I have always bought the oral tradition stuff from many ancient cultures as least as a plausible hypothesis. But to keep really complex, interrelated, multiple interpretational stuff all straight - as the source intended (greeks, Bhudda, Christ, Shankara), along with the tragedy of knowledge problem, seems, well, like a miracle given modern corporations with all their tech glory can't keep the message straight for even several months or years. Maybe that proves God's existence -- due to the miracle thing.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradh...@...> wrote: > > > On Apr 2, 2010, at 6:41 AM, tartbrain wrote: > > > > > And if they cannot, how could a group of people who never saw a > > flush toilet -- with lots of vested interest, intrigue and politics > > going on, possibly keep totally on message for 300 years. > > > We have examples of Buddhist teachings relatively recently, so we > have some idea of how these awakening traditions pass on during times > of crisis, like the Tibetan diaspora. In some cases, awakeners of a > specific awakening tradition memorized the related texts, carried > their own inner and outer experience and headed out over the > Himalayas. In some cases others carried the "hard copies" out. In yet > other examples, entire teachings were quintessentialized into a word, > a sentence or a paragraph, sometimes whispered into the ears of a > student as the master was dragged off to the torture chambers and > maintained by the escaping student. It turns out this oral tradition > of nyen gyuds (oral teachings) is quite old. Some are believed to go > back thousands of years to the treta-yuga and to previous Buddhas. > Collections of them still exist to today. > > Unfortunately the Tibetans were never really good at flushing toilets > in the first place. They preferred the less expensive outhouse (no > flushing required). >
