[Buddha-l] Back to the core values? -- and origins

[curt]

L.S. Cousins wrote:
>
>
> We know that the Rg Veda was preserved orally for a millennium by very 
> careful techniques of memorization and recitation. The proof of this 
> is that it contains linguistic forms and information that we can 
> verify from other sources, e.g. other Indo-European languages. This 
> means that in some cases the brahmins accurately preserved linguistic 
> information for many centuries that their tradition no longer understood.
>
> So there is no doubt that the Sangha could have accurately preserved 
> information. It is difficult to prove with absolute certainty that 
> they did.  However, absence of proof is not proof of absence.
>
>
While this is true - it is a truth that is being selectively applied. 
Only certain texts are being granted the status of being based on a 
previously existing oral tradition that accurately preserves the 
Buddha's teachings - while other texts of the same date or even earlier, 
are dismissed as "new". Everyone knows that much of the Mahayana corpus 
bears obvious marks of having been an oral tradition prior to being 
written down. Therefore there should be "no doubt" that these also 
"could have accurately preserved information".

- Curt