DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Where do you stand on the historicity of the Mahayana suttas?

**Intory** · 09-16-2010, 08:48 AM

Hello y'all:
FBM:
There's two ways I would answer your question. The first is the Four Reliances:

“Do not rely on individuals, rely on the teachings.
Do not rely on the words, rely on the meaning.
Do not rely on the adapted meaning, rely on the ultimate meaning.
Do not rely on intellectual knowledge, rely on wisdom.”

The other factor is how you define the relationship between historicity and truth. If a particular Mahayana/Vajrayana sutra is proven to be written after the time of the Buddha, do the Buddhist teachings contained within the sutra become automatically invalid? Can the teachings still be useful, valuable, as a part of the continuum of Buddhist thought? Here's an interesting article I ran across the other day:

http://www.tricycle.com/feature/budd...-practitioners

Good luck to you, FBM, on your inquiries.
Metta to all,
Bill

09-16-2010, 08:48 AM	#6
Intory Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 457 Senior Member	Hello y'all: FBM: There's two ways I would answer your question. The first is the Four Reliances: “Do not rely on individuals, rely on the teachings. Do not rely on the words, rely on the meaning. Do not rely on the adapted meaning, rely on the ultimate meaning. Do not rely on intellectual knowledge, rely on wisdom.” The other factor is how you define the relationship between historicity and truth. If a particular Mahayana/Vajrayana sutra is proven to be written after the time of the Buddha, do the Buddhist teachings contained within the sutra become automatically invalid? Can the teachings still be useful, valuable, as a part of the continuum of Buddhist thought? Here's an interesting article I ran across the other day: http://www.tricycle.com/feature/budd...-practitioners Good luck to you, FBM, on your inquiries. Metta to all, Bill
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