In olden day’s mariners, artisans, traders, Buddhist monks and religious leaders used to set sail together and this trend continued till the advent of modern shipping. The representation of art on the walls of the caves, stupas and temples enlighten us regarding their joint ventures, experiences and problems faced during the sea voyages. The finding of varieties of pottery, punch marked and Roman coins, Brahmi and Kharoshti inscriptions along the ports, trade centres and Buddhist settlements suggest the role played by them in maritime trade during the early historical period and later.

This paper presents the archeological evidence for Buddhism’s spread across maritime trade networks between Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and north and south India since likely before the Ashokan missions and continuing regularly ever since.

Miracle tales from medieval China recorded the ability of Buddhist statues to walk, speak, emit light, and even feel pain. Consecration ceremonies, however, emphasized the sense of vision and the agency of the ritual practitioner over the agency of the statue. This essay argues that by underscoring the corporeal agency of animated sculptures, which was manifested both in their extraordinary qualities and in their vulnerability to damage, the circulation of miracle tales enabled a participatory practice in which devotees, monks and laypeople alike, were able to engage in the performative act of writing statues into life.

chimerically constructed commodities should be considered neither irrelevant nor an outrage—two common responses. Rather, they are important elements for understanding the development of any religious movement, including Buddhism in America (and maybe especially Buddhism in America).

An analysis of the meditation cushion industry in America and what it says about American Buddhism.

For a brief synopsis of the book’s chapters, see the introduction on Lion’s Roar.

Given the growing dilution of Buddhist identity and its tendency toward syncretism in Brazil, this paper works with the heuristic concept of a ‘Buddhism in Syncretic Shape.’ Since this concept is useful for better understanding some groups in Brazil, it is suggested that it can also provide interesting insights for the study of Buddhism in the West. This concept will be developed through a detailed description of Shingon in Brazil, which has undergone a religious synthesis with Catholicism and Afro-Brazilian religions.

In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there were many types of Buddhist scripture-interpretation literature, including xuányì 玄義, xuánlun 玄論, yìshū 義疏, yìzhāng 義章, etc. These exegetical forms are related to Chinese traditional literary style, but mainly inherit the tradition of Indian Buddhist hermeneutics. In this paper, all such types would be summarized as yì (義, exegesis), lun (論, treatise) and shū (疏, commentaries), which are described as follows…

Early Buddhism, as embodied in the Pali Nikāyas and the Chinese Āgamas, is radically different from all these schools, at least as far as their philosophical content is concerned.

A brief overview of the development of Buddhist metaphysics from the Early Texts to the Mādhyamikas.

The notion of chunghwa 中華, an ideology that points to China as the place of cultural origin, was commonly adopted by both the Confucian scholar-officials and Buddhist monks during Chosŏn Korea (1392–1910).

Paekgok’s composition [the Taegak Tŭnggye jip 대각등계집] is a further example of how no division between Korean and Chinese history was perceived.

It was after the Sino-Japanese war of 1894 that such conceptions of China were shattered, leading the Koreans to be more open to western influences.

There is sincerity here.

The two communities discussed in this paper are very different—the Buddha Center, a cybersangha, only exists in a virtual world, while the other, Daifukuji, is a hundred-year-old actual life temple with increasing digital engagement. Still, they both offer opportunities for community members to participate in online meditative ritual, prayer, and memorialization.

The most striking rock formation at Phū Phra Bāt is locally known as Uṣā’s Tower, named after the stone chamber where the beautiful princess would have been forced to live in isolation. It is a natural rock formation, restructured into a chamber with one door and two side windows standing in the centre of an open space and marked with a circular ring of vertical stones.

Some odd rock formations in Udon Thani have been the focal point of religious practices from prehistory through to modern times.

Tantra finally gained official recognition and patronage during the reign of Sena 1 (833-853) who, we are told, had taken the bodhisattva vow. This monarch was interested enough in new trends in Buddhism to establish an ecumenical institute named Virankurarama, where 25 monks from each of the four major sects in Sri Lanka could study the new ideas coming from India.

While we usually think of Sri Lankan and Tibetan Buddhism as unrelated, this essay highlights that they have, in fact, had intermittent contact over the centuries.

I intend that this offering will, however imperfect, stand as a memorial to the many Cambodian Buddhist monks and laypeople, both named and unknown, who lost their lives or had their futures traumatically altered by the tragedy that overwhelmed their country in the 1970s.

