context, a sāvaka can also refer to a disciple of a teacher other than the Buddha. In Theravada Buddhism, a śrāvaka or śrāvikāt refers to one who followed in the tradition of the senior monks of the first Buddhist sangha and community. In the Pāli Canon, the term "disciple" transcends monastic-lay divisions and can refer to anyone from the following "four assemblies": bhikkhus ("monks") s ("nuns") upāsakas and upāsikā (laypersons of both sexes) Buddhist texts further mention four types of disciples based on spiritual accomplishment: "Chief Disciple" (Pāli: aggasāvaka; Sanskrit: agraśrāvaka): in the Pali canon, these are Sāriputta and (Mahā)moggallāna "Foremost Disciple" (Pāli: etadaggasāvaka; Sanskrit: etadagraśrāvaka): referring to those disciples who are recognized as the best in their respective attribute "Great Disciple" (Pāli: mahāsāvaka; Sanskrit: mahāśrāvaka): examples are Mahākassapa, Ānanda, Anuruddha and Mahākaccāna.