There are a large volume of Buddhist texts handed down to us in different languages. At times there can be confusion as to their meaning. So it is a good idea to practise some critical thinking when reading them. Not all of what is passed down to us is what the Buddha said, some texts were added later, attributing things to the Buddha that were fabricated many years after the Buddha’s passing.
So how does one work out what the Buddha actually taught? The way I do it is to look for things that get repeated many times in the texts. When the same themes and teachings crop up over and over I feel fairly certain that these are things that were practised by the early Buddhists and what the Buddha taught. Such as the four noble truths, the noble eightfold path, dependent origination, kamma, the five aggregates of clinging, the six sense fields, virtue, the brahma viharas, the four right efforts, the five hindrances, the seven factors of awakening, the four foundations of mindfulness, mindfulness of breathing, jhana, and the stages of enlightenment. These dhamma themes pop up over and over throughout the texts.
The other thing that adds to that surety that these topics are what the Buddha taught is there are some parallel texts in the Mahayana school known as the Agamas, which were developed separately from the Pali canon, they were brought over to China from India and formed the foundation for Chan Buddhism. Many of those same dhamma teachings are repeated almost exactly word for word in the agamas. The same is true for many of the Tibetan texts, and recently some more texts from a forgotten Buddhist school in a language known as Gandhari are currently being translated and I imagine the same repeated dhamma themes are in those as well.
My thoughts are that these parallels indicate that these different texts come originally from the same source before Buddhism split into different schools. Perhaps they can be traced right back to the first Buddhist council that took place shortly after the Buddha’s passing to consolidate his teachings and preserve them for posterity.
Interestingly, there are some texts in the Pali Nikayas that are not in the agamas, which makes me think these were added to the Pali canon later, some time after the first council took place.
So even with the Pali texts which are thought to be the closest to early Buddhism, one should use critical thinking, as not everything in the Pali canon is what the Buddha said.
Things were often added later, sometimes for political reasons, sometimes for patriarchal reasons, sometimes for cultural reasons, sometimes to make things clearer or as commentaries and useful summaries, and sometimes to add new ideas that the curators thought added value.
I tend to go with the repetitive dhamma themes and parallels I find in all the texts of the different Buddhist schools. As these are I feel the core teachings of the Buddha and what he actually taught.
It doesn't mean that what was added later doesn't have any value, it's just the sheer number of texts and teachings can be a bit overwhelming and some are in contradiction with one another, so I think it is a good idea for all Buddhists to learn the core teachings, memorise some of them. The Buddha himself advised us to do this. To learn the core teachings and use them as a touchstone to decide whether later teachings are in accord with the dhamma taught by the Buddha or not — to help prevent one being misled by false doctrines.
I don’t really identify with a particular Buddhist school, although I am part of two different schools, Zen and The Thai Forest Tradition. I try to practise what I have discerned to be the core teachings of Buddhism. Firstly, because I want to practise what the early Buddhists did, and secondly to help preserve the core teachings for future generations, as I fear they are in danger of being lost — and that would be a shame.
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