Dr Oo, you seem to be under a bit of a misapprehension - i came onto
the group in order to learn, not to teach, and have indeed learnt
much. Since we all benefit from the kindeness of others in sharing
their great wisdom, we should show gratitude by sharing what little
we have. I'm doing a retreat in Singapore about April next year, and
will probably visit Penang around the same time - i trust you're all
flourishing in the Dhamma.
Junet, yes i did give a talk on the structure of the Buddha's
teachings, and published a book on the topic called The GIST. Alas,
it's already out-of-date and revisions are underway. I think that
certain ideas pursued by Ven Yin Shun and others are leading to one
of the great breakthroughs that Gombrich talked about in his book.
To sum up briefly: the large scale structure of the Dhamma (textual
teachings) in its earliest redaction was modelled after the
structure of the Dhamma (truth of reality) itself, the 4 noble
truths. This is approximately what we today call the Samyutta
Nikaya/Agama. I started pursuing such matters almost by accident,
and the significance of it is only just starting to become clear to
me.
It also is true, as Gombrich said, that it is rather a shame that
practicing Buddhists remain unaware of some of the genuine advances
made by modern scholarship - there's a slightly schizophrenic schism
between the two that i would like to try to bridge. We need not
fear, for we are not attacking the principles, but trying to clarify
the manner in which the message has been passed down.
Got to go. The Sravakabhumi manuscript just arrived by post and
demands urgent sttention!