Reply To: How the Meanings Got Lost and How to Interpret

#51044
dosakkhayo
Participant

Interpretation is not a simple process. Think about it like this: You put John and Smith in the same room for ten minutes and wait. Then, outside the room, you give them paper and a pen and ask them to describe the room. Even if neither John nor Smith lies at all, there won’t be identical sentences written on the two papers. This is because people read different things from same thing. There can be infinite interpretations of a given text. (Of course, there are valid, sound, and coherent interpretations, as well as those that are not.) It is impossible to write a text in a way that prevents infinite possibilities of interpretation.

If something like abhisankhara or kamma vinnana had been written as it was, the distortion of the Dhamma occurring in the absence of the Ariya would have progressed in a different, unknown manner.

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