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Help finding a specific sutta!

Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 4:35 pm
by Individual
There's a certain sutta (the Buddha may have said this more than once, though) where the Buddha says that in order to validate a claim made about him, the monks should compare the claim both with the text of the discourses and the discipline they follow.

I know I saw this before, but I can't find it. Does anyone know where it might be?

Re: Help finding a specific sutta!

Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:06 pm
by Dhammanando
Hi Individual,

If you mean this passage:
  • Suppose a monk were to say: "Friends, I heard and received this from the Lord's own lips: this is the Dhamma, this is the Vinaya, this is the Master's teaching", then, monks, you should neither approve nor disapprove his words. Then, without approving or disapproving, his words and expressions should be carefully noted and compared with the Suttas and reviewed in the light of the Vinaya. If they, on such comparison and review, are found not to conform to the Suttas or the Vinaya, the conclusion must be: "Assuredly this is not the word of the Buddha, it has been wrongly understood by this monk", and the matter is to be rejected. But where on such comparison and review they are found to conform to the Suttas or the Vinaya, the conclusion must be: "Assuredly this is the word of the Buddha, it has been rightly understood by this monk." This is the first criterion.
it's from the Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN. 16).

Best wishes,
Dhammanando Bhikkhu

Re: Help finding a specific sutta!

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 4:48 am
by Individual
Dhammanando wrote:Hi Individual,

If you mean this passage:
  • Suppose a monk were to say: "Friends, I heard and received this from the Lord's own lips: this is the Dhamma, this is the Vinaya, this is the Master's teaching", then, monks, you should neither approve nor disapprove his words. Then, without approving or disapproving, his words and expressions should be carefully noted and compared with the Suttas and reviewed in the light of the Vinaya. If they, on such comparison and review, are found not to conform to the Suttas or the Vinaya, the conclusion must be: "Assuredly this is not the word of the Buddha, it has been wrongly understood by this monk", and the matter is to be rejected. But where on such comparison and review they are found to conform to the Suttas or the Vinaya, the conclusion must be: "Assuredly this is the word of the Buddha, it has been rightly understood by this monk." This is the first criterion.
it's from the Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN. 16).

Best wishes,
Dhammanando Bhikkhu
Yes... I think that's it. Thank you. :)