Buddhist hermeneutics
One such text is the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, which has a section called 'The Four Great References' (mahāpadesa) that outlines a set of criteria for determining whether a teaching is from the Buddha.
Texts and teachings not spoken by the Buddha directly but taught by his disciples, such as the Theragatha, are said to be 'well said' (subhasitam) and an expression of the Dhamma and therefore to be Buddhavacana.
By far the most important Theravada commentator was the fifth-century scholar monk Buddhaghosa, who wrote commentaries on large portions of the Pali canon.
Two major Theravada hermeneutical texts are the Petakopadesa and the Nettipakarana (c. 1st century CE), both traditionally attributed to the exegete Mahākaccāna.
Both texts use the gradual path to Nirvana as a hermeneutical tool for explaining the teachings of the Buddha in a way that was relevant to both monastics and laypersons.
The Netti provides five guidelines (naya) and sixteen modes (hara) for clarifying the relationship between a text's linguistic convention (byanjana) and its true meaning (atha).
Because of these mutually contradictory texts, Buddhist scholars had to find a way to harmonize the many different sutras and teachings into a coherent canon and interpretative framework, sometimes by outlining a classification system for them (Chinese:p'an-chiao).
The Buddha was said to have adapted his message based on his audience, expounding different teachings to different people, all depending on how intelligent and spiritually advanced they were.
The Mahayana schools' classification systems were meant to organize sutras based on this hierarchical typology of persons (Sravakas, Mahayanists, etc).
These themes include taking safe direction (refuge), understanding the laws of behavioral cause and effect, developing higher ethical discipline, concentration, and discriminating awareness of how things actually exist, and generating love and compassion for all.
catuḥpratisaraṇa) are:[1][9] The four abhiprāya ("hidden intention" or "purpose") refers to the concealed meaning behind the Buddha's statements that were not meant to be taken literally.
According to John R. McRae, the Chinese Tiantai exegete and philosopher Zhiyi (538–597 CE) developed a fourfold hermeneutic criteria for commenting on the Lotus Sutra:[12]The first three of these criteria concern the relationship between the Buddha and his audience, the doctrinal implications of a given line or term, and the alternative interpretations based on either the ultimate Mahayana doctrines or the more limited Hinayana.
