The Tree of Enlightenment

ifying assertions about the nature of things, but test such assertions
in the light of one’s own personal experience and only then
accept them as true.
In a similar vein, he said that one should test the truth of
assertions in the light of the criteria of observation, reasoning,
and self-consistency, the way a wise man tests the purity of gold
by cutting, rubbing, and heating it. Again, toward the end of
his career, the Buddha told his disciples to be lamps unto themselves,
to light their own way with their own reasoning. His last
words were, ‘Subject to change are all compounded things; work
out your liberation with diligence.’
e Buddha also encouraged self-reliance in his instructions
to the community of monks regarding the code of monastic
discipline. Consequently, he told Ananda that, after he himself
had died, the members of the Order would be free to abolish
the lesser rules of monastic discipline if they saw fit. Indeed,
it is significant that the Buddha even refused to appoint a successor
to head the Buddhist community after his death. All these
facts point to the climate that existed in the very early Buddhist
community – a climate of free inquiry, democracy, and independence.
After the Buddha’s death, his teachings were preserved in
an oral tradition that was handed down from one generation
of followers to another, maintained in their collective memory.
Literacy was a privilege of the elite in India at that time, and it is
another indication of the premium placed on democracy within
the Buddhist tradition that literary formulation of the teaching
was neglected for so long. Many people were not literate, so
word of mouth was the universal medium for preservation and
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