‘Burning The Sūtras’: The Central Metaphor of Buddhism

The Buddha didn’t think much of ascetics, god-men or philosophers. And he preferred concrete metaphors to abstract terms like the ‘Self-Eating Expression’.

And so it is that the final self-scuttling turn of Yājñavalkya’s abstract Formula gets a very tangible, everyday illustration.

From the ‘Diamond-Cutter’ Sūtra [Front Page]:

‘My teaching of the Good Law is to be likened unto a raft. [Does a man who has safely crossed a flood upon a raft continue his journey carrying that raft upon his head?]

The Buddha-teaching must be relinquished; how much more so mis-teaching!’

You ‘Burn the Sūtras’ once their work is done. Gut the very boat that takes you across the river. This is the rounding of Yājñavalkya’s Rule [See Post] expressed as the central metaphor of the Buddha-Dharma.