Category: The Buddha on Fake Quotes

From time to time I receive chastisements from people who tell me that the Buddha wouldn’t care about being misquoted. How they know this, of course, is a mystery. Perhaps they have psychic powers that allow them to communicate with the dead. They certainly don’t seem to get their knowledge from the Buddhist scriptures, where one of the few things that really seemed to annoy the Buddha (besides noisy monks) was having words put into his mouth.

Here’s a very short sutta that was passed on to me by Eddie Badilla Vindas, a.k.a Karma Gyurme Gyamtso:

“Monks, these two

… Read the rest of this article » “The Buddha on Fake Buddha Quotes (2)”

“Whatever is well said is a saying of the Blessed One.” Well, maybe not.

From time to time I receive critical messages from people, claiming that the Buddha was too spiritual to bother about things like being misquoted, or having words put in his mouth. How they know this, I don’t know. Perhaps they have some kind of mystical communion with deceased enlightened beings.

Not having such powers, I have to read the Buddhist scriptures for clues to his attitude. There I find the Buddha, at times, facing people who say “I heard you said such-and-such,” and when their information … Read the rest of this article » “The Buddha on Fake Buddha Quotes (1)”