{"id":85548,"date":"2019-02-13T16:00:09","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T23:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=85548"},"modified":"2019-02-13T16:00:09","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T23:00:09","slug":"attempts-at-distortion-of-the-buddhas-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/02\/13\/attempts-at-distortion-of-the-buddhas-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Attempts at Distortion of the Buddha\u2019s Teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It appears that attempts are being made by some individuals to distort the Buddha\u2019s teaching through arbitrary interpretation of certain of its crucial technical terms. One such term is anicca, <\/em>impermanence, an experiential<\/em> characteristic, and directly related to two other characteristics of existence: dukkha, <\/em>suffering, and anatta,<\/em> not-self. This term anicca<\/em> is correctly and consistently translated as impermanence<\/em> by knowledgeable individuals such as the venerable Katukurundhe \u00d1\u0101nananda Thera and Bhikku Bodhi.<\/p>\n

Examples of contents of discourses of the Buddha which doubtlessly indicate the meaning of anicca<\/em> as impermanence are as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • In the four noble truths, the main components of suffering – ageing<\/em>, sickness,<\/em> and death<\/em> – are clear manifestations of impermanence<\/em> (Samyutta Nik\u0101ya 56, 11)<\/li>\n
  • The term anicca<\/em> impermanence is often found together with Pali equivalents for unstable<\/em>, evanescent<\/em>, changing,<\/em> and becoming otherwise <\/em>(all related to impermanence), thereby fortifying and guarding the meaning of anicca<\/em> as impermanence (Samyutta Nikaya 35, 93)<\/li>\n
  • In explaining ass\u0101da<\/em> gratification, \u0101dinava<\/em> danger, and nissarana<\/em> escape in regard to the elements of experience (form, feeling, perception, determinants, and consciousness), their danger includes anicca<\/em> impermanence and viparin\u0101ma<\/em> changeability, indicating relatedness of meaning in these two terms (Samyutta Nikaya 22, 26)<\/li>\n
  • In illustrating gratification and danger in form, the Buddha makes use of an illustration of a beautiful young woman, who ends up aged, crooked, frail, with broken teeth, grey hair, afflicted and gravely ill and finally as bones reduced to dust, saying that the former beauty has vanished. This clearly shows that gratification is accompanied by danger,<\/em> because of impermanence (Majjima Nik\u0101ya 13)<\/li>\n
  • Aniccat\u0101<\/em> impermanence is often explained by the help of the phrase viparin\u0101ma\u00f1\u00f1ath\u0101bh\u0101va <\/em>changing and becoming otherwise (Majjima Nikaya 87)<\/li>\n
  • The Buddha has said that there are three kinds of feeling: pleasant, unpleasant and neither. He had also said that whatever is felt counts<\/em> as suffering, because of the impermanence<\/em> of the determinant of any kind of feeling, which is contact<\/em> (Samyutta Nik\u0101ya 36, 11)<\/li>\n
  • Each of the elements of experience is indicated as possessing \u00a0the sign of impermanence in being subject to arising, dissolution, and change while enduring (Anguttara Nik\u0101ya 3, 47)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Thus, the fundamental problem is anicca<\/em>: impermanence. No state of affairs – aggregable or otherwise – can be relied upon to continue<\/em>. This basic sense of insecurity<\/em> is oppressive<\/em> and makes suffering, at least, potential. Suffering – first of the four noble truths – is primarily a derivative of impermanence.<\/p>\n

    The Importance of Vigilance against Distortion<\/em><\/p>\n

    The Buddha has stated: \u2018\u2026when a counterfeit of the true Dhamma arises in the world, the true Dhamma disappears\u2026 (just as) when counterfeit gold arises, true gold disappears\u2026\u2019 (Samyutta Nik\u0101ya 16, 13).<\/p>\n

    Thus, vigilance is needed against distortion of the teaching by giving arbitrary meanings to key terms.<\/p>\n

    Distinguishing Genuine Teaching from what is not<\/em><\/p>\n

    The Buddha has stated that, irrespective of who makes the claim that something is the teaching, one should, without accepting or rejecting, check the claim against the discourses (suttas<\/em>) and discipline (vinaya<\/em>), and accept it only if it agrees with them and reject it if it does not (D\u012bgha Nik\u0101ya 16).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Palitha Mapatuna It appears that attempts are being made by some individuals to distort the Buddha\u2019s teaching through arbitrary interpretation of certain of its crucial technical terms. One such term is anicca, impermanence, an experiential characteristic, and directly related to two other characteristics of existence: dukkha, suffering, and anatta, not-self. This term anicca is correctly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85548","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=85548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}