Through a study of three monks, Tōjū Reisō, Tairyū Bun’i, and Seishū Shusetsu, strategies employed to preserve Rinzai Zen spiritual legacy in the face of the turmoil of Meiji are highlighted. These monks did their best to continue their eremetic existence and to pick up the pieces left by the widespread destruction of Buddhist temples and monasteries in early Meiji Japan.

promising him special access to a better future life and even nibbāna, that possesses great appeal to him. […] When people engage in religious behavior, they are trying to see where there is a concentration of power to which they can connect themselves. So, the question is, where do you think such concentrations of power lie?

When the weizza appear, the sermons that they convey are simple, basic, Buddhist lessons. There’s nothing unusual about what they prescribe to people as the way to be good Buddhists. So, while the circumstances in which these lessons are conveyed is most unusual, their content is altogether garden-variety, Burmese Buddhism.

A discussion on Guillaume Rozenberg’s 2010 French anthropology work on miracle cults in Myanmar (Les immortels: Visages de l’incroyable en Birmanie bouddhiste), published in English translation in 2015.

Field-based observations on the young charismatic Phu Taki and his community, as well as on the practice of pagoda worship called Duwae

The purpose is threefold: first, to give ethnographic details of the hybrid nature of religious practices among Buddhist Pwo Karen, thereby demonstrating how sacred space and power are contested, despite the strong hand of the state; second, to challenge the assumed equation between non-Buddhist minorities on the one hand, and Buddhists as a lowland majority aligned to the state on the other; and third, to raise an alternative understanding to predominantly state-centered perspectives on Theravada Buddhism.

Known in Burmese as the weikza-lam or ‘Path of Esoteric Knowledge,’ this tradition has as its goal not the termination of saṃsāric life as an arahant, but rather its indefinite prolongation through the attainment of virtual immortality

On a unique, Burmese hybrid of Buddhism and Daoism.

The religious courts that try these cases have the backing of state law enforcement agencies: failure to comply with their judgements is punishable by imprisonment. A guilty verdict has been passed in all seventeen cases to date. There is no opportunity of appeal.

Yuishin, however, chooses to present Rāhula’s six-year gestation period as a “miraculous sign” (霊瑞), a decision that is in keeping with the kōshiki’s broader goal of praising Rāhula as a divine being.

How a thirteenth-century Japanese sect sought to revive “original Buddhism” as they understood it.

The Buddhāpadāna further develops the concept of Buddha-field, in that it speaks of innumerable Buddha-fields in all ten directions in the multiverse. Thus the Apadānas clearly show the line of development from the concept of merit-field in the early Suttas to the Pure Land systems of later Mahāyāna.

This essay features translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu of four Apadānas: the Buddhāpadāna, Therāpadāna 502, Therāpadāna 80, and Therāpadāna 21. He provides a concise yet insightful introduction to Apadānas in general and explains the rationale behind his selection of these particular narratives.

like the Soka Gakkai cases, our respondents appear to be searching for miracles and spiritual fulfillment that they were not receiving by engaging solely in Christian practices. Although they might be considered “free riders” through a rational choice lens, Master Chu actually encourages this behavior

How a Vietnamese monk in Houston, Texas successfully attracted a Latino following.

What is interesting about Ajātaśatru is that he is not only a committer of an ānantarya crime, but also an eminent lay disciple of the Buddha. […] Given his transformation, the salvation of Ajātaśatru provides a convenient platform for Buddhist authors to express their ideas on how to balance the workings of karma…

Jātakas are often associated with specific locations, both within the land of Buddhism’s birth, and in other parts of Asia. There are records suggesting that such locations became early pilgrimage sites; contemporary sources also make reference to ‘local’ jātakas, which in many cases help to assimilate Buddhism into the local culture through its geography.

In this article I will argue that it is the structure of jātaka stories that allows this localisation to take place all over Asia. I contend that since the jātakas themselves are lacking in specific external referents they can easily be given a location, whilst their framing in the ‘present’ time of the Buddha’s teaching career grounds the stories in both time and place, without infringing on the flexibility of the individual stories. This ability to provide centrally legitimated relevance for each and all contributes greatly to the popularity and endurance of the jātaka genre.

We historians of religion find ourselves in possession of rare and hard-won skills that are directly relevant to understanding this phenomenon and which may help in developing solutions.

