Well then, hello my distant Dhamma brother!
I haven’t seen any of them for years, but ran into Ajahn Tong with Kate and Thanat in Bodhgaya maybe ten years ago. It was lovely to be able to pay respects!
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It seems to me one of the biggest factors of this conversation that I don’t necessarily see that has been brought up is Right Speech. The dhamma as I understand it, within the early texts, leads to concord and not to debate or speculative talk. The theoretical topic of self seems to be speculative, even if it were true, would not conduce to the practice, but only provide an ontological base which also does not replace the actual practice. We see this also for example in Patanjalis yogasutras where the practice and wording of the texts is very similar to the history of textual Buddhism, and even influenced by it, but still having a ontological base of defining the cosmological ground of being that is being practiced upon. Within the early texts of Buddhism our closest ontological being is that consciousness is a condition for name and form and name and form are also a reciprocal condition for consciousness which is directly experiential, and not much of a real ontological base. I bring all this up, because I think that what makes early Buddhism, even in contrast from later speculative Buddhism, so different is that the early Buddhists refuse to converse about matters that lead to division. And anything theoretical surely does lead to arguments, division, and conflict, and ultimately if taken seriously, this leads into sectarianism and fragmentation of the sangha, which actually did happen in the history of Buddhism. So maybe, the Buddhas abstinence of talking about practice in the way that Ramana Maharishi and other non- early Buddhist Indians might, has something to do with Right Speech. And yes, absolutely, these teachers practices can and do lead to great spiritual and personal accomplishment, maybe even more so than most Buddhists that we know, but the importance of the early Buddhist teachings is not only the practice and the states that we are able to attain and experience, but also the way in which the practice is talked about and how it is preserved in communication. This way in which the early Buddhist practice is articulated and communicated, I believe, is one of the primary reasons that the early Buddhist practice is called superior to all others.
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