| | Abe, Since I've actually read through the Majjhima Nikaya, and am about 70% into the Samyutta Nikaya, I feel qualified to offer the following comments:
1. The Buddha taught the Dhamma to many people of various backgrounds, levels of attainment, and interests. So the teachings come in several frameworks, each suited, I assume, for a class of recipients of the teaching. What we have in the suttas is a collection of ancient dhamma talks. And while the Buddha did not teach "with a closed fist", as the Theravadins like to say, neither did he have a "one size fits all" policy.
2. In the Samyutta Nikaya, the sections about dependent origination and the five clinging aggregates (where I've found the most detailed teachings on the three characteristics yer) are adjacent. The second discourse the Buddha ever held is traditionally believed to be the discourse on not-self, SN 22.59 (three translation on accesstoinsight, plus an audio version).
3. Abhidhamma is cool - it's the information from all the dhamma talks in the sutta pitaka, in tabular form, a huge map: I love maps. But the Abhidhamma also sucks for the same reason: all the contextual information is lost, and the form suggests a primarily intellectual approach. The Dhamma, in whatever form it's expressed, goes to your heart, not to your head. Maybe that's what the Venerable Vimalaramsi was expressing: the teachings on dependent origination touched his heart better than the teaching on the three characteristics: but I don't presume to speak for him.
Finally, I find Hokai's advice excellent: Keep it simple. I've found it best to pick one exposition of the Dhamma, and stick with it, explore it, practice it. (There's the fetter of sceptical doubt - the dithering attitude of "am I right? is this teacher right? what about that other school, are they right? what does that book say? ...")
Cheers, Florian |