[Buddha-l] Re: Spread of Buddhism

[Bill Kish]

Richard Hayes:
>
> If someone insists that the epitome of Dharma is Fazang or
> Tsong ha pa or Dogen, then only highly specialized scholars 
> will be qualified to study Dharma. 

I take issue with the "only" in "only highly specialized scholars",
at least with respect to Je Tsongkhapa.  There is certainly much
in his collected works that is impenetrable without an extensive 
knowledge of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism, but in my 
experience his lam rim texts, as well as some of his poems and 
letters, were written in a way that allows the essential points of 
the Buddhist path to be straightforwardly put into practice by a
very broad class of practitioners.  

> "It is wrong always, everywhere, and for every one, to believe 
> anything upon insufficient evidence."  -- William Clifford

Did Clifford intend the above statement to be taken seriously ? 
If so, I am curious what evidence he provided to justify such a
strong knowledge claim.

---------
Bill Kish



		
__________________________________ 
Discover Yahoo! 
Find restaurants, movies, travel and more fun for the weekend. Check it out! 
http://discover.yahoo.com/weekend.html