Fwd: RE: [Triplegem] Re: Duration of sasana

--- In Triplegem@..., Ong Teng Kee <ongtkee@...> wrote:
Dear Marlon,
I like give a view by a Myanmar monk who is teaching
in buddhist U. I got this view last year in Yangon.The
Buddha in Vinaya pitaka is correct for saying the true
dhamma will last for 500 years if we put it to mean
first 500 years will be arahant only but not after
that. For the next 500 years will be sakadagami,anagami
and sotapanna.This theory will be the same with
anguttara com in first nipata which said adhigamma
(attainment )period will only last 1000 years but not
after that.
That monk said the 8 garu dhamma  will not have much
change for the attainment of monks.




--- Ranjith Pushpakumara
<ranjith.pushpakumara@...> wrote:
> Dear Marlon,
>
> It is a very interesting question. Here is my
> immediate thoughts.
>
> Question:
>
> The Lord Buddha declared that his Religion would
> last 1,000 years if
> no nuns were admitted, but only 500 years if they
> were.
> What If the Master Lord Buddha was correct in saying
> so?
> Could this already have come to pass that Buddhism
> as Lord
> Buddha "Knew it" has ceased to exist and in its
> place a variant which
> in "His" perception is not His Dhamma -Vinaya.
>
> Answer:
>
> Let us look at the today's quality of the human
> life. And compare it with
> what is found in the Sila (Moral) of the Dhamma. It
> is very clear that the
> difference is greater than the distance between two
> world systems.
>
> During the time of Buddha, it says that there were
> 62 different religions
> were in practice in India alone. It only took few
> days after the Parinibbana
> of Buddha for the Bhikku Subadda to put forward his
> 'own theory'. This
> motion itself resulted in the First Council just
> after three months of the
> Parinibbana.
>
> Today, we are living in the world 2545 years after
> Parinibbana.
>
> The Dhamma travelled a period of about 400 years
> before being put into
> books. I do not believe that the Dhamma got
> distorted during the travel as
> those Monks of the time used 16 different
> "check-sum" methods (similar to
> some of error detection methods used in the modern
> computer data
> communication systems)to ensure the accuracy of the
> material being received
> from another person.
>
> However, the Dhamma written in the Tipitaka is in
> extremely advanced form
> and were not understood to most of the community
> without several
> simplifications. That is where 'Atuwa' and 'Tika'
> play their roles.
>
> According to my personal knowledge, none of those
> Atuwa and Tika were
> written by Noble Beings. They were all done by
> highly educated puthajjana
> Bhikkus of the time (please correct me if I am wrong
> here).
>
> To add to the complexity of the issue, language,
> environment, culture,
> lifestyle and several other factors common to the
> time around 2000 years ago
> might have influenced the outcome of some of the
> 'interpretations' to the
> original Dhamma.
>
> If we try to analyse some of those matters found in
> those interpretations
> which was influenced by those factors, we will
> certainly either go in wrong
> directions or will be stopped in front of big brick
> walls.
>
> On the other hand, if we look at fundamentals of
> Dhamma, such as Four Noble
> Truths, Dependent Origination and the true nature of
> the world
> (Impermanence, Suffering and Soul-lessness), we can
> not find any conflicts
> in them with our current knowledge and the logics of
> the mundane mind.
>
> Let us try to penetrate into the core of the Dhamma
> which is mentioned
> above, by removing the outer shell which is now full
> of rust and also
> subjected to heavy erosion!!
>
> Regarding Buddha's attitude towards Women;
>
> I believe most of the fabrications we find now are
> merely 'theories' of
> people who either didn't understand the fact or
> tried to mislead the rest.
>
> We do not have any examples to claim that the Buddha
> has done anything
> discriminating women. Despite the story itself, the
> Buddha allowed women
> into the Sasana. Not only that, he provide all the
> support required for them
> to attain Nibbana. The Buddha never said that women
> are any less than men in
> any way.
>
> Let us consider few examples now. Few months after
> the enlightenment, Buddha
> visited his lay family members to help them to get
> away from their blind
> faiths and realise Dhamma. He acknowledge the
> commitment and dedication by
> Yasodhara and explained Dhamma after visiting her
> personal room.
>
> At the time of Parinibbana of Prajapathie Gothamee,
> Buddha followed her for
> several steps as a respect to his step-mother before
> the enlightenment.
>
> The Buddha helped the Bhikkuni who were pregnant
> with the boy Kumara Kassapa
> to clear her name and to prove to the blind crowd
> that the Bikkuni had
> conceived the child prior to admitting to the
> Sasana.
>
>
> These are only very few examples to show how Buddha
> treated women with equal
> respect.
>
> Regarding numbers found in various materials, I too
> had questions in the
> past, but after a while, I realised that Buddha
> sometimes had to use
> 'something' to direct a person in the right path.
> Since his idea was showing
> someone the right path, we should not dwell in the
> mechanism he used to
> match the situation. It will be a waste our valuable
> time available to
> concentrate on watching our own minds.
>
> Considering all above, I wouldn't hesitate to ignore
> some statements found
> in materials that comes as 'interpretation of
> translations and
> transformations'.
>
> It doesn't matter if Buddha said it or not, that
> would never interfere with
> your path to purification of the mind.
>
>
> Regards
>
> Ranjith Pushpakumara
> Tel: 03 - 9483 7577
>
>
>
>
>
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