The Buddha on Fake Buddha Quotes (11)

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 one side, and said to him:

“Sir, how many roots of arguments are there?”

“Upāli, there are ten roots of arguments. What ten?

1. It’s when a mendicant explains what is not the teaching as the teaching,
2. and what is the teaching as not the teaching.
3. They explain what is not the training as the training,
4. and what is the training as not the training.
5. They explain what was not spoken and stated by the Realized One as spoken and stated by the Realized One,
6. and what was spoken and stated by the Realized One as not spoken and stated by the Realized One.
7. They explain what was not practiced by the Realized One as practiced by the Realized One,
8. and what was practiced by the Realized One as not practiced by the Realized One.
9. They explain what was not prescribed by the Realized One as prescribed by the Realized One,
10. and what was prescribed by the Realized One as not prescribed by the Realized One.

These are the ten roots of arguments.”

Paṭhamavivādamūlasutta: Roots of Arguments (1st), from Aṅguttara Nikāya 10.42 translated by Bhikkhu Sujato on SuttaCentral.net.