[Fwd: Re: [Buddha-l] liturgical languages]

[F.K. Lehman (F.K.L. Chit Hlaing)]

>Richard writes:
>We should also remember that there were Buddhists in India who
>strenuously repudiated the very claim you mention. In fact, in numerous
>passages in the Pali canon, the Buddha says that one of the many things
>that distinguishes him and his monks from other teachers and their monks
>is that he does not drone mantras and other things that no one
>understands. Bear in mind that brahmans chanted Vedic, a language that
>was already quite difficult for people to understand by the time of the
>Buddha. One gets the impression that he found conservatives, who
>preferred the word to the meaning, ridiculous. A very funny satire of
>these gibberish-droning brahmans appears in Sutta-nipaata. 
>
>I recall reading some time ago that the Buddha did not want his monks to
>chant rhythmically and melodically lest people get them confused with
>brahmans. Probably he would give other reasons nowadays. Now he would
>probably say he doesn't want his disciples chanting mantras lest people
>get them confused with new age space cadets.
>
>--
>Richard Hayes
>Department of Philosophy
>University of New Mexico




Correct, of course. I was simply pointing out why it may have become 
a fixed tradition to recite in Pali (in Theravada), namely, because 
they were supposedly the words (stricto sensu) of the Buddha himself 
and or related reasons. And in spite of His position, as cited by 
Richard, the Indic idea of word in the original having special power 
persisted. Consider, for instance, the use of certain Sutta in Pali 
for protective rites - parita / payeit in Burmese. On the other 
hanxd, yet again!, the Pali tradition, in Burma at least, but also 
amongst the Shan and Northern Thai ((less so in Central Thai?) is 
such that laypersons are repeatedly drilled in the vernacular 
glossing of such stuff, so it is intended NOT to be meaningless. I 
cannot see why this confuses any of you on this List, but then i am 
not that steeped in any Mahayana tradition of practice, and I've no 
experience at all with 'Western Buddhism' or any other version of 
Oriental Mysticism chic.
-- 
F. K. Lehman (F. K. L. Chit Hlaing)
Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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