Horrible religious history...

• Its true I bellyache about what pathetic Buddhists we are in Sri Lanka , but have you ever stopped to consider what we would be called if Buddha hadn’t existed?
  
  Well according to the standard 9 Buddhism text book we might have ended up being sorry creatures called Kesakambalists, Pakuda Kachchayanists or worst of all Belliattaputtists- (who had,if Im correct, no theory about anything!)these were apparently the major theories in India just before Buddha began to clean up all the misunderstandings.
  
  How do I know – well last Sunday my house was overrun by kids as it usually is on weekends and one of them happened to be cramming for her Buddhism exam (this is Grade 9) I had a peep at the standard textbook and this was quite *enlightening* to say the least
  
  So to get this clear there were 5 main theories put forward about the meaning of life,death and our ultimate agendas (in those sorry times before cable TV) and they were :
• Poorna Kassapas – he said “ there is no real cause or effect in killing stealing ,making sacrifices, being good or in fact doing anything at all…”
• Makkalee Gosala who said “ Theres no reason for creatures being born, death, no reason to be clean* (arrk !) Everything has no cause or reason (basically he was a FATALIST) everything is pre planned pre decided and all creatures have to live exactly 84 eons in Samsara in misery and then find automatic Nirvana (gulp!)
• Ajitha Kesakamabala (and from his name I can visualize a real trendy young evangelist like the Siriasa Isuperistar…)who said “the four elements come together to form life (duh ! but I guess the Indians of that time thought it was pretty deep-) which elements separate and then there is death –no reincarnation(what ! you mean that’s IT?I would not give up the theory of reincarnation for anything in the world . It means I can be 16 again at some point!)
• Pakuda Kachchayana “no here and no hereafter,”(pretty much same as above)**
  and finally
• Sanjaya (another film star type Indian I bet-) Bellatiputta- “ who when asked about the meaning of life, death and human being -“ lokaya ho vimukthia pilibanda va kisindhu adhahasak prakasha no kaleya,” ….which is , kind of , “no comment,”….can you beat that ?bet he grew fat and rich on that theory!

personally ...There are not much of us left, but Im sure glad I got to be a Buddhist...

* anyone who dosent beleive me read page 22 of the standard Govt Buddhism text book Grade 9

** HEY! get your own theory!!