[Buddha-l] Re: Where does authority for "true" Buddhism come from?

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Fri, 2006-01-27 at 19:49 +0100, Benito Carral wrote:

> But just as an example of your missing the true:
> 
> > Nowhere,  except the infamous Lotus Sutra, do we find
> > any suggestion that agama/nikaya works are inferior.
> 
>            Doctrinal  classification  (_pan-chiao_) has
>            often  been  said  to  be  the  hallmark  of
>            Chinese     Buddhism.     [...]    Doctrinal
>            classification  is  one of

The example you then go on to cite at great length is one that is based
on the Lotus Sutra. So what I said still holds true, namely, that the
only Mahayana work to denigrate the earlier Buddhist sutras was the
Lotus. It was a very influential sutra, to be sure, especially in East
Asia, but it can hardly be taken as representative of all of Buddhist
tradition. 

But this is really an extremely minor point, and if that is the only
thing on which we disagree, then I think we can say that we're basically
in agreement, especially on everything of importance.

-- 
Richard