[Buddha-l] Jesus is Buddha?

[Joy Vriens]

Richard P. Hayes wrote:

> No one is questioning the honesty of either the people (the majority of
> them brahmins) who preserved the Pali canon or of fisherman. I have no
> reason to believe that Buddhist monks were any more or less reliable
> than fishermen.

I don't know whether it is a question of reliability, but when reading 
Lamotte on the Mahasamghika schism, one does get a clear impression of a 
sort of coup d'état by Mahakasyapa and his friends. The hostility 
between Arhats and profane religious people and laymen during the first 
two hundred years of Buddhism cannot simply have been due to the 
exemplary honesty and reliability of the former. Why did the latter feel 
they got a bad deal compared to the time of the Buddha? Nor is it likely 
that this hostility was the result of an efficient approach to reducing 
dukkha in the world.

 > To me, one of the more important matters is
> reducing the amount of dukkha in the world, and I believe the Pali canon
> offers some good suggestions on how to do that. Everything is a sideshow
> really, designed for those who like to gawk at exotica (such as rebirth)
> rather than coming into the big tent and watching the main attraction.

Joy