nirodh27 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 9:37 am A poll about this would be very interesting too. "Do you think that the Buddha as soon it was born walked seven steps and declared himself "I am the chief of the world!"?
Having studied how religions texts (Christian research on the gospels is very revealing, but also the new gospels like the Mormon one is insteresting) have been born, changed, altered can help you having some doubts about those passages and their origin. It is the standard way of doing to add more and more exalted passages to the text to magnify the founder (the evolution of Jesus from a man adopted to be the son of god thanks to his purity of heart to the everlasting son of the father born at the beginning of time, the exalted details of his nativity added in a later gospel and not present in the first gospel) or do little alterations to the message to better penetrate or impress some resistant audiences. It is clear from the Texts that the Buddha carefully crafted his teachings to avoid that the central message and practice was lost, even if he foresaw that changes and corruptions would be made in time.
Buddhist should be the best equipped about those issues, since Nikayas are not considered sacred like the Gospel (the 4 gospel have been chosen by god with many miracles between hundreds and the Quran has been dictated to Mohammad word by word). It should be expected to find those exalting passages and a stance of being skeptical abouth them should be the norm given our current-modern undestanding and experience of the world (an infant misses crucial parts of the brain to talk, it is phisically impossible for a 0 month baby to walk if you have seen one).
Still, believing this things have almost no impact on practice, so it probably doesn't change much anyhow.
Tell them: "A newborn horse can walk immediately.
So, what could it be?"
The Buddhå like a horse, PUREBRED HORSE,
i.e. the ancestor of the horse (name: Valāhakå).
Horse facts:
1. Newborn horses can walk.
(A) Prince Siddhatthå walks on the day of birth.
2. By locking the joints of the feet,
Horses can sleep standing up.
(B) The Buddhå "sleeps" in meditation,
By locking His own mind."
3. The five senses are (highly) developed
in the horse: sight, hearing, smell, taste,
And their touch also has a mysterious sixth sense.
(C) The Buddhå guards the five sense doors perfectly,
With the sixth sense (mind) without blemish
(can discover the mysteries of the world: nibbānå)
4. Horses are zoon politicons (social creatures),
But silence when alone.
(D) The Buddhå teaching Dhammå to those
who will listen, but silence when alone~in seclusion."
5. Horses have 10 ear muscles.
(E) The Buddhå have 10 Powers!
(Majjhima Nikāyå 12--Mahāsīhanāda Suttaṃ)