Four Criteria to Determine the Word of the Buddha

The Buddha then took his leave of Vaishali, but outside the city he looked back and said, “Ananda, this is the last time the Tathagata will look upon Vaishali.” (Ibid, p. 254) It is worth noting that even though the Buddha had long ago extinguished all attachment and aversion, he still cared enough to take the time to appreciate the beauty of the various shrines and to remark upon his last ever sight of Vaishali. The Buddha was free of afflictive emotional states and deluded views, but he was still a deeply caring and sensitive person.

The Buddha then traveled to a series of villages, and at each village he gathered the monks there together and taught them the importance of the threefold training of morality, concentration, and wisdom for escaping the cycle of birth and death. This was followed by the comprehensive discourse that he had taught at Vulture Peak and many other places just before his last rainy season retreat. The first part of the discourse is as follows:

And there the Lord addressed the monks: “It is, monks, through not understanding, not penetrating four things that I as well as you have for a long time fared on round the cycle of rebirths. What are these four? Through not understanding the noble morality, through not understanding the noble concentration, through not understanding the noble wisdom, through not understanding the noble liberation, I as well as you have for a long time fared on round the cycle of rebirths. And it is by understanding and penetrating the noble morality, the noble concentration, the noble wisdom, and the noble liberation that the craving for becoming has been cut off, the tendency towards becoming has been exhausted, and there will be no more rebirth.”

Thus the Lord spoke. The Well Farer having thus spoken, the Teacher said this:

“Morality, concentration, wisdom and final release,

These glorious things Gautama came to know.

The Dharma he’d discerned he taught to his monks:

He whose vision ended woe to nirvana’s gone.”

(Ibid. pp. 254-255)

On one occasion the Buddha taught the monks a discourse concerning four criteria whereby after the Buddha’s passing they could determine whether any teaching they might hear really represents the Dharma and the discipline (by which is meant the monastic code) taught by the Buddha.

At Bhoganagara the Lord stayed at the Ananda Shrine. And here he said to the monks: “Monks, I will teach you four criteria. Listen, pay close attention, and I will speak.” “Yes, Lord,” replied the monks.

“Suppose a monk were to say: ‘Friends, I heard and received this from the Lord’s own lips: this is the Dharma, this is the discipline, this is the Master’s teaching”, then, monks, you should neither approve nor disapprove his words. Then, without approving or disapproving, his words and expressions should be carefully noted and compared with the sutras and reviewed in the light of the discipline. If they, on such comparison and review, are found not to conform to the sutras or the discipline, the conclusion must be: ‘Assuredly this is not the word of the Buddha, it has been wrongly understood by this monk”, and the matter is to be rejected. But where on such comparison and review they are found to conform to the sutras or the discipline, the conclusion must be: ‘Assuredly this is the word of the Buddha, it has been rightly understood by this monk.” This is the first criteria. (Ibid, p. 255)

The second, third, and fourth criteria are similar except that they apply not to a monk claiming to expound the Buddha’s teaching but to a community of elders and distinguished teachers, a group of elders, or a single elder respectively. In each case, people are not to just take someone’s word for anything, but without any argumentation they should just compare what is taught to the sutras and discipline to see if in fact it is consistent with what the Buddha taught.

It is curious that the Buddha would tell his monks to refer to the sutras when in fact the sutras would not be written down until several hundred years after the Buddha’s death. However, “sutras” do not just refer to the written texts. The word actually means “discourse” or “thread of discourse” and refers to the discourses which many monks, most especially the Venerable Ananda, were memorizing as the Buddha taught them to pass on for posterity.

Another thing to note here is that for a teaching to be considered the “Buddha’s word” it must conform to the sutras and discipline, but the Buddha did not require that it be a verbatim citation. What is important is that a teaching claimed to be the “Buddha’s word” express the same principles and spirit taught in those discourses that the Buddha did deliver personally.