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**teentodiefows** · 11-23-2011, 03:15 AM

It is my opinion that Shakyamuni Buddha did not teach much of what is known as Mahayana Buddhism.........

This is what Ajahn Sujato, abbot of a monastery in Australia has to say:

Is the Lotus Sutra authentic?

"One of our commenters asked about whether the Lotus Sutra was considered authentic according to the Theravadin view.

To answer this from the traditional Theravadin point of view, all the Mahayana Sutras are inauthentic in the sense that they were not spoken by the Buddha. Historically, Theravada has tended to take a dim view of Mahayana, regarding it as a mere degeneration of the pure teachings.

That the Lotus Sutra and other Mahayana Sutras were not spoken by the Buddha is unanimously supported by modern scholarship. I don’t know of a single academic in the last 150 years who has argued otherwise. The basic historical background is given in Wikipedia. The upshot is that the Lotus Sutra was composed over a period of time, or in a number of stages. The oldest sources probably stem from a little before the common era, and it was finalized around 200 CE. This makes it one of the earliest Mahayana Sutras (and it is even argued that the earliest form of the sutra may not have even been Mahayana).

So there is no doubt that the Lotus Suta and other Mahayana sutras are historically late, dating from many centuries after the Buddha."

Continued at the link below:

http://sujato.wordpress.com/2011/10/...tra-authentic/

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11-23-2011, 03:15 AM	#19
teentodiefows Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 558 Senior Member	It is my opinion that Shakyamuni Buddha did not teach much of what is known as Mahayana Buddhism......... This is what Ajahn Sujato, abbot of a monastery in Australia has to say: Is the Lotus Sutra authentic? "One of our commenters asked about whether the Lotus Sutra was considered authentic according to the Theravadin view. To answer this from the traditional Theravadin point of view, all the Mahayana Sutras are inauthentic in the sense that they were not spoken by the Buddha. Historically, Theravada has tended to take a dim view of Mahayana, regarding it as a mere degeneration of the pure teachings. That the Lotus Sutra and other Mahayana Sutras were not spoken by the Buddha is unanimously supported by modern scholarship. I don’t know of a single academic in the last 150 years who has argued otherwise. The basic historical background is given in Wikipedia. The upshot is that the Lotus Sutra was composed over a period of time, or in a number of stages. The oldest sources probably stem from a little before the common era, and it was finalized around 200 CE. This makes it one of the earliest Mahayana Sutras (and it is even argued that the earliest form of the sutra may not have even been Mahayana). So there is no doubt that the Lotus Suta and other Mahayana sutras are historically late, dating from many centuries after the Buddha." Continued at the link below: http://sujato.wordpress.com/2011/10/...tra-authentic/ .
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