Comments on: Who’s who in Buddhism, part 6: the Sutra Audience http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2010/07/25/whos-who-in-buddhism-part-six-the-sutra-audience/ My life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile. Sat, 11 Jun 2011 01:53:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Ashin Sopāka http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2010/07/25/whos-who-in-buddhism-part-six-the-sutra-audience/#comment-4372 Ashin Sopāka Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:15:31 +0000 https://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/?p=7590#comment-4372 [NB: short Theravāda version here, some details are omitted; I believe Mahāyāna holds that the first council happened at a later date and perhaps with different proceedings, in any case...] Following the parinibbāna of the Buddha, a monk named Subbhada complained about all the rules that had to be followed, and now that the Buddha had left the saṁsāric coil, he felt they should be loosened. Mahākassapa, fearing a schism and corruption of the teachings, called the first council to be held three months after the parinibbāna. The Buddha's cousin and erstwhile attendant, Ānanda Thera, having been at all of the discourses and apparently endowed with a prodigious memory, was called upon to recite all the teachings (suttā). Another arahat, Upāli, recited the Vinaya. At the beginning of each recitation, he said "Thus have I heard" (evaṁ me suttaṁ). This is significant in a few ways: 1. the Suttas are not to be taken as "Minutes of Meeting" that were transcribed as the discourses were given; 2. although the 499 other arahats in attendance gave their unanimous approval that these were in fact the words of the Buddha, they were still nevertheless recollections by Ānanda; 3. they were not divinely inspired/transmitted, and thus, perhaps, not to be taken as dogmatic, inflexible words, like the contemporaneous Vedic texts (and the Bible!), which are considered divinely inspired and created. I guess the point is that while it does indeed point out the oral tradition of early Dhamma transmission, "thus have I heard" should be understood to be a very specific reference to Ānanda, the original reciter of the Suttā, and not any given teacher teaching at any given point in time. [NB: short Theravāda version here, some details are omitted; I believe Mahāyāna holds that the first council happened at a later date and perhaps with different proceedings, in any case...] Following the parinibbāna of the Buddha, a monk named Subbhada complained about all the rules that had to be followed, and now that the Buddha had left the saṁsāric coil, he felt they should be loosened. Mahākassapa, fearing a schism and corruption of the teachings, called the first council to be held three months after the parinibbāna. The Buddha’s cousin and erstwhile attendant, Ānanda Thera, having been at all of the discourses and apparently endowed with a prodigious memory, was called upon to recite all the teachings (suttā). Another arahat, Upāli, recited the Vinaya. At the beginning of each recitation, he said “Thus have I heard” (evaṁ me suttaṁ). This is significant in a few ways: 1. the Suttas are not to be taken as “Minutes of Meeting” that were transcribed as the discourses were given; 2. although the 499 other arahats in attendance gave their unanimous approval that these were in fact the words of the Buddha, they were still nevertheless recollections by Ānanda; 3. they were not divinely inspired/transmitted, and thus, perhaps, not to be taken as dogmatic, inflexible words, like the contemporaneous Vedic texts (and the Bible!), which are considered divinely inspired and created.

I guess the point is that while it does indeed point out the oral tradition of early Dhamma transmission, “thus have I heard” should be understood to be a very specific reference to Ānanda, the original reciter of the Suttā, and not any given teacher teaching at any given point in time.

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