Dear Jou,
I completely agree with what you say:
<The Buddha taught us to lay teachings that are claimed to be his beside the

> teachings in the Dhamma/Vinaya and compare meaning with meaning. >

Yes, we have to keep on comparing the Vinaya, the Suttanta and the
Abhidhamma, these three.
And then there are the Commentaries, our great Commentator Buddhaghosa. The
more I read of him, the Visuddhimagga included, the more I appreciate. While
reading one can see how much his writings help. Historical arguments won't
help to convince others, but reading it ourselves. I cannot get enough of
reading in the Commentaries about the dhaatus, the khandhas, the aayatanas.
No contradictions with the Tipitaka, the commentaries are very necessary for
the understanding of the Tipitaka. Also the Pa.tisambhidhaamagga I highly
value: like the Visuddhimagga all the stages of vipassana are explained
here. The whole book is about the development of pa~n~naa.
I am not a scholar, just a beginning student. But I am delighted to read
even a few lines of Commentary and next to it subcommentary in Pali, even
stumbling along. By reading the Pali I find one can prove to oneself the
value of the Commentaries for the understanding of the Suttas. Today I was
reading part of the Co to the Satipatthana sutta:this is first Ven. Soma's
translation:
<"In this world." In just this body. Here the body [kaya] is the world
[loka], in the sense of a thing crumbling.
As covetousness and grief are abandoned in feeling, consciousness, and
mental objects, too, the Vibhanga says: "Even the five aggregates of
clinging are the world.">

N:It crumbles away: lujjanapalujjana.t.thena, in the sense of crumbling
away. I remember Samyutta Nikaaya, Salaayatanavagga, Kindred Sayings on
Sense, Ch 3, §82: The world. It crumbles away. What crumbles away: the
eye... objects... eye-consciousness...
We see, that the Co completely agrees with the Sutta, and contains valuable
reminders of the Truth, even a few lines.
Very meaningful: when the whole is taken apart by pa~n~naa, dissolved into
elements, realities can be seen as they are. As you also know there is a
word association between lujjati and loko. We can begin now: whatever
appears can be object of awareness. That is satipatthana.
And my question is always: how do the Tipitaka and the commentaries help me
to understand the dhamma appearing at this moment? Thus, as you stressed
before, in the last instance we have to decide for ourselves what is true.
As you so rightly say:
<So it involves taking the

> Buddha as the Teacher and avoids reliance on others (Take yourself as a
> refuge, take the Process -Dhamma- as a refuge).>

Nina.
op 20-11-2002 22:30 schreef Jou Smith op josmith.1@...:

> The Buddha taught us to lay teachings that are claimed to be his beside the
> teachings in the Dhamma/Vinaya and compare meaning with meaning.