Dr. Salguero reads his JBE paper on how the current conversation around adverse meditation experiences lacks a proper grounding in Buddhist history.

Having been the greatest worldly ruler, her final and enlightened form is of a female ascetic by choice

This article delves into the story of Bhikkhunī Uppalavaṇṇā and the growth and complexities her story took over the centuries in different Buddhist traditions, texts, and artworks.

Whilst it is possible, as I have done, to craft an historical outline of Buddhism that foregrounds the many women who have played a part, this is not usually how the history of women in Buddhist tradition is told. More often, the critical accounts of their role and presence are highlighted at the expense of the rest. The adverse part of the history has been much more in focus—both within Buddhist traditions themselves and in Buddhist studies scholarship—than the progressive. As a result, the lives and endeavours of the many women who have contributed to shaping the history and modern manifestations of Buddhism have been hidden from view.

The Abhidhamma Piṭaka reflects the scholastic nature of its origin: the teachings in teachable form. Because of its complexity it outgrew this early role…

From pre-Buddhist antecedents via the Buddha’s own mastery of absorption until modern times, different constructs of absorption have developed which show considerable variation in terms of their concentrative depth and subjective experience.

For Ajahn Brahmali’s reactions to this article, see: “What Ven. Anālayo gets wrong about samādhi.”

By the turn of the century, at least in Sri Lanka, the Buddhists no longer welcomed the white man who sought to speak on their behalf. They could speak for themselves, in English.

A snapshot of Buddhism in approximately the year 1900 of the Common Era (or 2444 After Nirvana).

He should dedicate an offering
To the deities there.
Venerated, they venerate him

A few verses on how to become “beloved of the gods” get a framing narrative glorifying the Magadha Kingdom.

Many Buddhist kingdoms (down to the present day) create (or promote) apocryphal stories to justify their Buddhist bona fides, and this sutta may be such an example from King Ashoka’s time.

Two of these carry extracts from the Abhidhamma; the third gives a syllabary followed by the recollection formulas of the Three Gems. The other two epigraphs are written not on stone slabs but are inscribed on small gold leaves; they contain the heart formulas of the books of the Tipiṭaka and the qualities of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.

I suggest that they are the products of widespread and enduring Buddhist cultures of inscription, installation, and consecration, as well as of customs of condensation and abbreviation that have have been intrinsic to Thai liturgical and manuscript practices up to the present.

Just as, Kassapa, gold does not disappear so long as counterfeit gold has not arisen in the world, but when counterfeit gold arises then true gold disappears, so the true Dhamma does not disappear so long as a counterfeit of the true Dhamma has not arisen in the world, but when a counterfeit of the true Dhamma arises in the world, then the true Dhamma disappears.

Kassapa asks the Buddha why there are now more rules but fewer awakened mendicants. The Buddha explains the five factors that lead to the decline of the religion.

Rather than the texts of a distinct form of Buddhism, it is better to regard them as a controversial class of text that spread within pre-existing Buddhist institutional structures.

Some have argued that early sūtras show an orientation toward asceticm and meditation, but the texts rarely mention these practices. They mainly advocate practices oriented toward the supernatural and the afterlife, especially textual practices focused on Mahāyāna sūtras themselves.

A quick debunking of some old theories about the early Mahāyāna.

Having heard what was said by the Completely Awakened One, I shall now speak briefly about deeds good and bad to be done or to be eschewed by you.

A brief introduction to and English translation of the Pañcagati-Dīpanaṃ (“Illumination of the Five Realms of Existence”) thought to be a Southeast Asian recension of Aśvaghoṣa’s Chagatidīpanī (Sadgatikārikā?).

This text explains the five realms of rebirth and the actions which lead to rebirth in each one. It’s an excellent example of how the teachings on karma were elaborated after the Buddha’s passing, and how those teachings circulated around Asia in premodern times.

Being nearly 25% bibliography, the book is more of a springboard for further study than a comprehensive introduction.

This essay takes up how state regulation of religion was managed by Soto Zen Buddhism, with particular attention given to rules governing the clerical ranks and robes.

The 1627 purple robe incident is examined as an emblematic case of the new power relationship between the new bakufu’s concern about subversive elements that could challenge its hold on power; the imperial household’s customary authority to award the highest-ranking, imperially-sanctioned purple robe; and Buddhist institutions that laid claim on the authority to recognize spiritual advancement.

