[Buddha-l] Fsat Mnifdlunses?

[Richard Hayes]

On Aug 14, 2009, at 4:21 PM, Dan Lusthaus wrote:

> So you're sure about that?

There's very little I'm sure about, except that I keep changing my mind.

> Even so, my experience tells me that it does make a difference when  
> someone
> falsely attributes something to someone else.

Our experiences differ. What my experience tells me is that people do  
more harm to themselves by reacting to what other people attribute to  
them than they are harmed by having others attribute things to them. I  
gather from what he said that the Buddha's experiences were similar to  
mine on this issue.

> False accusations (and false attributions) have caused a lot of
> pain and mischief throughout human history.

I'll grant you that when Jews were falsely accused of being  
responsible for all the ills in Europe, a lot of harm was done. But I  
would not take that as a model for the damage that might be done as a  
result of being mistaken about whether the Buddha did or did not  
believe in a self, or whether Vasubandhu was or was not an idealist.  
Keeping issues in some kind of proportion is not a bad practice for a  
Buddhist to follow.

Richard