Dear Stephen,
I want to give some of the commentary to the Parinibbana sutta from
which I took the quote in my last post. This was given by Sarah on
dhammastudygroup.
We read in the Parinibbana Sutta about Subhadda, the recently
ordained
elderly bhikkhu's joy on hearing the news about the Buddha's
parinibbana,
having `conceived hostility towards the Blessed One'.
From the commentary to the Parinibbana Sutta, we read about
MahaKassapa's concern for the preservation of the Dhamma:
" `In the teaching which the Blessed One established with effort, a
thorn
has so quickly become a major evil defect. This wicked man is indeed
capable of growing and acquiring other companions like himself and so
causing the teaching to disappear.........As flowers blown by the
wind
scatter here and there, so by the influence of people like this, as
time
passes, a rule of training or two will be lost from the Vinaya. A
question or two will be lost from the Sutta; a difference between
stages
or two will be lost from the Abhidhamma, so in due course, when the
root
[basic text] is destroyed, we will become like demons. Therefore I
will
have the Dhamma and Vinaya recited. When it is done, this Dhamma and
Vinaya will be immovable like the flowers tied together by strong
string.
It is for this reason that the Blessed One walked three leagues to
meet me
[see Ja 469]: gave me the ordination with three homilies [see SN11
220];
gave me his own robe from his body in exchange; talked about the
path
through a simile of the moon, by waving his hand in the sky, and
made me
realise the truth; gave the jewel of the whole teaching three times.
While monks like me remain alive, let this evil man not prosper
within our
doctrine.
I will have both the Dhamma and the Vinaya rehearsed before what is
not
Dhamma shines out and Dhamma is kept out, before those who speak
what is
not Dhamma become strong and those who speak Dhamma become feeble,
before
those who speak what is not Vinaya become strong and those who speak
Vinaya become feeble. Then monks, each memorising what he is capable
of
himself, will tell what is legitimate from what is not legitimate.
Then
this evil man will by himself incur censure and will not be able to
hold
up his head again....'" <end quote>
.....
Earlier we read in the sutta itself (ch4), that the Buddha addresses
the
bhikkhus, encouraging them to check whether what they hear is in
conformity with the Discourses and Discipline and about the four
great
references to be preserved. There is a lot of detail in the
commentary,
but I'll just add one paragraph here:
"But in the list [of four things] beginning with sutta, sutta means
the
three baskets which the three Councils recited. `Accordance with
sutta'
means legitimate by being in accord [with what is explicitly
legitimate].
`The word of a teacher' means the commentary. `One's own opinion'
means
one's own illumination through grasping an analogy or one's
consequent
understanding. Of these, sutta should not be rejected, for he who
rejects
that rejects the Buddha himself. If what is legitimate by being in
accord
agrees with the sutta, it should be accepted, but otherwise not. If
the
word of a teacher agrees with the sutta, it should be accepted, but
otherwise not.
One's own opinion is weakest of all, but if it agrees with the
sutta, it
should be accepted, but otherwise not. `The three Councils' are the
one
of five hundred monks, the one of seven hundred, the one of a
thousand.
Only a sutta transmitted through them is authoritative; any other is
a
contemptible sutta, not to be accepted. Even though words and
syllables
appear in the latter, they should be known `as ones which do not
appear in
the Sutta, are not found in the Vinaya.' "<end quote>
*****