Author: Bodhipaksa

Lots of people tell me it’s unspiritual to be concerned about Fake Buddha Quotes. The Buddha, surely, would not be troubled by such things? Surely he, as a really cool, chill guy, would just shrug it off?

From the scriptures we have it seems he wouldn’t. He was very concerned about being misquoted. It was a cause of disharmony, and would lead to the “disappearance of the true Dharma [teaching].” Misquote enough, and peoples’ understanding of the teachings drifts and warps, until what they’re doing can’t take them to enlightenment.

And so we get passages such as the following:… Read the rest of this article » “The Buddha on Fake Buddha Quotes (12)”

Here’s a nice little sutta (discourse from the early scriptures) in which it’s made clear, once again, that the Buddha didn’t like being misquoted.

I create this particular series of posts — of which this is the eleventh — because so many people have told me over the years that the Buddha wouldn’t have cared about Fake Buddha Quotes.

In this particular case the Buddha doesn’t like Fake Buddha Quotes because misrepresenting him gives rise to arguments. That’s something that I’ve noticed here, in the comments, oddly enough.

Then Venerable Upāli went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to

… Read the rest of this article » “The Buddha on Fake Buddha Quotes (11)”

Lot of people have written to tell me that the Buddha wouldn’t be at all concerned about being misquoted or having words put in his mouth. Because he was, like, this chill dude who’d say, “Whatever, homie,” or something like that. Apparently the more spiritually advanced you are, the less you’re concerned about things like truth and accuracy.

Anyway, that’s nonsense, which is why I have this series called “The Buddha on Fake Buddha Quotes” where the Buddha makes it clear that him being misquoted is a big deal.

So here’s another one of those.

There’s a sutta in the … Read the rest of this article » “The Buddha on Fake Buddha Quotes (10)”