Early Period of Buddhism (From the Buddha's Enlightenment to His Demise)
The Buddha was born in 566 BC, and demised in 486 BC at the age of 80. He got enlightened at the age of 30 (in 536 BC). During this period original suttras and vinayas were circulated orally. Those circulated towards northern India were called Agamas; those circulated towards the south were Nikayas. Western scholars such as Hermann Oldenberg and Rhys Davids, have studied the Pali texts in an attempt to find out the Buddha's authentic teachings. Their Japanese counterparts, on the other hand, compared these two groups of texts in order to find out what was the Buddha's authentic teachings. This was the method used by such scholars as Anesaki Masaharu. Later, Ui Kakuju not only used comparative methods, but also resorted to logical analysis of the development and the structure of Buddhist texts both in the north and in the south to trace back to what the Buddha original taught, and distinguish it from what was added later on.
It is a daunting task to try to revive the Buddha's original and authentic teachings. The reason was that Buddhism has gone through so many ups and downs, and has become so sectarian that it became too difficult to trace back to what was originally taught by the Buddha. Based solely on the existing present texts would not be able to provide enough persuasive evidence.
The Buddha was born in 566 BC, and demised in 486 BC at the age of 80. He got enlightened at the age of 30 (in 536 BC). During this period original suttras and vinayas were circulated orally. Those circulated towards northern India were called Agamas; those circulated towards the south were Nikayas. Western scholars such as Hermann Oldenberg and Rhys Davids, have studied the Pali texts in an attempt to find out the Buddha's authentic teachings. Their Japanese counterparts, on the other hand, compared these two groups of texts in order to find out what was the Buddha's authentic teachings. This was the method used by such scholars as Anesaki Masaharu. Later, Ui Kakuju not only used comparative methods, but also resorted to logical analysis of the development and the structure of Buddhist texts both in the north and in the south to trace back to what the Buddha original taught, and distinguish it from what was added later on.
It is a daunting task to try to revive the Buddha's original and authentic teachings. The reason was that Buddhism has gone through so many ups and downs, and has become so sectarian that it became too difficult to trace back to what was originally taught by the Buddha. Based solely on the existing present texts would not be able to provide enough persuasive evidence.
