[Buddha-l] Back to the core values?

[Bob Zeuschner]

Christopher Fynn wrote:
> As an entity, early Buddhism was clearly in large part an order of 
> monks. The monastic rules are nearly identical in every version of the 
> Buddhist canon we have. Unless you gloss over this fact, it's pretty 
> hard to imagine any kind of Buddhism that is anything like a return to 
> "what early Buddhism was like" which doesn't have an ordained monastic 
> sangha, trying to follow these rules at it's heart.

Are you suggesting that a core value is the monastic order, independent 
of insights or content?

I may be mistaken about this, but I believe that immediately after the 
awakening of the Buddha, he encountered many people and somehow brought 
them to awakening -- but none belonged to any monastic order.

I believe the Buddha then went on to find his five friends, each of whom 
was brought to awakening without belonging to any monastic order.

I conclude that the monastic order may be important to early Buddhism, 
but if awakening is the essence of Buddhism, then monasticism does not 
seem to be necessary, or sufficient in earliest Buddhism.

Bob