Buddhist Hermeneutics

Buddhist hermeneutics refers to the interpretative frameworks historical Buddhists have used to interpret and understand Buddhist texts and to the interpretative instructions that Buddhists texts themselves impart upon the reader. Because of the broad variety of scriptures, Buddhist traditions and schools, there are also a wide variety of different hermeneutic approaches within Buddhism.

Buddhist scriptural exegesis has always been driven by the soteriological needs of the tradition to find the true meaning (artha) of Buddhist scriptures. Another important issue in Buddhist hermeneutics is the problem of which sutras are to be taken to be 'Buddhavacana', "the word of the Buddha" and also which sutras contain the correct teachings.

The Early Buddhist texts such as the Sutta Pitaka and the Agamas distinguish between Buddhist suttas that contain clear meaning (Pāli:Nītattha; Sanskrit: nītārtha) and those that require further interpretation (Pāli: neyyattha; Sanskrit: neyartha). This later developed into the two truths doctrine, which states there is a conventional truth and an ultimate truth. The Buddhist concept of Upaya (skillful means) is another common theme in Buddhist Hermeneutics, and holds that the Buddha sometimes taught things that were not literally true as a skillful teaching strategy, and also taught many different things to different people, depending on their ability to understand.

The issue of how to determine if a teaching is a genuine teaching of the Buddha is present in the earliest Buddhist scriptures. One such text is the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, which has a section called the 'The Four Great References' (mahāpadesa) that outlines a set of criteria for determining whether a teaching is from the Buddha. This sutta states that four references are acceptable:

In the cases where someone is not being directly taught by the Buddha however, the text goes on to say that the hearer should check these teachings by "carefully studying the sentences word by word, one should trace them in the Discourses and verify them by the Discipline." If they are not traceable to the suttas, one should reject them.

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