I think that the Four Great References can be applied in a way that does not exclude the possibility of a trip to Sri Lanka. As you can see with the rest of the conversations happening in this thread, people are rejecting his visit because it does not meet the criteria of their own beliefs about the world, i.e. psychic powers. That is clearly not what we are supposed to be doing.Bhikkhu Pesala wrote: ↑Fri Sep 04, 2020 7:59 am There is plenty of evidence in the Tipiṭaka that the Buddha used his psychic powers for travelling to distant places. The reason that his alleged visit to Sri Lanka should be rejected is that it is not mentioned in the Tipiṭaka, its Commentaries, or Subcommentaries. It is only mentioned in later works such as the Mahāvaṃsa. Thus, the claims do not meet the criteria for deciding what the Buddha taught as stated in the Four Greater References of the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta.
However I think your interpretation of "in line with" as "exactly the same as" is too narrow. Otherwise the FGR would have been stated in a more straightforward way. To say that the only things that happened while the Buddha was alive are the things that are recorded in the suttas doesn't make any sense to me. However if there was something that happened during one of his trips, or the possibility of the trip itself, that go against the teachings found in the suttas, then that would be grounds to reject it. But no one has mentioned anything of the sort.