Approaches to studying the Buddhist scriptures in the modern era

Abstract

This academic article aims to present the contemporary approach to studying the Pali Canon amidst the challenges of translation and preserving the purity of the Buddha's teachings.
The study found that historical teachings were distorted due to the influence of local beliefs or Animism, and later sects such as the Anāgatavaṃsa sect, which emphasized the extreme acts of merit-making contrary to the Middle Way, because the main problems are the significant discrepancy between the literal and semantic translations, the translator’s biases, and the translation errors into the second language.

The proposed approach to preserving the Buddha's teachings comprises of the four main elements: (1) mastering the Pali language as the language responsible for preserving the Buddha's words; 2) studying the Pali Canon alongside commentaries and sub-commentaries to understand the complex sentences and the semantics; (3) applying the Four Great Principles (Mahāpadesa 4) to verify the consistency with the Dhamma-Vinaya; and (4) utilizing some information technology for the rapid comparison and verification.
Therefore, these approaches will enable the researchers to access the essence of the Dhamma and accurately preserve the Buddha's teachings in the present era.