Reasons for the failure of the Dhamma to endure in India?

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
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Coëmgenu
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Re: Reasons for the failure of the Dhamma to endure in India?

Post by Coëmgenu »

I realize that I moved the date pretty freely, from the 1200s to the 1100s (the current textual redaction of the Kālacakra itself is from around the 1000s), but this is a vague time-frame we are talking about anyways.
What is the Uncreated?
Sublime & free, what is that obscured Eternity?
It is the Undying, the Bright, the Isle.
It is an Ocean, a Secret: Reality.
Both life and oblivion, it is Nirvāṇa.
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Re: Reasons for the failure of the Dhamma to endure in India?

Post by DNS »

Coëmgenu wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 5:34 pm I realize that I moved the date pretty freely, from the 1200s to the 1100s (the current textual redaction of the Kālacakra itself is from around the 1000s), but this is a vague time-frame we are talking about anyways.
Another possible demarcation line is the year 1017. That's when the last of the original (Theravada) bhikkhuni line died out from the invasions. That's about when buddhism all but disappeared from India. That's around the time the Maha Bodhi Temple went left unattended and almost completely consumed by the forest. Here's what it looked like in the late 1800s when Cunningham rediscovered it.

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bazzaman
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Re: Reasons for the failure of the Dhamma to endure in India?

Post by bazzaman »

There have been several posts on this thread that assumed that the Buddha taught that "life is suffering". This seems to be a common misunderstanding. So common, in fact, that it has its own page on "Fake Buddha Quotes": https://fakebuddhaquotes.com/life-is-suffering/
Atāṇo loko anabhissaro...

Yena yena hi maññanti tato taṃ hoti aññathā,
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retrofuturist
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Re: Reasons for the failure of the Dhamma to endure in India?

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings bazzaman,
bazzaman wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 11:32 pm There have been several posts on this thread that assumed that the Buddha taught that "life is suffering". This seems to be a common misunderstanding. So common, in fact, that it has its own page on "Fake Buddha Quotes": https://fakebuddhaquotes.com/life-is-suffering/
Very good point. It seems that the habitual tendency to make Buddhism about "lives" is very strong.

The Buddha taught the Noble Truth of "dukkha" - not "life is dukkha", as misery-gutses would have it.

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."
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Re: Reasons for the failure of the Dhamma to endure in India?

Post by cappuccino »

bazzaman wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 11:32 pm that the Buddha taught that "life is suffering". This seems to be a common misunderstanding.
Life is stress, stressful
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