Greetings,
mikenz66 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 02, 2021 1:22 am
Without reading it all in detail, I did have the thought that it is a pity that there is not a chapter on "The conceit of the EBT approach".
Is it actually "conceit" to have the intention to follow the
actual Buddha's
actual teachings?
Ani Sutta wrote:Staying at Savatthi. "Monks, there once was a time when the Dasarahas had a large drum called 'Summoner.' Whenever Summoner was split, the Dasarahas inserted another peg in it, until the time came when Summoner's original wooden body had disappeared and only a conglomeration of pegs remained.
"In the same way, in the course of the future there will be monks who won't listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited. They won't lend ear, won't set their hearts on knowing them, won't regard these teachings as worth grasping or mastering. But they will listen when discourses that are literary works — the works of poets, elegant in sound, elegant in rhetoric, the work of outsiders, words of disciples — are recited. They will lend ear and set their hearts on knowing them. They will regard these teachings as worth grasping & mastering.
"In this way the disappearance of the discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — will come about.
"Thus you should train yourselves: 'We will listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited. We will lend ear, will set our hearts on knowing them, will regard these teachings as worth grasping & mastering.' That's how you should train yourselves."
Or maybe instead of being "conceit", it is actually one's refuge, and one's instruction on how they should train themselves?
In fact, I'd suggest it's "conceit" to think that one knows the Dhamma better than a Sammasambuddha. If such "conceit" didn't exist, there would be no "traditions" other than that of the Buddha's dispensation itself. Maybe it's the conceit of "(my) tradition" which causes people to violate the instruction of the Ani Sutta? Maybe venerable Analayo doesn't want to disgrace himself in such a way, by sharing and entertaining Mike's interests?
In short, the notion of traditions, differentiated from the Dhammavinaya itself, is to imply that one tradition knows better than the Sammasambuddha himself. That
itself is the "Superiority Conceit in Buddhist Traditions".
(I guess this is why I don't write books, I'd just get to the point in one page and we'd be done.
)
Metta,
Paul.
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."