[Buddha-l] Age of the Sutta Nipata

[Franz Metcalf]

Gang,

Thanks to Piya, Richard, and especially Lance for their responses 
regarding the age of the Suttanipaata. I'm struck by Lance's contention 
that arguments on the earliness of texts tend to be circular or suffer 
from petitio principii. Very convenient to be a translator as well as a 
commentator in such a matter. One can then point to the authority of 
the apt text so much more easily when supporting one's 
conclusions/assumptions!

In the end, as Lance says, "views are likely to differ on this." How 
delightful that I can go on thinking of both the Suttanipaata and parts 
of the Majjhimanikaaya as "early/authoritative" simply because I like 
them.

(I'm hopeful and naive enough to think I would *not* do this in my own 
subfields of Buddhist practice in America and the depth psychology of 
Buddhism. Indeed, in those fields, what I *like* I'm especially 
*suspicious* of. But I will allow myself a little luxury of attachment 
in early Pali literature.)

Franz