by Chade-Meng Tan | Jun 6, 2024 | Buddhism for All
(Context: The Early Buddhist Canon.) Even though the Nikāyas were formulated at the First Buddhist Council only months after the Buddha passed, the Pali Canon was actually written down much later, like 300 years later[1]. Why did it take so long? For a...
by Chade-Meng Tan | Jun 4, 2024 | Buddhism for All
Compilation of discourses With Ānanda and Upāli giving testimony, and the gathering of 500 arahants verifying the correctness of their testimonies, the early Buddhist canon was thus established. The compilation offered up by Ānanda was so large it was divided...
by Chade-Meng Tan | Jun 2, 2024 | Buddhism for All
(Context: Ānanda and Mahā Kassapa’s stories.) Seven days after the Buddha passed, the news reached Mahā Kassapa. He was at that time with a community of five hundred monks not far from Kusinārā. They quickly headed towards Kusinārā. According to the...
by Chade-Meng Tan | May 30, 2024 | Buddhism for All
“Excellent!” (Context: The Buddha’s Passing.) The Buddha taught for about forty-five years. He left a body of teachings so voluminous it can take somebody reciting it full-time many months to do it. Just an initial detailed study of the...
by Chade-Meng Tan | May 28, 2024 | Buddhism for All
Siddhattha became the Buddha at the age of thirty-five. He taught for the next forty-five years or so until he was eighty. At the ripe old age of eighty, he passed away, or more accurately, he entered final nirvana. His last days were documented in...
