Scriptural Authority: A Buddhist Perspective

Zhiru discusses the different junctures in Buddhist history when scriptural authority was problematized as part of self-reflection and criticism of the "tradition." He focuses on three examples: early Buddhism, early Mahayana, and Chan Buddhism. They are chosen because they aptly illustrate how Buddhists reconceived scriptural or textual authority as part of a critical rethinking of Buddhist thought and practice. The paper concludes with an attempt to broaden the understanding of Buddhist scriptural authority by highlighting the authority of scriptures as material objects, a perspective that has been largely neglected in comparative cross-cultural studies of scriptures.