Dear Nich, Robert K and all

How are you?

Nich wrote:

"surely one should seek out the most reliable parts of the canon as
a basis for practice?"

You ought to have writen as follows.

"surely one should seek out what one find to be the most accessible
and understandable parts of the canon as a basis for practice?"

If you are not an Arahant, any act of judging which parts of the
canon are reliable or not is merely speculative at best and
meaningless at worst.

The five hundred powerful Arahants headed by Mahaa Kassapa who
organized the First Congress Recital (Pathama Sangiiti) accepted and
preserved each and every part of the Pali Tipi.taka as reliable
teachings of the Buddha and his Ariya Disciples.


Best wishes,

Suan Lu Zaw

www.bodhiology.org

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "Nich" <puthujjano@...> wrote:

Dear Robert,

> Not sure what Jesus has to do with it?

< >

For this reason, if no other, I'm not really interested in believing
or
disbelieving anything in the Canon, but this doesn't mean that one
might
want wise advice as to the relative merits of different parts, just
as one
should seek out the company of the wise, surely one should seek out
the most
reliable parts of the canon as a basis for practice?

Regards, nich