{"id":9781,"date":"2011-08-25T16:32:48","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T08:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/?p=9781"},"modified":"2011-08-25T16:40:18","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T08:40:18","slug":"the-scripture-koan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2011\/08\/the-scripture-koan\/","title":{"rendered":"The Scripture Koan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9782\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/126.jpg?resize=98%2C96\" alt=\"\" width=\"98\" height=\"96\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/126.jpg?w=164&amp;ssl=1 164w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/126.jpg?resize=96%2C94&amp;ssl=1 96w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 98px) 100vw, 98px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>This is a chat on the article &#8216;Whose Buddhism is the Truest&#8217; at<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tricycle.com\/feature\/whose-buddhism-truest\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.tricycle.com\/feature\/whose-buddhism-truest<\/a> :<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>J:<\/strong> Who cares? These scholars\u00a0are forever digging and probing, and end up  confusing themselves. Like scientists who upon one discovery claims A,  and upon discovery of something else later, claims A is not right, that  it should be B, and upon yet another discovery of something else,  changes his mind again. In the end, what is really the case is still a  prediction based on available evidence. Some of these scholars are  actually maras in disguise, claiming this sutra as false, that relic as  not belonging to Buddha, or come up with things like these to try and  shaken people&#8217;s faith &#8211; all kinds of nonsense. If people buy into this  kind of thing, they can lose faith &#8211; whatever that causes people to lose  faith in the Triple Gem is a product of Mara. Who cares whether the  scriptures converge, diverge, or remain the same? It doesn&#8217;t lead to  enlightenment. They should study and practise it instead, and see if it  works.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A: <\/strong>What&#8217;s amazing in this article &#8211; in that it shows that  many teachings are already present in the earliest scriptures found &#8211; not just some suttas. No one can really claim that any canon  is the original any more. Since the teachings are intertwined, no  single set can be said to be the only real thing. Actually, good  scholars do the dirty job of  authenticating scriptures &#8211; complex as it can be. This is probably one  of the very reasons why the Buddha taught us not to abide by scriptures  blindly, but to use reflection. Yes &#8211; the way to arrive at the  definitive teachings has to be by practice and realisation anyway, not  by study alone.The gise of the article is that all  Buddhist scriptures are equally important in  an interlinked manner, just that\u00a0further research is needed for the  actual words. For Purelanders (Pure Land practitioners), we know there are hundreds of sutras that  mention Amituofo &#8211; this creates a vast cross-referencing system. And  most of all, we know from history that its practice bears results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a chat on the article &#8216;Whose Buddhism is the Truest&#8217; at http:\/\/www.tricycle.com\/feature\/whose-buddhism-truest : J: Who cares? These scholars\u00a0are&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[349,153],"class_list":["post-9781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mix","tag-faith","tag-mara","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}