Being unfamiliar with tantra, they cannot recognize that what they’re looking at has a tantric origin, and they may think of it as simply (unproblematically) part of whatever tradition they are looking at…

On how elements of Buddhist tantra circulated across Buddhist Asia.

After they migrated into the oasis cities on the Silk Route in the latter half of the ninth century, some remained Manichaeans. Some aristocratic Uigurs converted to Christianity when they encountered Nestorian missionaries. However, the majority of Uigurs, including common people, became Buddhists.

Despite being cultural aliens, the nomads were aware of the superior literary and cultural tradition of the Chinese with whom they came into contact. Accepting the Confucian tradition and Chinese ways, however, would have meant subsuming their military superiority to and separateness from those they conquered. Instead, most nomadic rulers chose to adopt Buddhism as an alternative cultural policy.

Where, then, did this now pervasive idea come from that meditation lies at the heart of Buddhist life?

I do not believe one is committed to fundamentalism by the simple recognition that some traditions are more stable or more systematic than others, and it is a serious anthropological question to ask why.

Insisting that cremation was sanitary and that it also saved grave space while facilitating- ancestor worship, cremation supporters appropriated state-sanctioned values and aims to win repeal of the ban only two years after it went into effect. Ironically, the end result of the ban was a widely accepted rationale for cremation, which was transformed from a minority practice into a majority one. By the end of the twentieth century, cremation had become the fate of nearly every Japanese.

In the summer of 1873, the Meiji government’s Council of State declared a nationwide ban on cremation, a Buddhist practice that had long been con­sidered barbaric and grossly unfilial by Confucian and nativist scholars. In response to the prohibition, an alliance of Buddhist priests, educated cit­izens, and even government officials proceeded to argue that, far from being an “evil custom” of the past, cremation was a “civilized” practice suited to the future.

… samādhi power was, among other uses, employed to enhance the meditator’s ability to kill others. This article focuses on the abuse of samādhi power within Imperial Japan (1868-1945) with the express hope that once exposed and understood, its abuse will never be repeated.

… the integral, yet unacknowledged, role that Indians played in the making of modern global Buddhism in the century prior to Ambedkar’s conversion, and the numerous ways that Buddhism gave powerful shape to modern Indian history

Drawing upon the Yogācārin model, Dharmakīrti explains that the contemplative must first grasp the objects through cognition born of listening, ascertain them through reflection based on reasoning, and finally cognise them through meditative cultivation. This leads to valid perception.

… when a mendicant explains what is not the teaching as the teaching…

Ten roots for disputes in the Saṅgha.

Instead of focusing primarily on universal concepts found in ancient texts, scholars are just as likely to look at how local communities have drawn on Buddhist ontology, ethics, cosmology, symbolism, and rituals to develop Buddhist responses to local environmental needs, developing contemporary Buddhist environmentalisms

In this article, the author reviews various traditional aspects of Buddhism’s relationship with the environment as well as the current state of “eco-Buddhism”, providing some of the arguments for and against the idea.

In response to Shintoist criticism of Buddhism in the early 1930s, a group of prominent Buddhists and Buddhologists wrote articles on Buddhism and Japanese spirit for a special issue of Chūō Bukkyo in 1934. They highlighted historical connections between Japanese Buddhism and the state, and drew correspondences between Buddhist doctrines and various Shinto and Confucian concepts that were central to discourses on Japanese culture and the imperial system in the early-Showa period. In drawing those doctrinal correspondences, they aligned Japanese Buddhism with main components of the imperial ideology at that time.

What was the response of Soto Buddhist priests to the social situation facing Japan at the beginning of the twentieth century? What influence did their religious background have on their responses to the modernization of Japan? This article examines the lives and thought of two Japanese Soto Buddhist priests-Takeda Hanshi and Uchiyama Gudo-both with the same religious training and tradition, yet who chose diametrically opposite responses.

Takeda Hanshi supported Japan’s foreign policies, especially in Korea; Uchiyama opposed Japanese nationalism and militarism, and was executed for treason. What led them to such opposite responses, and what conclusions can be drawn concerning the influence of religious traditions on specific individual choices and activities?

Lanka’s pre-eminence was not a given, as by the early thirteenth century, the religious and intellectual centre began to shift towards Bagan in Myanmar. But the sudden decline of Bagan after the Mongol conquest at the end of the thirteenth century prevented the completion of Theravāda’s ‘great translocation’ to Southeast Asia.

