Hi, Khaik-Cheang Oo,

> something I read about a commentary made by Mrs.
> Rhys-Davis (I don't remember where I read it) that the Buddha did
> not
> teach the Four Noble Truths!

Yes, I think I read that somewhere too. Apparently Mrs Rhys Davids'
work must be read with some caution!

> I would like
> to ask whether it is necessary that all suttas must necessarily
> follow chronologically through examination of the linguistic and
> metrical analysis?

Well, as a matter of the laws of space and time, I think that
historically they must have been delivered in a some definite
chronological order.

As for the question of whether linguistic and metrical analysis can
ever reveal that order, I think probably not, though I do think that
these methods can shed some light on the possibilities and the
probabilities.

But I'm only a beginner, and an amateur at that. I'm sure
professional scholars could answer that question much better than I
could. In any case, I do believe that it would take hundreds and
hundreds of pages of analysis to come to any satisfactory conclusion.

> I have always accepted that the first sutta
> taught by the Buddha was the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta and the
> second the Anatta-lakkhana Sutta.

That may well be true. As I said, the other possibility is that these
basic doctrines were inserted into the accounts of the Buddha's
reunion with the five ascetics. But if it IS true that the Buddha
taught the N8FP and the 4NT and the three marks right from the word
go, then the problem is, how do we fit the A.t.thaka Vagga into the
chronology?

> In fact, my saddha that the Buddha
> was truly enlightened includes the fact that everything else that
> follows in all the Nikayas never contradict the substance of the
> first sutta, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta.

Well, that's one view -- the "system" view, if you like.

Another view is that Buddha taught different things to different
people, depending on the situation and on their level of
understanding. If you put all those teachings together, you would not
necessarily be able to build a "system" out of them. So that's
another view.

Derek.