Ivar Frederiksen, Firstling of Ilion, meets Yakow Harolsson, High Commander of the Companions of the Arena. I find that I have quoted Harolsson three times on the Resurrection of Christ:
The High Commander On Miracles
However, he says more:
"'...if it turns out that a given saint never lived, that merely shows people were naive, not that the basic creed is wrong.'" (p. 200)
Well, it depends what the basic creed says. If it says that that saint did live and did perform miracles, then his never having lived would mean that the creed was wrong. Guru Nanak's life is a matter of historical record. However, since the tenets of Sikhism are merely the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, that creed would remain as it is even if anyone did doubt that Nanak had existed.
When I mentioned Buddhist teaching years ago, someone asked how I knew whether the Buddha had existed. The teaching that there is suffering, a cause of suffering and a way to the end of suffering stands or falls whether or not the person to whom the teaching is attributed lived. Also, the story of his life does not involve miracles so it is both less important and less difficult to establish that that life happened as described.
A lay minister in our meditation group said that the Buddha's enlightenment is the basis of Buddhism. Is it? Buddhists receive some measure of insight and understanding from their tradition whatever the ultimate origins of the tradition. Also, the teaching acknowledges the possibility that individuals can realize their enlightenment independently of the tradition.
2 comments:
I'd say that there is a high probability someone corresponding to the Buddha existed at about the time in which he's traditionally placed.
Some of the details in some of the stories of his life are somewhat more doubtful -- the bit about his parents shielding him from knowledge of sickness and death, for example
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Good points. Considering how primitive medical knowledge was circa 550 BC, it would be hard for even an upper caste prince like Buddha to be wholly shielded from pain, sickness, death.
Ad astra! Sean
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