“The Buddha said
to Ananda, ‘The number of Sravakas at the first teaching assembly of that Buddha was
incalculable;
so was the number of Bodhisattvas. Even if an immeasurable and
countless number of humans multiplied by millions of koṭis should all become like Mahamaudgalyayana and
together reckon their number during innumerable nayutas of kalpas, or even until
they attain Nirvana, they still could not know that number. Let us suppose that
there is a great ocean, infinitely deep and wide, and that one takes a drop of
water out of it with a one-hundredth part of a split hair. How would you
compare that drop of water with the rest of the ocean?’
Ananda replied,
‘When the drop of water is compared with the great ocean, it is impossible even
for one skilled in astronomy or mathematics to know the proportion, or for
anyone to describe it by any rhetorical or metaphorical expression.’
The Buddha said
to Ananda, ‘Even if people like
Mahamaudgalyayana were to count for millions of koṭis of kalpas, the number of
the Sravakas and Bodhisattvas at the first teaching assembly
who could be counted would be like a drop of water, and the number of sages yet
to be counted would be like the rest of the ocean.’”