This kind of self-serving justification story has been used by many Buddhist traditions over the years (e.g. the Mahayana "Naga realms" story, the Zen story of Maha-Kassapa silently holding a lotus to teach the Dharma, Vajrayana stories about the Buddha teaching Tantra to those who were in the know) in an attempt to legitimize their own original creations by falsely tracing them back to the Buddha and members of the early Sangha.