法苑珠林 25.6

25.6

As the Fenbie Gongde Lun states: The reason why the Tathāgata broadly pronounced each of the fourfold assembly to be foremost was that, within the bequeathed Dharma of the future, the renunciants of the four castes would have different understandings, contending over right and wrong, claiming themselves to be superior and others to be inferior. Persons of this sort would be beyond count. Therefore, he guarded against this beforehand, opening a path for them to be self-sufficient. Just as among radiances the sun is the foremost, among constellations the moon is the foremost, among flowing streams the ocean is the foremost, among the six desire heavens Pāpīyas is the foremost, among the eighteen heavens of the form realm the Śuddhāvāsa is the foremost, among the ninety-six schools the Śākya Saṃgha is the foremost, and among the ninety-six paths the Buddhist path is the foremost; likewise, among the five hundred śrāvaka disciples, their spiritual insights were distinct and cannot be enumerated in full (ten or twenty are briefly listed here, the rest being too numerous to include, being found in full in the comprehensive text).