"Buddha" before the Pali Canon?

nanda chandran vpcnk at HOTMAIL.COM
Tue Sep 19 10:01:36 UTC 2000


>(The argument is always about *when* "the Buddha" died, not about >whether
>or not he is a syncretic construct, built around a variety >of "awakened"
>religious revisionits.)

We also have to remember that Buddha is not referred to only in
Buddhist works. There're numerous non-Buddhist works - popular
literature like the RAmAyanam as well as philosophical works of rival
schools which refer to him. If he never existed, the rival schools
would have lost little time in pointing that out.

And it is not easy to imagine a vibrant and powerful religious force
like Buddhism which almost eclipsed Hinduism in India and also spread
to different parts of the world - with its well defined principles
and teachings - to have risen to such prominence without the guiding
hand of the founder - a religious genius -who firmly set it on its path.

Take also into consideration the distinct nature of  Buddhist philosophy -
the whole system developed from the negative
standpoint of anatta - whoever started it - whether his name was
Gautama or not - is a genius - a "Buddha" without doubt. To say such
a one didn't exist is to condemn as liars a host of great Buddhist
philosophers down the ages who spent a good part of their lives propagating
the teachings of their revered master.

Ofcourse, Gautama on being born - standing up and walking eight steps
and declaring himself to be the savior of the world and VishvAmitra
teaching him the GAyathri mantram might be pure fantasy - but even such
fantasies need a substance to be woven around.

Forget Jesus or the Buddha who lived thousands of years back and nothing
conclusive can be proved - give us an example in the last, say, 500
years - where a movement has gained as much prominence like Buddhism
without a founder - a leader who started the movement. Even for Marxism,
Karl Marx did exist. But maybe, a thousand years from now somebody could
question the histriocity of Marx too!
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com.





More information about the INDOLOGY mailing list