{"id":122503,"date":"2022-01-31T17:04:49","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T00:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=122503"},"modified":"2022-01-31T17:04:49","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T00:04:49","slug":"protecting-the-authentic-teaching-of-the-buddha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/01\/31\/protecting-the-authentic-teaching-of-the-buddha\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting the Authentic Teaching of the Buddha"},"content":{"rendered":"

Palitha Mapatuna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Chapter II of the Constitution of Sri Lanka requires the\nstate to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana; this would imply protecting and\nfostering the assets<\/em> of the Buddha\nSasana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Principal Asset of the Sasana: The\nAuthentic Teaching<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The principal<\/em> asset<\/em> of the Buddha Sasana would be the authentic\nteaching of the Buddha, introduced to Sri Lanka well over 2000 years ago, and\nwritten down therein during the 1st century BCE to protect it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it is evident that, in recent times, attempts are\nbeing made in certain quarters to distort and, thereby, corrupt the teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These attempts consist of intentional distortion of the\nessential elements of the teaching, such as the discourses, including providing\nfalse and arbitrary meanings to its technical terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onus of Enabling Checking<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These quarters seem to deny distortion, claiming that\nthey are based on original sources which they have had access to; if that\nis truly the case, the onus of enabling checking the alleged sources falls\non them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It  does not seem possible to conceive of a\nlegitimate reason to hide the alleged original sources or to take the\npreposterous position that they are available only to \u2018special\u2019 people like\nthemselves!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sincere followers of the Buddha have come to be aware of the\naforesaid attempts at distortion and seem to be keen to ensure that these\nattempts are arrested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This letter provides an outline of a suggested procedure to\nprotect the authentic teaching of the Buddha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suggested Procedure in Sequence<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Appointment of an official<\/em> body of trustees <\/em>of the Buddha\u2019s teaching,\nconsisting of suitable Bhikkhus from the three Nikayas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Identification by  this body of the\nsources of the authentic teaching<\/em>, and making a list of them(provision\nmay be made for expansion of the list, if necessary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Determining authentic versions <\/em>of\nthese sources and officially publishing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Determining the correct meaning\nof technical terms <\/em>and officially publishing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having fulfilled this sequence, appropriate measures may be\nintroduced to prevent propagation of any version that contradicts these\nauthentic versions and correct meaning of terms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legal Basis for Measures <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legal basis for measures for the protection of the\nauthentic teaching of the Buddha, including meaning of it\u2019s technical terms,\ncould be Chapter II, referred to above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rights and Perversions<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is possible that the quarters involved in distortion may\nraise questions against these measures in terms of individual rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, deliberate distortion of whatever teaching, <\/em>includingit\u2019s\ntechnical terms, by any quarter does not appear to fall within the ambit\nof rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malevolent intent<\/em> would be implicit in\ndistortion and engaging in it under the cover <\/em>of\nalleged rights would constitute a perversion<\/em> of\nrights; no one would, therefore, be entitled to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, it appears that a clear distinction needs to be made\nbetween rights<\/em> and perversions<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the right to engage in honest critical appraisal\nof any<\/em> teaching is legitimate and this needs to be\ndistinguished from distortion and protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palitha Mapatuna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palitha Mapatuna Chapter II of the Constitution of Sri Lanka requires the state to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana; this would imply protecting and fostering the assets of the Buddha Sasana. The Principal Asset of the Sasana: The Authentic Teaching The principal asset of the Buddha Sasana would be the authentic teaching of the Buddha, introduced to Sri Lanka […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}