4. Scriptures.
The scriptures of Buddhism are called
“the Three Baskets” (Tipiṭaka in Pāli; Tripiṭaka in
Sanskrit). Both Southern and Northern
Buddhists have
always esteemed the scriptures as the supreme source
of
knowledge, the standard by which everything should
be judged. The only
notable exception to this reliance
upon the scriptures has been in Zen
Buddhism, with
its emphasis upon direct insight and its assertion that
only silence avoids violating the truth. And even Zen
does not entirely
reject the scriptures. In Southern
Buddhism also there are some teachers
who emphasize
meditation virtually to the exclusion of study of the
scripture, but the general pattern throughout all Bud-
dhism has been one of great reliance upon the scrip-
tures. The decision as to which of the scriptures
will
be accepted as authoritative differs with sects. Even
though
almost all Buddhists will base their faith on
the scriptures, there is no
one scripture which is ac-
cepted as having the
same authority for everyone who
calls himself a Buddhist, and very few are
accepted
equally throughout all the Buddhist world.
However, there is one formula which is universal.
That is the formula by
which one expresses one's faith
in the three refuges (which are called
“the Three
Jewels,” tiratana
in Pāli), the Buddha, the Teaching
(Dhamma), and the Brotherhood (Saṅgha).
It runs as
follows: “I put faith in the Buddha. I put faith in
the
Teaching. I put faith in the Brotherhood.” This formula
is recited in the Pāli language in South Asiatic coun-
tries, and in the language of the people concerned
in
North Asiatic countries. In Southern Buddhism the
scriptures in the
Pāli language are accepted as the final
authority; in Northern
Buddhism the corpus of scrip-
tures contain
many more commentators' texts, which
were mostly composed after the
Christian era.
