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Tipitaka
Friday, August 19, 2005
a few more hours and i'll be hitting the record not having blogged
for 30 days. i actually did sit down and write something along the
way though.
being overwhelmed and shooting off influx of thoughts, then it
somehow simply suddenly unreasonably got stuck and i was left
high and dry. i could go only by half or 2/3 but never finish a writing.
if you're reading this one, it means i succeed in getting out of the
loop of the 'sudden-run-out-of-thought' crisis.
it's been raining cats and dogs for over 3 hours and no sight to stop
easily. super heavy raining, then heavy raining, then showering, then
back to super heavy raining mixed with heavy raining and showering
again. flooding already i guess...
===
early this week, i stumbled on a very very good book and spent 2 nights
to read it from cover to cover. "The Pali Canon What a Buddhist Must Know"
by P.A. Payutto
it may sound boring or some people even mistaken it for a sleeping pill.
but hey, i think i'm blessed for finding it! The book offers an overview of
the Pali Canon(Tipitaka) by addressing such crucial questions as: What is
the Pali Canon? Why is it so important? once you finish reading it, i believe
you'll, at least, get a whole broad picture of what it is or have a better, clearer
understanding towards Buddhism. And, of course, i'd love to further my reading
about it or go get a few more books by P.A. Payutto.
Excerpt from Concluding Remarks1
*** "If we ask what the Buddha taught, or what he taught about a particular
subject, we have to turn to the Pali Canon for the answer, for there is no other
sauce that can answer this questions.
... what we think about it, then we are entitled to what we think; it is our free-
dom of expression to comment on what the Buddha taught.
... to do justice to the Teacher, we should first study the explanations in the
scriptures until we understand them clearly before making a summary of our
\ study. If it is properly summarized, then the summary will be in accord with
what the Buddha taught.
Otherwise, it would be faulty, in which case further study is called for. But at
least we have to draw a distinction, as pointed out above, between what the
Buddha taught - which should be faithfully presented - and what we ourselves
think about it - which we're free to express."
***"Thus all Buddhists should keep a watchful eye on these two type of
individual (and run away from these people - turtleblog's remark)
(1) those who confuse the actual world of the Buddha with their
personal opinions on the pretext of so-called 'academic freedom' and under
the guise of 'academic research's,and
(2) those who claim that they can practice without recourse to the Buddha.
These two type of individual, who it is not uncommon to find in our present society,
can indeed cause serious damage to the Teaching in the long run..."
1. The Pali Canon: What a Buddhist Must Know
Author P.A. Payutto
ISBN: 974-7892-44-8
70 pages, 85 Baht Posted at 01:19 am by TurtleBlog
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