法華玄贊義決 1.92

1.92

若爾，《入大乘論》云：阿難持法不盡明，二十年前皆悉不持。又引《中阿含》說：釋提桓因語欝多羅言，尊者！我得他心，觀閻浮提一切眾生，無有盡能受持佛法，唯除尊者，餘不能了。以是因緣當知阿難非悉能持。又《首楞嚴經》中佛為淨日藏天子說：阿難所持小不足言，不受持者，乃有無量。乃至廣云復滿十方微塵世界，皆如阿難不能盡持，亦復如是。

If so, the Mahāyānāvatāra states: "Ānanda did not retain the teachings completely; he did not retain anything before twenty years [of the Buddha's ministry]." It also cites the Madhyama-āgama: "Śakra Devānām-Indra said to Uttara: 'Venerable One! Having acquired knowledge of others' minds, I observe that of all sentient beings in Jambudvīpa, none is capable of completely receiving and holding the Buddha's Dharma, with the sole exception of the Venerable One; others are incapable of fully understanding it.' By this circumstance, one should know that Ānanda was not able to retain everything." Furthermore, in the Śūraṅgama-sūtra, the Buddha spoke to the deva-putra Śuddhasūryagarbha: "What Ānanda has retained is minor and not worth mentioning; that which he has not received or retained is boundless." And it further elaborates that even if the dust-mote worlds of the ten directions were filled with those like Ānanda, none could completely retain it all, and it is likewise so.