[Buddha-l] Re: Was Buddha a Buddhist

[Jamie Hubbard]

Mike Austin wrote:

> In message <76932664.20060525223523 at kungzhi.org>, Benito Carral 
> <bcarral at kungzhi.org> writes
>
>>
>>   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.
>>
> One knows the Buddha by knowing the dharma.  Stories from history play 
> a very minor role in this.  The difference is like that between a 
> Buddhist and a Buddhologist. Whereas it could be debatable whether the 
> Buddha was a Buddhist, I would say he was certainly not a Buddhologist.
>
I think that most contemporary Buddhologists would say that Buddhists, 
from the very beginning, have always known the Buddha by, well, knowing 
the Buddha. The importance of his physical presence in helping his 
followers to their own awakening has been well established. After his 
passing, the "absence" of the charismatic guy of the of the forest scene 
was made "present" in several ways-- including the continued presence of 
other charismatic guys of the forest, but also through relics, stupas, 
images, and the like-- a healthy tradition of encountering the Buddha 
that continues throughout the Buddhist world to this day. Some would 
even go further and say that it was the Buddhologists (that is, academic 
monks of the vihara as opposed to the charismatic and ethical guys of 
the forest) who made the Dharma the stand-in (the presence) for the 
absent Buddha.. Works by John Strong, Don Swearer, David Eckel, and 
especially Reggie Ray all demonstrate this. New work by Andy Rotman on 
the workings of prasada make this very clear too. Of course, if you 
spend much time with Buddhists you too will know just how many other 
ways than through the Dharma one can know the Buddha. And the stories, 
of course, are all part of this too. . . any Buddhist teacher worth her 
salt ought to be able to inspire an encounter with the Buddha through a 
good story about Sakyamuni, no? I certainly have experienced this often 
enough. . .

Jamie Hubbard