During the first council of the Sangha after the Buddhas death the monks were debating how to preserve his teachings for future generations. Ananda, the Buddhas closest attendent and the person who spent the most time around him revealed that the Buddha said the “lesser edicts” or less important teachings could be ingored but did not tell him which ones were less important (probably assuming he would know what he meant).
Because he didn’t ask the Buddha about this at the time the council were understandably annoyed and in the end it was decided that all the teachings would be preserved since they couldn’t know which ones were meant to be less important and didn’t want to risk discarding the important ones.
TheHistoryMaster2520 on
Religion: You can’t do this and that.
Followers: But what if there’s loopholes?
Gafadriellus on
Could it be the last philosophical lesson he gave: to be able to distinguish important lessons by yourself ?
Interesting-Dream863 on
The Buddha was an asshole like many of the people around him.
Friggin’ hypocrite…. “I quit my throne for a divine throne”
What a sacrifice!
Thanks to him his godless world-view almost throws India into atheism.
4 Comments
During the first council of the Sangha after the Buddhas death the monks were debating how to preserve his teachings for future generations. Ananda, the Buddhas closest attendent and the person who spent the most time around him revealed that the Buddha said the “lesser edicts” or less important teachings could be ingored but did not tell him which ones were less important (probably assuming he would know what he meant).
Because he didn’t ask the Buddha about this at the time the council were understandably annoyed and in the end it was decided that all the teachings would be preserved since they couldn’t know which ones were meant to be less important and didn’t want to risk discarding the important ones.
Religion: You can’t do this and that.
Followers: But what if there’s loopholes?
Could it be the last philosophical lesson he gave: to be able to distinguish important lessons by yourself ?
The Buddha was an asshole like many of the people around him.
Friggin’ hypocrite…. “I quit my throne for a divine throne”
What a sacrifice!
Thanks to him his godless world-view almost throws India into atheism.