I certainly don't take the Nikayas to be accurate in every sense. I'm more than willing to entertain the idea that they are corrupted translations. What attracted me to the GWV was its willingness to unpack all the literature of the mystics. I looked at a lot of other teachers before I came here, and this is where I felt the most comfortable. Unpacking all the mystic's literature is the only way to go, otherwise you're running on a faith based approach, and often I've noticed people who do this, often end up having their faith hijacked and seduced by a charismatic charlatan with dire consequences to their spiritual quest - and that is definitely not the way to do it. I feel sorry for people who end up that way. These people are very foolish. How can you do something like that? It's unbelievably stupid. Ha, I bet that in one of my past lives I did the same damn thing. Hahaha. In this life I've had an incredible distrust of all religious authority figures and some so-called mystics. I use to through snowballs at the Roman Catholic priest when I was a kid around age ten. So I must have been burned somewhere in the past.
The fact that you think so critically, and your past with the charisms suggests to me that you were most probably a mystic at some level; however, as you have pointed out, there are just too many frauds, and too few genuine mystics, in religion.
I think that producing one or two genuine enlightened followers is a great achievement. Enlightened beings are more than extremely rare. What a precious gift to the world they are whenever and wherever they manifest.
I agree that it is a truly great gift to inspire someone sufficiently for them to become enlightened; and it is truly great gift for the world when a genuine mystic becomes enlightened; however, history shows most genuine mystics are marginalized in most religions and cultures.
Jhananda, I get the impression that you think that Mahakassapa and Anuruddha, who were both arahants and excellent teachers of the Dhamma according to how they are portrayed in the suttas - could not have continued the mission of the Buddha after his death? If they where arahants, why couldn't they have carried on the work of the Buddha?
I find the Pali Canon has the most accurate record of the mystic's experience, and path, than any record I have examined; so I believe it is reasonable to say that Siddhartha Gautama must have left behind some genuine arahats, who preserved the teaching. This does not mean that I believe the entire Pali Canon is accurate.
Did the Buddha have powers that enabled him to see into the future? If you are right about the Buddha desire to die, then the Buddha must have thought these men inadequate for the task, and thus there was no one to carry on, and so he committed suicide after Sariputta and Mahamoggallana passed away.
Well this brings up several points. The suttas express that for some reason Sariputta and Mahamoggallana were Siddhartha Gautama #1 disciples, so why were Mahakassapa and Anuruddha not considered #1?
It is just my hypothesis that Siddhartha Gautama was greatly disappointed by the death of Sariputta and Mahamoggallana before his death. Another possible take on the last days of Siddhartha Gautama, is he was 80 years old. Old people can have a hard time, and he was a mendicant, so his later life would have more difficult. Perhaps he intentionally ate poisonous food just because he was ready to end it, but he saw that his body was not ready to drop. However, you can interpret the last days of Siddhartha Gautama anyway that you want.
