When scholars study EBT, early Buddhist schools and pre-sectarian Buddhism.....

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Padmist
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When scholars study EBT, early Buddhist schools and pre-sectarian Buddhism.....

Post by Padmist »

What materials are they looking at? It can't be just the Pali Canon alone or is it?

And what are these documents they are looking at and how could they know its contents? They can speak Pali/Sanskrit?

For example:

-How did they know what Mūlasarvāstivādas believed? What documents did they use to study about Mūlasarvāstivāda?

-How did they know Pudgalavādins disagreed with the Sarvāstivādins and the Sthaviravadins about XYZ?

-What records are they using to learn about Dharmaguptaka?
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Virgo
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Re: When scholars study EBT, early Buddhist schools and pre-sectarian Buddhism.....

Post by Virgo »

This is where you need to ask and where you can find much of that information:

https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewforum.php?f=29

But remember, scholars aren't always yogis. :meditate:

Virgo
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: When scholars study EBT, early Buddhist schools and pre-sectarian Buddhism.....

Post by Kim O'Hara »

:good:

Just to give quicker answers than you will find there -
Padmist wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 1:19 am What materials are they looking at? It can't be just the Pali Canon alone or is it?
Not just the Pali Canon. The sutras were transmitted orally for some time, then written down in Sanskrit and Pali (quite early) and some of them translated into Chinese (fairly early) and Tibetan (a bit later. Some of them (but not so many) were also written down in other local languages.
The result is that there are several versions of most sutras to look at and compare. And remember, there are a lot of sutras - not one bible-sized book but 60 or 80 of them.
After that, there are paintings and sculptures to look at, inscriptions on temple walls, court records and histories from (e.g.) Ashoka's time ... lots more material.
Padmist wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 1:19 am They can speak Pali/Sanskrit?
Yes, and often read them in several different scripts. Many of them also read Chinese and perhaps Japanese or Tibetan.
I think we should :bow: to them for that alone.

It's a highly professional research area but we do need to bear in mind that (1) not all researchers are practitioners and (2) the research model is Western-academic-historical-analytical and therefore doesn't always deal sensibly with source material which is poetic, mythical or metaphorical.

:namaste:
Kim
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