Sorry. I do not have time to get into discussions about these strange analyses by bhikkhus Sujato, Brahmali, and Analayo about EBTs (Early Buddhist Texts).
First of all, EBT is incorrect terminology.
– What are “New Buddhist Texts” (NBT)?
– If there are NBTs whose teachings are they?
– Are there any “new teachings” that appeared after the Buddha? If so, they would not be Buddha Dhamma!
There is ONLY ONE EBT. That is the Tipitaka, the Pali Canon.
– Now, there are Chinese Agama texts (translation of the Tipitaka in Chinese). It seems to me that it would be fine IF the translation to Chinese is correct. I don’t know Chinese, so I cannot comment on that.
On pp. 9-10 of the text by Bhikkhus Sujato and Brahmali that you quoted, they provide definitions for EBTs and non-EBTs.
Their definitions are INCORRECT.
1. The ONLY EBT is the Tipitaka. It has Sutta Piṭaka, Vinaya Piṭaka, and the Abhidhamma Piṭaka.
– In their definition, they only include the Sutta Piṭaka as EBT.
– Even worse, they include all sorts of OLD TEXTS in Tibetan, Chinese, and Indian (Sanskrit) as EBT. Those are DERIVED from the original Pali Canon. In addition, most Sanskrit texts were “made-up”. See, “Saddharma Pundarika Sutra (Lotus Sutra) – A Focused Analysis”
2. They list Abhidhamma as non-EBT. I guess that is because it was finalized at the Third Council. But as I explained in my previous comment, it took a long time to finalize the Abhidhamma Piṭaka. But it is quite clear (due to self-consistency) that Abhidhamma is part of Buddha’s teachings. Abhidhamma is self-consistent within and also with the other two Piṭaka.
That is why I do not want to continue this discussion. There is a basic flaw at the root. Such discussions do not lend to learning Buddha Dhamma. They may be good topics for philosophical discussions, but I am not interested in such discussions.
If you have questions about Bodhisatta concept, please ask a question without quoting those texts.
– What is wrong with the Bodhisatta concept? A Bodhisatta is someone who is striving to attain the Buddhahood over many, many lives.
– Yes. There were many Buddhas in the past. What is wrong with that?