The Words of the Buddha

...in recent years a new tendency has emerged in which an attempt is made to reaffirm the faith of Buddhism by reinterpreting the meaning of "the words of the Buddha." Accordingly, "the words of the Buddha" need not necessarily be understood to be Shakyamuni's exact words but should be taken as what he truly meant. In other words, since terms and expressions vary from time to time depending on changes in society, the important thing is to address the content we have received via the vessels of words and expressions--that is, the ideas.

Two ways of thinking about or studying Buddhism emerge from this point of departure. The first is to dig down to the common stream that underlies the various sutras and forms of Buddhism to find what is called the fundamental spirit of Buddhism, the heart of Buddhism, or the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha. Accordingly, the different sutras and schools of Buddhism boil down to nothing more than the differences of expression due to differences in time, society, and level of understanding. The second way of thinking about Buddhism is to seek the depths of Buddhist thought. Even if Mahayana Buddhism, for example, was formed much later than the early and sectarian forms of Buddhism, if it conveys an authentic intent of Shakymuni Buddha, we can say that it is truly the words of the Buddha.

---Yoshiro Tamura, in his book 'Introduction to the Lotus Sutra'---