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This truly is a good answerwaterchan wrote:Sometimes the intention to mislead is very subtle. You might not even know you have it until you direct your mindfulness to it. If you have a lot of friends or relatives, you might know some people who are manipulative by nature. This is not to promote ill will towards such people — they are as much a victim of their own conditioning as we are.
My question is about misleading others in terms of understanding the Dhamma.Sokehi wrote:This truly is a good answerwaterchan wrote:Sometimes the intention to mislead is very subtle. You might not even know you have it until you direct your mindfulness to it. If you have a lot of friends or relatives, you might know some people who are manipulative by nature. This is not to promote ill will towards such people — they are as much a victim of their own conditioning as we are.
That wasn't obvious from your first post, but most of what has been said in this thread would still apply.vesak2014 wrote: My question is about misleading others in terms of understanding the Dhamma.
so, whenever your mouth is open you are misleading others?m0rl0ck wrote:i check to see if my mouth is open
No one can be 100% sure unless he's already attained enlightenment. Until then one could try their best by starting with a wholesome intention, diligently study the Buddha Dhamma, and support one's claim with backup literatures and sutta references. That way while the interpretation might be off, the readers still have the sources to go to and decide for themselves. It's all part of our learning experience. Also use the general guideline the Buddha gave in AN 8.53:vesak2014 wrote:How do u know if u're misleading others or not?
"As for the qualities of which you may know, 'These qualities lead to dispassion, not to passion; to being unfettered, not to being fettered; to shedding, not to accumulating; to modesty, not to self-aggrandizement; to contentment, not to discontent; to seclusion, not to entanglement; to aroused persistence, not to laziness; to being unburdensome, not to being burdensome': You may categorically hold, 'This is the Dhamma, this is the Vinaya, this is the Teacher's instruction.'"
"Monks, these two slander the Tathagata. Which two? He who explains what was not said or spoken by the Tathagata as said or spoken by the Tathagata. And he who explains what was said or spoken by the Tathagata as not said or spoken by the Tathagata. These are two who slander the Tathagata."
- AN 2.23
in certain situations it is very difficult to know whether a sutta originally was said by the buddha or not, but as David said, this is information age, and there are lot of comparative studies and critical textual analysis done by various scholars."Bhikkhus, those bhikkhus who explain non-Dhamrna as Dhamma are acting for the harm of many people, the unhappiness of many people, for the ruin, harm, and suffering of many people, of devas and human beings. These bhikkhus generate much demerit and cause this good Dhamma to disappear."
- AN 1.130, Adhamma Sutta (The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, p105)
7. And there the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus, saying: "Now, bhikkhus, I shall make known to you the four great references. Listen and pay heed to my words."
"In this fashion, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu might speak:
(1) 'Face to face with the Blessed One, brethren, I have heard and learned thus: This is the Dhamma and the Discipline, the Master's Dispensation';
(2) or: 'In an abode of such and such a name lives a community with elders and a chief. Face to face with that community, I have heard and learned thus: This is the Dhamma and the Discipline, the Master's Dispensation';
(3) or: 'In an abode of such and such a name live several bhikkhus who are elders, who are learned, who have accomplished their course, who are preservers of the Dhamma, the Discipline, and the Summaries. Face to face with those elders, I have heard and learned thus: This is the Dhamma and the Discipline, the Master's Dispensation';
(4) or: 'In an abode of such and such a name lives a single bhikkhu who is an elder, who is learned, who has accomplished his course, who is a preserver of the Dhamma, the Discipline, and the Summaries. Face to face with that elder, I have heard and learned thus: This is the Dhamma and the Discipline, the Master's Dispensation.'
"In such a case, bhikkhus, the declaration of such a bhikkhu is neither to be received with approval nor with scorn. Without approval and without scorn, but carefully studying the sentences word by word, one should trace them in the Discourses and verify them by the Discipline. If they are neither traceable in the Discourses nor verifiable by the Discipline, one must conclude thus: 'Certainly, this is not the Blessed One's utterance; this has been misunderstood by that bhikkhu — or by that community, or by those elders, or by that elder.' In that way, bhikkhus, you should reject it. But if the sentences concerned are traceable in the Discourses and verifiable by the Discipline, then one must conclude thus: 'Certainly, this is the Blessed One's utterance; this has been well understood by that bhikkhu — or by that community, or by those elders, or by that elder.' And in that way, bhikkhus, you may accept it on the first, second, third, or fourth reference. These, bhikkhus, are the four great references for you to preserve."
- Digha Nikaya 16, Mahaparinibbana Sutta
Dammit, I thought you were serious.David N. Snyder wrote:Did you know that the word gullible is not in the dictionary?
Go to dictionary.com and look it up.
Okay, this just goes to show how few people are misled nowadays ...
