[Buddha-l] Where does authority for "true" Buddhism come from?

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Fri, 2006-01-27 at 21:45 -0500, Malcolm Smith wrote:

> I don't really understand why Buddhism would be different from Quakerism
> without a doctrine of rebirth

I don't really understand why anyone would find it important to be
different from anyone else. 

> The only thing I feel compelled to remind people of is that the Buddha did
> teach rebirth and so on.

One of my cultural heroes is George Fox, found the the Society of
Friends (Quakers). He spend a fair amount of time insisting that the
world is flat. He seems to have believed that every day a different sun
arose in the eastern sky. I admire and even love George Fox, but I
learned some time ago that I am not obliged to believe everything that
the people I love believe.

> And as far as Richard goes, he hasn't accepted rebirth for years, if ever,

And I have never rejected it. My position has always been that there is
not enough evidence to warrant having a belief one way or the other. As
a myth, I quite like the idea of rebirth actually, and always have, ever
since I was a child. But I have never insisted that others share my
taste in mythology.

> and if no one is going to change his mind in the 12 years I have known
> him on the net, no one ever will. 

I have changed my mind on lots and lots of things, even during the past
12 years. If anyone produces evidence on this issue of rebirth and shows
me the question can be answered one way of the other, I'll readily
change my mind about it, too.

> And Richard does know that Buddha taught rebirth

and that Dharmakirti and a host of others defended it when it was
questioned by materialists. Yes, I do know the history of Buddhist
thought well enough to feel emboldened to speak and write about it.

> So there is nothing to defend...

Well, there are several straw men lying over in the corner that have
been set afire by some Inquisitors with Spanish surnames. But no
positions held by any human beings I know about have been attacked yet,
and what hasn't been attacked needs no defense. 

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
525 Humanities
277-8232