[Wheegiabe]

did the Buddha write any suttas himself, or dictate them with a view

Hi Jan

This kind of reasoning is not really relevant because the Buddha taught a "verification" tradition.

Each day in Theravada, practitioners chant the salient characteristics of the Dhamma, namely:

(LEADER):

Handa mayaṃ dhammābhithutiṃ karoma se:
Now let us give high praise to the Dhamma:

(ALL):

[Yo so svākkhāto] bhagavatā dhammo,
The Dhamma well-expounded by the Blessed One,

Sandiṭṭhiko akāliko ehipassiko,
to be seen here & now, timeless, inviting all to come & see,

Opanayiko paccattaṃ veditabbo viññūhi:
leading inward, to be seen by the wise for themselves:

Tam-ahaṃ dhammaṃ abhipūjayāmi,
Tam-ahaṃ dhammaṃ sirasā namāmi.
I worship most highly that Dhamma,
To that Dhamma I bow my head down.
(BOW DOWN) So my personal dispute with the Prajnaparamita Sutra is it describes a mental state that cannot be sustained. This is known clearly via experience, just as the Buddha-To-Be rejected the state of nothingness as Nibbana.

One cannot live life never perceiving or never describing "the eye", "the ear", "the mind", "form", "suffering", etc.

For example, if I am a doctor, how can I do my job if I do not discriminate or label certain objects as "eye", "eye" "throat", "liver", "heart", "gland", "neurosis", etc.

Also, how can I empathise with a patient who has emotional difficulties, by saying to them: "You are suffering" ?

I personally reject Prajnaparamita Sutra via experience rather than via allegiance.

In this world, in my experience, there is suffering, there is the cessation of suffering, there is the "eye", there is the cessation of the "eye".

The Buddha taught to be beyond "becoming" and "non-becoming", to be beyond "being" and "non-being".

Zen sutras, such as the Hsing Ming Ming also instruct to be beyond "being" and "non-being" but the Prajnaparamita Sutra appears to instruct only "non-being".


Kind regards

E