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The Buddha's ‘skill in means’ and thegenesis of the five aggregate teaching Winner of the2nd Professor Mary Boyce Award

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2010

ALEXANDER WYNNE
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Abstract

The problem tackled in this article is ambitious.Through examination of how certain fundamentalteachings of the Buddha originated – the authorargues that those teachings must indeed go back tothe Buddha himself. Thus the author builds a chainof argument which creates hypothetical links ratherthan declaring ‘a priori’ that links and connectioncannot be established.

This article argues that the Alagaddūpama Sutta, animportant early Buddhist text, portrays the Buddhain the process of formulating his thoughts. If so itcontradicts the myth that the Buddha awakened to theentire Buddhist Dharma on one occasion, and shouldbe dated to the fourth century bce. Such anantiquity, and peculiar didactic structure suggeststhat the text contains authentic teachings of theBuddha.

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Type
Research Article
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Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , April 2010 , pp. 191 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2010

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