… an outline of the Pāli cosmopolis during the second millennium of the Buddhist Era

… the history, myth and cult of a Burmese Buddha image standing in the middle of the [Shan] city of Chiang Tung and the ways in which religious visual culture expresses ethnic-religious identity.

Religious art, as a symbol of culture, is inevitably political. And yet, for whatever reasons an icon might be installed, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes adopted by its hosts.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, as Japanese society became engulfed in war and increasing nationalism, the majority of Buddhist leaders and institutions capitulated to the status quo. One notable exception to this trend, however, was the Shinko Bukkyo Seinen Domei (Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism), founded on 5 April 1931.

Led by Nichiren Buddhist layman Seno’o Giro and made up of young social activists who were critical of capitalism, internationalist in outlook, and committed to a pan-sectarian and humanist form of Buddhism that would work for social justice and world peace, the league’s motto was “carry the Buddha on your backs and go out into the streets”

A joint archaeological and hydrological study revealed that the dams appear to have been designed not only with a sophisticated knowledge of dam engineering but also with an understanding of the principles of basin water balance. This raises important questions about the role of water resources management in the spread of institutionalized Buddhism and accelerated urban growth in ancient India.

I offered eight fallen flowers to the stupa…

Gregory Schopen (among others) has pondered the lack of stupa-related rules in the Theravāda Vinaya and wondered if this might reflect a sectarian difference in stupa worship. This sutta from the Theravādan Vimāna Vatthu shows that they not only knew of this common practice, they celebrated it.

… an overview of how bhikkhunis, or fully ordained nuns, came into being, disappeared and are now reappearing again

To enter the Great Way there are many paths, but essentially they are of two means: by Principle and by Practice.

A modern translation of and commentary on a famous, pithy discourse by the founder of the Chan school.

The final confirmation of the historicity of the Buddha and the religion founded by him was taken, however, from the records of Chinese Buddhist travellers who had visited the major sacred places of Buddhism in India and collected other information about the history of the religion.

What on earth is the Buddha’s life story doing disguised in the tale of a Christian saint?

…as soon as they could demonstrate that a text had been composed and translated from an Indian language, they refused to question it.

John Kieschnick explains how Chinese Buddhists thought and wrote about their own history from antiquity to the modern day.

In the future
many dangers will arise in the world.
Idiots will defile
the Dhamma that was taught so well.

A prophetic poem about the decline of the sāsana.

… when the Japanese kept insisting that Buddhism was a specific religion that originated in north India, westerners were puzzled. There was no cult of Buddha in India, and northern India in particular was largely Muslim.

On the early modern encounters between Europeans and Japanese Buddhists and how they shaped each other’s understanding of Asia.

It is legitimate to write a history of Buddhism, but such a book will be more history than Buddhism, and in order to make sense of that history one should first have an understanding of Buddhism. This book is an introduction to Buddhism in terms of a methodology that Buddhism itself suggests.

We learn to value women and their contributions.

An introduction to the history of Buddhism through women’s eyes and words.

Reading monastic legal texts, Brenton Sullivan contends that it was the standardization of Gelugpa discipline, liturgy, and scholarship as much as their evangelism which won them such wide respect and support.

An interesting case study, it reminds me of some contemporary sects (e.g. Dhammakaya, Ajahn Chah, Fo Guang Shan, etc.) which have also achieved explosive, international growth through “bureaucratization.” Often called “modernization” by insiders and academics alike, Sullivan’s research reminds me that periodic standardization has been a tool of Buddhist expansion (“preservation”) ever since the first council.

Given the fact that the praiseworthy qualities of the Buddha are the main theme of the Mahāsakuludāyi-sutta and its parallel, it is not surprising if the tendency to elevate the Buddha’s status would to some degree also have influenced the reciters responsible for transmitting the discourse. A comparison of the two versions in fact reveals several instances where this tendency is at work

A translation and analysis of MA 107, a short parallel to MN 77.

Even today it has been estimated that nearly half the population of India defecate in the open, a major cause of […] water born disease.

Omission even in cases of variation is possible, where a sample gives an impression of the whole

An short list of abbreviations.

Particularly interesting to me is to note how simple mnemonic aids gradually became more esoteric: an expression of conservative creativity.

… what was the religious environment that encouraged the spread of the new technology of printing in late seventh century China?

The captivating story of how Empress Wu’s struggle for legitimacy led to the printing of the first mass-produced Buddhist text.

