BUDDHISM AND HUMAN MEMORY

Sutras abound in Buddhism. Hundreds of thousands of words have been written claiming to be the words of the Buddha as they were passed down verbally, often for centuries before being put into manuscript form. The faithful are expected to believe that they are a true record of his teachings. The Lotus Sutra is the most famous and considered the most authoritative in Mahayana Buddhism.

Burton Watson, a modern translator of the Lotus Sutra, states that it was probably initially formulated in a local dialect of India or some Central Asian language. The first Chinese translation appeared some time about 255 CE. It was followed by several other Chinese versions. But it was not until the beginning of the 5th century that the version that has become the most widely known was completed by the monk and scholar Kumarajiva. This is the version that was most highly regarded by Nichiren and, consequently, his followers then and today.

Translators like everyone else vary in their literary and language skills, not to mention intelligence and the absence or presence of their own preferences or plain biases. So some translations will be closer to the original than others. The true believer in Buddhism will usually uncritically accept whatever version has been used by the sect or branch of Buddhism he/she belongs to.

Literary and translation skills aside, there is a greater influence on the accuracy of those recorded teachings and that is human memory. Some of the faithful in the earlier centuries of Buddhism would have practiced memorizing the words of the Great One in order to avoid error as they were passed on. However before they were exposed to the teachings they memorized so conscientiously there were generations of anonymous followers of the Buddha who had passed on what they had heard from others, who in turn had heard it from someone else.

The strengths and weaknesses of human memory are well understood by psychologists. In a later posting I will discuss some of them. For now it is just as well to keep the anonymous early sources and way stations through which the words of the Buddha has passed in mind when claiming that the version of his teachings that we accept are the true ones.

An important lesson here is that Buddhism is more flexible than most of its believers. Another important lesson is that the experiences and internal changes that occur because of diligent practice of meditation or chanting or just simple faith are more important than the masses of volumes of the written word. Walking the walk takes precedence over talking the talk.