[Buddha-l] Nirvana

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Joanna,

> Yes: your point makes sense, and more critical analysis would be of 
> interest, but the problem is that dating of pieces of text is 
> conjectural. As I understand the issue, there is no persuasively 
> demonstrable way to precisely "date" canonical text.

As far as I know there isn't. I have to say I am not really interested 
in dates, but I would find a history or a genealogy of ideas very 
interesting. Not in order to discover the most probable genealogy but 
just for the pleasure of it. E.g. I would also be interested to see the 
results of a study of all suttas not being directly taught by the 
Buddha, to see if there  are some recognisable lines of thought specific 
to each sutta protagonist. It somehow seems to make more sense if there 
were several teachers and sects right from the start of what later 
became Buddhism.

Joy