[Buddha-l] Re: Earliest Buddhist Customs and Liturgy

[Richard Hayes]

On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:42:37 Joanna Kirkpatrick wrote:

> The reference to brahmins also tends to support the conjecture that the
> etiquette of early Buddhism was strongly based on local ways, was Indian
> etiquette as it were (if one can call it that from such an early period),
> and why not, since the Buddha himself was indigenous and brahmins were all
> over the place, wandering the forests and contending with the Buddha or his
> monks.

This is true up to a point, but there are texts in the Diighanikaaya
in which brahmans fail to show the respect to him. He asks them why,
and they reply that they have visited his country and found the people
there very rude. He replies that customs differ in different places
and that they should not expect people in foreign lands to follow
their own customs. His answer, in other words, is essentially "When i
Rome, do as the Romans do." So the Buddha's following brahmanical
customs rather than those of his own country confirms your observation
that he followed local ways, but it's interesting to note that he was
apparently NOT considered indigenous. He was a stranger in a strange
land.

-- 
Richard Hayes
University of New Mexico
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes