Hi, Kusala,Kusala wrote:The Buddha warned that a "counterfeit Dhamma" will eventually take over... http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.htmlKim OHara wrote:Hi, everyone,
This difference is another version of a difference of views about Buddhism that I have mentioned in other threads. That is,
(1) If Buddhism is a Revealed Religion then the Words of its Founder are the primary source of all Wisdom, and any later additions are mere commentaries at best, heresies at worst.
(2) If Buddhism is a field of study (like medicine, anthropology or literature) then the words of its founder are important but it is expected that each generation will build on them, add to them, improve them and eventually supersede them.
That way of framing the two models is exaggeratedly polarised, of course, but I think we need to work where we sit on the spectrum between them. (I lost control of my metaphors in there! Drat! )
Kim
I know about that and acknowledge the possibility of going off the path is always present. However, did he tell us not to develop the dhamma? Did he tell us not to add to it, not to re-interpret it?
Those are genuine questions, btw, not rhetorical ones: I don't know the answers ... except that no-one has ever pointed out to me any such passage in the suttas and I think someone would have done so by now if they could have done so.
Kim