Intro to 'Wings...'

[christopher:::]

Yes, the Dhamma certainly is timeless.

The Buddha is cool.

I've never really understood the compulsion to twist and tweak the Dhamma to accommodate regional ignorances, superstitions and prejudices (and I'm talking equally here about the so-called "West" as I am the so-called "East"). The Dhamma points directly to the proximite causes of suffering and these remain unchanged. If the illness is the same, the cure remains the same.

I agree, Retro. In many cases i think it's simply ignorance, a lack of understanding, depth of experience and practice, perhaps. Passing the Dhamma on as it has been taught in your school or by your teachers, rather then taking some initiative and investigating further.

Sometimes a mistaken emphasis occurs, such as a former forum we once belonged to where there seemed to be an over-emphasis made on certain teachings (karma, rebirth, dependent origination) rather then on the Dharma as a whole, as an interconnected package...

Perhaps?

[jcsuperstar]

LP Buddhadasa said in teaching the dhamma we should be both conservative and radical. conservative in that we don't stray from or change the dhamma, radical in the methods we use to get new listeners, cultures to learn it, understand it.







p.s. i like ajahn thanissaro, the more i study the more i feel at home in the thai forest tradition.

[Kim OHara]

That is a good point about this list representing the most important teachings. In several threads here and in other forums, people often ask "what are the most essential teachings?" or "what are the most important Suttas?" And here we have the Buddha's own favorite list in the 37 factors of enlightenment.

It turns up in an important list of the beliefs unifying Theravada and Mahayana, too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Poin ... e_Mahayana


Kim

[christopher:::]

It turns up in an important list of the beliefs unifying Theravada and Mahayana, too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Poin ... e_Mahayana

Thanks for that, Kim.