… there was nothing “private” about either the king’s support of Buddhist communities, or the claims and requests that Buddhist intellectuals made of the king.

[Nāgārjuna] justifies his condescension to the king by his personal affection for him, as well as his compassion for the world, which would presumably be affected by the king’s policies

… the land granted by Gautamīputra Śrī Sātakarṇi did not produce the revenue it was intended to produce, because “the land is not cultivated and the village is not inhabited.” In exchange, another plot of land was granted, this time measuring 100 nivartanas

… a grant was made by Vāsiṣṭhīputra Śrī Puḷumāvi at Nāsik, but this land, too, had to be exchanged for a more productive village three years after the original gift. […] In all of these cases, the land appears to have been intended to provide Buddhist communities with rents

… the edicts [also] reserve the exclusive right to consume the natural produce of a “religious wilderness” to the ascetics who live there. In one of them a prohibition can be read: “…a non-ascetic is not to stay”

Buddhist structures were a major and conspicuous presence in almost all of the major Sātavāhana towns

… precisely because it was not the religion of the state, it took on some of the roles that are associated with civil society

… this kind of cultural hegemony might have been one of the main reasons why rulers, even those who might have been personally hostile to Buddhism, supported them.

For a critical response to some of Collins’ assertions, see this essay by Bhante Sujato.

Reverend Sirs, I would like the reverend bhikkhus and bhikkhunis—as well as the laymen and laywomen—to listen to these passages frequently and to ponder on them.

Those who wanted to uphold the radical non-substantialist position of early Buddhism were faced with the dual task of responding to the enormously substantialist and absolutist think­ing of the non-Buddhist traditions as well as to those within the Buddhist tradition who fell prey to such thinking.

… a consolidation of thirty years of research and reflection on early Buddhism as well as on some of the major schools and philosophers associated with the later Buddhist tradi­tions

Only a man could dream of Heaven as a place where he can lie about all day, surrounded by beautiful women

On how the Buddhists transformed the Indian image of heaven.

Here you will find presented a number of maps of places in Ancient Asia to help as a reference for those interested in understanding the geography and history presented in Buddhist texts.

The way the denizens of the ancient Indian pantheon appear in early Buddhist texts exemplifies a mode of thought that scholars have called “inclusivism”.

… aspects of the myth must be stripped away

An invitation to imagine a more austere figure than the prince of myth.

I invite the reader to join me in a search for what could be found in the textual corpus of early Buddhist discourses

In the first chapter I investigate the bodhisattva conception as such, surveying relevant passages from the early discourses. With the second chapter I turn to the meeting between the previous Buddha Kāśyapa and the bodhisattva Gautama, examining the relation of this meeting to the notion of a vow the bodhisattva took to pursue the path to Buddhahood. The future Buddha Maitreya is the theme of the third chapter, in which I take up the notion of a prediction a bodhisattva receives in assurance of his future success.

… in many cases, I did not know how the inscriptions could possibly mean what I had said they meant, and as a result of not knowing how they could mean what I had said, I had great doubts about what they did actually mean. And so my study of the Aśokan inscriptions led to a situation where every year I understood less and less.

A classic series of ten lectures exploring the languages of ancient India and how they help us unravel the mysteries of early Buddhist history.

In this illuminating interview, we see how this meme of the declining Dhamma gave rise to particular responses among Burmese Buddhists to British Colonialism and how those reactions helped to birth modern Buddhism.

[Mahayana] doctrines eventually propose that the Buddha is completely immortal, and that his immortality is reflected in his embodiment in an utterly indestructible substance (Skt. vajra)

A period of disorientation or depression is a small price to pay for more accurate knowledge.

… whether or not a story could have been captured by a camcorder as an empirical fact does not really matter. Its truth lies in its symbolic meanings

An impassioned call for dogmatic Buddhists to take seriously both historical fact and religious myth.

How could suffering affect
The man whose mind is thus cultivated And which, like a rock,
Stands unmoving,
Detached from pleasant things

An example of a composite sutra from the EA, showing how this collection was made from a jumble of texts. It also contains a concrete example of the Mahayana growing out of Early Buddhism, in its use of the term “vajra”

In the Nettipakarana there is a three-fold definition of a sutta which may be useful to consider and may help one think more deeply about these sayings.

I have referenced the fourth edition on this site, but the newest available version should be preferred.

Note: The above PDF link is missing Chapter 40. You can read the missing chapter online here.