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

[jkirk]

Goodpoint-- Id qualify it by saying tha as Buddha was a former royal, he no
doubt imbibed elite manners as he matured in court, and th eteachers of
these were probably brahmins. 

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
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