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In the Name of God بسم الله

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  • Veteran Member
Posted

The Buddha said…”When I recall the past, I remember that I was the king of a great state…My name was Senyo, and I loved and venerated the
Mahayana
sutras
When I heard the Brahmins slandering the
vaipulya
sutras
, I put them to death on the spot.
Good men, as a result of that action, I never thereafter fell into hell. O good man! When we accept and defend the
Mahayana sutras
, we possess innumerable virtues.” [3]

More: http://www.loonwatch.com/2012/07/warrior-monks-the-untold-story-of-buddhist-violence-i/

  • Advanced Member
Posted

From the link:

For example, the

Nirvana Sutra

, a canonical Buddhist text, narrates a story about one of Buddha’s past lives: in it, he kills some Hindus (Brahmins) because they insulted the Buddhist

sutras

(scriptures):

AFAIK, Buddhist scripture originated with the historical Buddha. How could it have been that in a past life of the Buddha he ended up killing Hindu Brahmins for having insulted a Buddhist scripture?

  • Advanced Member
Posted (edited)

...

:mellow:

I'm just going to say...few revelations in my life have shocked me as much as this.

Edited by La'nat Ma Man
  • Advanced Member
Posted (edited)

Curiously enough, probably exactly Nirvana Sutra and some other major Mahayana texts provided some Muslim rulers and thinkers with a rationale to include Buddhists into the category of "people of the book", because Nirvana Sutra is best known for its teachings of the apophatic "true nature" of everything that seems very similar to Ibn Arabi and other Muslim mystics' views of God. Hence, Buddhism is monotheistic, according to Nirvana Sutra, from the esoteric viewpoint of Divine Unity.

Weird stuff though... I would imagine that Buddhists interpret it as a permission to kill only the gravest enemies of Buddhism who murder the Buddhists in the first place, or something like that.

Edited by Yoel
  • 1 month later...
  • Advanced Member
Posted

These made up stories were never written by the huddha himself. The Buddha never said anything about any alleged past lives he had during his life time. After his death, centuries later, some Buddhists made up some stories about the previous lives Buddha had, in various past lives, some of them were lives of good and bad people, beggars, criminals, or the lives of kings, as he gradually progressed through the reincarnation cycle through his life toward his final life as Buddha and finally enlightenment. The thing is, once you are supposedly reincarnated, you aren't supposed to remember your past life.

So this story is apocryphal nonsense which was not even written by the buddha himself, but made up by some buddhist centuries after his death.

  • Advanced Member
Posted

According to Mahayana Buddhism, Nirvana Sutra is very authentic, although not everything in it is without question.

I don't think historical arguments of that sort help to solve anything, because Sunni Muslims likewise reject Shia ahadith as "apocryphal nonsense", and vice versa. I believe every tradition should be seen from its internal perspective, how it looks at itself and what it considers authentic. Because otherwise, if we accept the arguments of skeptical historians, every religion in the world may be easily discredited as "nonsense"...

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