[Buddha-l] Question for academic teachers of Buddhism

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Thursday 26 June 2008 11:49:21 Curt Steinmetz wrote:

> As is well known the Buddha did not wish for his teachings to be written
> down.

He probably had no wishes at all on this topic, since it is now believed to be 
unlikely that there were any written languages in his day. What is well known 
through the Pali canon is that he did not wish his teachings to be chanted, 
and he did not wish Sanskrit to be used as the medium of transmission. (The 
Buddha depicted in the Pali canon clearly would not have liked Mahayana very 
much, since it used Sanskrit and went wild with chanting. But the Buddha of 
the Sanskrit canons did not like the Buddha of the Pali canon very much. They 
were obviously entirely different buddhas.)

-- 
Richard P. Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico