[Buddha-l] Nirvana

[curt]

Has anyone besides modern western scholars ever "discovered"
the "primitive" versus "systematised" distinction asserted here?
Although one might detect an obvious implication by my question -
it is nevertheless intended as a serious question - not merely to
make a point.
- Curt

Joy Vriens wrote:

> This text obviously dates from after the primitive Buddhist teachings 
> had started to be "systematised" and some of the initial 
> contradictions had been "clarified" but when pudgalavada hadn't been 
> completely rooted out in spite of the many efforts to do so. Hence the 
> impatience: "Foolish man", "Haven't I told you so many times, in so 
> many ways", "wrong view" followed by many other threats. "You 
> misrepresent me" obviously dates from a time when the Buddha's 
> teaching wasn't anymore in the process of being constituted by means 
> of dialogue, but from a time when an official version of it        was 
> being taught repetitively. Holding and probably transmitting (hence 
> the need of writing this sutta) an unorthodox view  was thereferore an 
> act of deliberate "foolishness". "You misrepresent me" and the demerit 
> this represents shows that the status of the Buddha by that time had 
> become such that doing so was the highest sacrilege.
>
> I would be interested in seeing studies that look at Buddhist suttas 
> with this sort of criteria.