And I, O mendicants, am a Buddha, clear in insight, as those who have gone before."[1]
Then, seated on the place prepared for him, and surrounded by myriads of angels, he addressed the five attendant elders, just as the moon was passing out of conjunction with the lunar mansion in June, and taught them in that discourse which was The Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness.
Of the five Elders, Kondanya the Believer[2] gained in knowledge as the discourse went on; and as it concluded, he, with myriads of angels, had arrived at the Fruit of the First Path.[3] And the Master, who remained there for the rainy season, sat in the wihāra the next day, when the other four had gone a-begging, talking to Vappa: and Vappa that morning attained to the Fruit of the First Path. And, in a similar manner, Bhaddiya on the next day, and Mahā Nāma on the next, and Assaji on the next, attained to the Fruit of the First Path. And, on the fifth day, he called all five to his side, and preached to them the discourse On the Non-existence of the Soul; and at the end of that discourse all the five elders attained to Nirvāna.
Then the Master perceived that Yasa, a young man of good family, was capable of entering the Paths. And at night-time, as he was going away, having left his home in weariness of the world, the Master called him, saying, "Follow me, Yasa!" and on that very night he attained to the Fruit of the First Path, and on the next day to Arahatship. And He received also the other fifty-four, his companions, into the order, with the formula, "Follow me!" and caused them to attain to Arahatship.
Now when there were thus in the world sixty-one persons who had become Arahats, the Master, after the rainy season
