Kathavatthu Sutta | Properly Talking Dharma. Piya Tan 160223

Kathavatthu Sutta | The Discourse on Points for Discussion [A 3.67 @ SD 46.11].
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Kathā,vatthu Sutta
The Discourse on Points for Discussion | A 3.67
Theme: Answering questions and the qualities of a true Dharma speaker
Translated & annotated by Piya Tan ©2008

1 Early Buddhism as psychotherapy
The Buddha Dharma, from the very first discourse to the five monks, preserved in the Dhamma,cakkap,pavattana Sutta (S 56.11) to his very last words as recorded in the Mahā,parinibbāna Sutta (D 16), is effectively a 45-year long session of spiritual counselling on a cosmic scale. The Buddha’s teaching consummates the spirituality of his listeners, awakens beings from ignorance and craving, shows them the path to awakening, and uplifts others from suffering, or at least teaches them the possibility of liberating themselves from the sufferings of the samsaric cycle—and continues to do so.

The main purpose of the Buddha Dharma is a person-centred re-enacting of the Buddha’s self-awakening, or on a more general level, the basic purpose of the Buddha Dharma is that of personal counselling and self-healing. What has been attracting mind scientists and specialists is that Buddhism offers

(1) a broad and versatile vocabulary of the mind that often challenges current scientific notions and provides new ways of looking at the mind;

(2) coherent theories of mind, being and healing that are effectively challenging Cartesian dualism and Freudian fundamentals, supporting the concept of self-transcending neuroplasticity (brain-healing, attention-training etc);

(3) detailed and effective techniques to create and maintain altered states of consciousness, generally known as “meditation” (especially by way of the first-person experience);

(4) dramatic case histories of how the Buddha and his disciples counsel and heal the aged, the ailing, the dying, those suffering great loss, the emotionally troubled, a serial killer, and so on;

(5) living examples of those who have or are benefitting from meditation training, especially contemplative monastics and regular meditators;

(6) modern mind sciences now have the technology and instruments to put to test the methods and claims of Buddhist meditation, and so far the results have been very instructive and rewarding.

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