The Buddhist Scriptures




The Jay Forrest Show show

Summary: In this episode of the Jay Forrest Show, I talk about the Buddhist scriptures. The sutras are not like the Christian Bible. The Buddhist scriptures are human works, and being human works there are subject to all the failings of human nature: error, interpretation, exaggeration, misinterpretation, and imagination. Remember that Buddhism is not a religion of the book. A canon of scripture is a list of books considered to be authoritative scripture by a particular religious community. There are three major divisions of Buddhism, the Theravada, the Mahayana, and the Vajrayana. They each have different canons, each holds a different list of books they consider to be authoritative. So there is no one Buddhist canon or even one Buddhist tradition, there are many canons and many traditions. The Pali Canon is the canon accepted by the Theravada tradition. Most scholars believe that the Pali Canon is the oldest version of the Buddhist scriptures. It is for that reason that we will focus on the Pali Canon in this episode. I explain how the Pali Canon was formed and why there are doubts about its accuracy. Since the Buddha never wrote anything, everything that was recorded are the remembrances of his students. How much of it was filtered through their understandings and viewpoints? How much did the Hinduism of the time alter or distorted the Buddha's teachings? We don't know. I conclude with a brief overview of the Pali Canon. Research Links http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/scripture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripi%E1%B9%ADaka http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ http://buddhism.about.com/od/basicbuddhistteachings/a/science.htm Voicemail Feedback Line Your feedback is important, please call 505-750-3121 and leave a voice message to be played on the show. Music Credits Freedom Of Thought by Kryptic Mood Podcast Survey You can help me better serve you and let me know a little more about you. Please fill out the survey over at the Blubrry Network, the link is: http://www.blubrry.com/jayforrestshow/survey/ Jay Forrest Show Resources My Blog - Read the latest from my personal Blog Beliefs - What are the basic beliefs of Buddhism. About - Who is Jay Forrest? Contact - Contact information including email and phone number. Bookstore - A list of some of the best Buddhist books. Shop - Buy a T-Shirt or Mug and show your support. Privacy Policy - Read our Privacy Policy Subscribe to the Podcast Make sure you never miss an episode of the Jay Forrest Show by subscribing to the podcast. For complete instructions click here.