ĀNANDA - A Guide to Buddhism A to Z

Ānanda was the son of the Buddha’s uncle Amitodana. For the last 35 years of the Buddha’s he was his personal attendant and was also the most widely loved of all his disciples. If Sāriputta personified wisdom and Moggallāna personified psychic ability, then Ānanda certainly personified kindness, gentleness, warmth and love. The Buddha praised him for his ‘acts of love through body, through speech and through mind’ (D.II,144), meaning that he was always ready to lend a helping hand, that he always spoke kindly to people and that he always thought well of others. The Buddha even said that he shared some of the very qualities that he himself had – that people were delighted to see him, that they were delighted when he taught the Dhamma and they were disappointed when he finished speaking (D.II,145). Ānanda had a crucial role in the First Council. Having spent so many years close to the Buddha and remembering many of his discourses, he recited them during the council so that the other participants could commit them to memory and pass them down. It is with Ānanda’s words, ‘Thus have I heard’ (Evaṃ me sutaṃ...), that most suttas begin.

Great Disciples of the Buddha, Nyanaponika Thera and Hellmuth Hecker,1997.