Tagged: Pali Canon
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Anālayo - Brahmā's Invitation (2011)
1In early Buddhist texts, the god Brahmā is incorporated through "inclusivism," being either satirized as a deluded creator or depicted as a subordinate protector of the Dharma. The most prominent example of this protector role is the story from the Pāli Ariyapariyesanā-sutta where Brahmā persuades the hesitant, newly-awakened Buddha to teach. This article highlights that this famous episode is completely absent from a parallel version of the discourse in the Chinese Madhyama-āgama. By comparing these texts and noting a similar pattern of absence in other parallel accounts, the analysis concludes that the story of Brahmā's intervention is likely a later addition to the tradition, rather than an original element that was subsequently lost. Therefore, this pivotal narrative, widely found in later texts and art, may not have been part of the earliest autobiographical account of the Buddha's awakening.
Anālayo - The Buddha's Fire Miracles (2015)
2Through a comparative study of early Buddhist discourses and their parallel versions, the author argues that depictions of the Buddha performing fire miracles are likely later textual developments rather than original elements. By examining narratives such as Sakka's visit, a visit to Brahmā, and the Pāṭikaputta challenge, the text demonstrates a pattern where earlier versions lack fire displays, which are then added or amplified in other recensions, suggesting a gradual embellishment over time. The author posits that these miracles may have arisen from a literal interpretation of the fire motif, which was originally used metaphorically in both texts and art to symbolize the power of meditation or the Buddha's radiance. This conclusion is supported by the observation that the "fire element" in most early discourses refers to the physical experience of bodily heat as a meditative object, not an external manifestation of flames, with the latter usage appearing to be a later innovation.
Bucknell - The Buddhist Path to Liberation (1984)
3In his analysis, Rod Bucknell argues that the Noble Eightfold Path is an incomplete representation of the Buddhist course to liberation, as it omits the crucial final stages of "right insight" (sammā-ñāṇa) and "right liberation" (sammā-vimutti). By comparing the Eightfold Path with four other, similar lists of stages found in the Tipiṭaka, including a more comprehensive "tenfold path," he demonstrates that they all describe a consistent, sequential practice where morality (sīla) and concentration (samādhi) are followed by the development of insight. Bucknell refutes the common interpretation that insight is covered by "right view" (the first stage), positing that this is merely a preliminary understanding, whereas true liberating insight is an advanced practice undertaken only after mastering concentration. He concludes that the Eightfold Path is not the definitive summary of Gotama's teaching but one of many versions, and possibly a simplified one that omits the most advanced meditative stages.
Collins - On The Very Idea Of The Pali Canon (1990)
4Steven Collins argues that the Pali Canon should not be seen as the pre-existing foundation of Theravāda Buddhism, but rather as a product created by the Mahāvihāra monastic lineage in Ceylon during the first millennium A.D. as a strategy for legitimation. This development was driven by a rivalry with the competing Abhayagiri monastery, which accepted a wider range of scriptures. The Mahāvihāra monks established their authority by creating a closed, exclusive list of texts defined as the historical "Buddha's Word" (`buddhavacana`), committing these texts and their commentaries to writing, standardizing their interpretation through figures like Buddhaghosa, and authoring historical chronicles (`vamsa`) to construct a singular, legitimate line of succession. Collins concludes that while the *idea* of a fixed canon was ideologically crucial for establishing this orthodoxy, in practice, the religious life of Theravāda cultures has always drawn from a much broader selection of canonical and non-canonical works, making the concept of the canon more significant than its specific textual contents.
Cousins - The Early Development of Buddhist Literature and Language in India (2013)
5L.S. Cousins re-examines the early development of Buddhist literature, arguing that the Pali Canon was first systematically written down not in Ceylon, but on the Indian mainland around the first century B.C. before being imported to the island. This written canon was based on a largely non-sectarian oral tradition of chanted texts (*bhāṇaka* tradition) that had been developing since the Buddha's time (c. 400 BCE), and its initial contents included the four main Nikāyas, Vinaya, Abhidhamma, and several Khuddakanikāya texts. The language used was not a spoken dialect but an evolving written lingua franca, which Cousins terms 'Old Pali,' derived from a post-Asokan epigraphic Prakrit. This written language subsequently underwent a process of Sanskritization, becoming 'Hybrid Pali,' before being standardized into the classical Pali we know today by commentators around the fourth or fifth century A.D., who consistently referred to it as Māgadhī.
Hinūber - Hoary Past And Hazy Memory - On The History Of Early Buddhist Texts (2006)
6Oskar V. Hinūber argues that early Buddhist texts contain "historical memory" which can be used for dating and cautious historical analysis, challenging the notion that ancient India lacked a sense of history. By examining the evolution of sutta opening formulas, he identifies an archaic syntactical structure, traceable to Indo-Iranian, that refers to obscure market towns (*nigamas*) and Brahmin villages (*brāhmaṇagāmas*), representing an older textual layer than the more common references to major cities and monasteries. Applying this critical method to the *Mahāparinibbānasuttanta*, he posits a pre-Mauryan composition date (c. 350-320 BC) based on its description of Pātaliputta as a future commercial hub rather than a political capital and its downplaying of the Moriyas, which contrasts with later Buddhist texts that actively incorporated contemporary rulers like Aśoka and Kaniṣka. This early dating suggests that while the text is primarily hagiography replete with mythology, it may preserve genuine historical details from the decades immediately following the Buddha's death.
