--- Ong Yong Peng <ypong001@...> wrote:

>
> I understand and share Nina's concern about
> preserving the
> cornerstone of Theravada. However, I think the
> cornerstone of
> Theravada should be the Pali Tipitaka.

Personally, I believe the Pali two-pitaka to be the
most reliable cornerstone of legitimate core buddhist
principles, and even 10-20% of the sutta pitaka I have
doubts about (just doesn't seem to match style and
pragmatic usefulness of majority of sutta pitaka).

the abidhamma (3rd pitaka) got added at the 3rd
council during the asoka period. This was like, 500
years or something after the buddha's death? If
Mahakassapa was so careful not to let any of the
Buddha's most trivial minor things slip thorugh the
cracks from the vinaya pitaka at the first council,
how did he let a whole body of work of abidhamma not
get recorded for posterity?
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

I consider it educational and possibly fruitful to
spend time studying commentaries, subcommentaries,
abidhamma, and some Mahayana works, but as far as
being the reliable word of the buddha, I only trust
80% of the sutta pitaka and take that as my guide.

It really arouses my hindrance of ill will when
"Buddhists" smuggle fabricated suttas into the sutta
pitaka and then claim it's the word of the buddha.
Have a backbone. Get some cajones. Put your own name
on the work and just state it as your own
understanding and contribution to the Buddhist
religion. Just the other day a buddhist family friend
was incredulous that I doubted that the Pure Land
sutra was the authentic word of the buddha.

- fk (not a backslapper, and probably not even part of
any existing nucleus)



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