Do we want to reinvent the wheel?

Question : (Unedited)

Hey Justin,

Can you explain any important new developments in the Mahayana movement: the greater sangha, new sutras,, the idea of the bodhisattva, and the expanded idea of the Buddha.  

What do you personally think led to these new ideas?  

Thanks so much for your time! - J...

 

 

My comment:

Hi J....,

Welcome back.

The Buddha re-discovered the universal truths of existence.  It was nothing new.  It is the eternal truths of existence.  The most salient points of these truths are embodied in the Trilogy of Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta.

The Buddha said that we had to examine our experience in order to discover its most pervasive features, the universal characteristics of phenomena, namely, impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and egolessness or notself.

The Buddha said:

All formations are impermanent.

All formations are unsatisfactory.

All phenomena, everything whatsoever, are not self.

If we can understand the Dhamma as revealed by the Buddha, there is nothing else to add.  Simply put, if you understand what a wheel is, there is nothing for you to alter or add to the wheel to make it "more round"!!!  You cannot improve on the wheel, let alone reinvent it!  If anyone insists of "improving" the wheel, it only shows that person's foolishness, or that person having some ulterior motives to hookwink other ignorant people.

The Buddha was the Fully Enlightened One.  This means that he was the Perfect One, the Omniscient, the All-knowing One.  What else do we want to add, and make fools of ourselves and disgrace and insult the purity of the Buddha.

Smile from justinchoo :-)