Hinüber - The Buddha As A Historical Person (2019)
7In response to claims that the Buddha was not a historical person, Oskar von Hinüber argues for his historicity by analyzing early Pāli texts for archaic elements and genuine memories. He posits that details contradicting later, more mythological biographies are unlikely to be inventions and may represent a historical core. Evidence includes the Aśokan inscription confirming Lumbinī as the Buddha's birthplace; textual accounts of his father as a working farmer rather than a king; and a description of his parents weeping as he left home, which conflicts with later narratives. A key example is the Buddha's failure to impress the Ājīvika Upaka, an embarrassing episode for the tradition, whose antiquity is supported by archaic linguistic forms and its subsequent alteration or omission in later texts. Further evidence from the *Mahāparinibbānasuttanta*, such as the obscure name of the Buddha's last meal (*sūkaramaddava*) and moments of human frailty, also suggest the preservation of authentic details from the life of a real person.
Levman - The Historical Buddha - Response to Drewes (2019)
8In response to the hypothesis that the Buddha was a mythical figure, this article establishes his historicity through four main arguments. The Buddhist canon is situated in a verifiable historical context, with its places, rulers, and rivalries corroborated by external sources like the Aśokan edicts and Jain texts, while linguistic analysis of names and cultural terms reveals authentic indigenous roots. The unique, coherent, and profound system of Buddhist teachings is most parsimoniously explained as the product of a single, brilliant individual rather than an invention or organic evolution. Furthermore, the canon's un-idealized portrayal of the Buddha as a human being who aged, suffered from physical ailments like a bad back, expressed anger, and died a painful death contradicts the notion of a purely mythologized character. Finally, despite later biographical embellishments, a core, unembellished biography of a real person can be discerned in the earliest scriptural layers, suggesting an authentic figure whose life was later aggrandized rather than a complete fabrication.
Norman - Aspects of Early Buddhism (1990)
9In early Buddhism, the denial of a permanent self (attā) raises the question of what transmigrates through saṃsāra, with the Buddha refuting the idea of a permanent consciousness (viññāṇa) and instead proposing the doctrine of dependent origination (paṭicca-samuppāda). This causal chain explains how suffering arises from conditions like ignorance (avijjā) and craving (taṇhā), and liberation (nibbāna) is achieved by breaking this chain. The Pāli canon presents multiple, sometimes conflicting, paths to this goal, including the Buddha's own attainment of bodhi through meditative states (jhānas) and the destruction of the āsavas ("afflictions"), and the more widely taught Eight-Fold Path which leads to the cessation of suffering (dukkha-nirodha). Ultimately, nibbāna is not a state of being for a soul but is described as the uncompounded (asaṅkhata) and indescribable reality that remains when the conditioned elements (khandhas) that constitute an individual cease, thus ending the cycle of rebirth.
Pind - Did the Buddha address the monks in Māgadhī? (2021)
10This paper argues that the distribution of the Pāli vocatives *bhikkhave* and *bhikkhavo* in the canon is determined by prosody and syntax, not by historical or dialectal origins as is commonly assumed. Refuting the theory that *bhikkhave* is a preserved "Māgadhism" reflecting the Buddha's speech, the author demonstrates a structural and complementary distribution between the two forms. *Bhikkhavo* functions as an emphatic vocative, used at the beginning of prose sentences—notably in stock introductory formulas—and exclusively in verse, a pattern that parallels the use of the emphatic vocative *bhaddante*. Conversely, *bhikkhave* is the non-emphatic, or clitic, form which never occurs initially and is always attached to a preceding word within a sentence, mirroring the usage of the clitic *bhante*. This distinction is therefore intrinsic to the syntactical and recitational structure of the canonical language itself, making explanations based on regional dialects or later scribal interpolations unnecessary.
Sharma - Rune E. A. Johansson's Analysis of Citta (2018)
11In his critique of Rune E. A. Johansson's analysis, Arvind Sharma examines and refutes the theory that *citta* (mind) exists as a core personality factor separate from the five *skandhas* and survives death. Johansson argues that *citta* is an enduring element, distinct from *viññāna* (consciousness), which attains *nibbāna* and continues in a diluted, impersonal state after an *arahant's* death, citing as evidence the ability of *arahants* to recognize one another and scriptural accounts like the story of Vakkali. Sharma contends that this evidence is insufficient to challenge the standard Theravāda position that an *arahant's* post-mortem state is unpredictable. He counters that Johansson relies on a weak "argument from silence" and offers an alternative interpretation wherein an *arahant's* enlightenment is recognized precisely through the *non-recognizability* of their consciousness, rather than through an identifiable, surviving *citta*.
Vetter - Explanations of dukkha (1984)
12In a philological analysis of the First Noble Truth, Tilmann Vetter argues that the concluding statement on the five aggregates (*upādānakkhandhā*) is not a summary of suffering (*dukkha*), but rather another example of it. He bases this on the presence of the coordinating particle *pi* ("also") in this final statement in older Pāli manuscripts, such as those used in Hermann Oldenberg's edition of the Mahāvagga. Vetter contends that later editors and commentators, notably Buddhaghosa, worked from texts where this *pi* was missing, leading them to develop an anachronistic interpretation of the aggregates as a summary or foundation for all other forms of suffering. He asserts that the original reading with *pi* is more historically sound, presenting the five aggregates as a distinct, added item in the list of things that are *dukkha*, with the term *sankhittena* ("in brief") indicating it is a concise point requiring further explanation, not a summation of what precedes it.