[Buddha-l] Re: Was Buddha a Buddhist

[Benito Carral]

Dear Buddha-L friends,

   I  would  like  to  share  with  you some additional
thoughts about this topic--I'm sorry I have not time to
develop  them, but I'm sure that you will be able to do
it if you wish. :-)

   My  starting  point  is  that  the  Buddha was no so
different  from  other forest wanderers. If we consider
the  canonical  account of his early practice, we found
that  he  studied  under  two  well-known  teachers. He
didn't understand his own system as a new approach, but
as an improvement of his teacher's ones.

   Then  if  we  study what such an improvement was, we
find  that it was a question of how much attachment one
discards.  To  use  a  well-know conceptualization, the
Buddha thought that his teachers were still attached to
atman,  and  what  he  discovered  is that there is not
atman, that atman is Brahman.

   Of course, I don't think that this was something new
is   the   forest   scene,   and  I  believe  that  the
"improvement" was a creation of the later tradition.

   If  we  consider  now his first teaching to the five
disciples,  we  can  get  a  clue to understand how the
Buddha was different, he was highly charismatic.

   I think that the Buddha's success was based on three
fundamental  points  (none of them related to doctrinal
innovation),  his  charisma,  his pragmatism (he taught
everyone  according  to his capacities, without a fixed
Dharma,   centered  on  experience),  and  his  ethical
standard.

   I have dealt yet with the issue of his reform of the
Brahmanical  tradition  because  I  don't  think it was
important. The Buddha was not the only reformer, it was
just  what  was  expected of a forest wanderer. I don't
think  this  facet  of his ministry had much to do with
his  success,  which  I  think  was  based on the three
points I mentioned above.

   In  short, I don't think that the Buddha was a great
innovator  at  all,  but a very charismatic, pragmatic,
and ethical guy of the forest scene.

   Best wishes,

   Beni