Dona Sutta - Parallel Versions

Parallel Versions

Of the several Chinese parallel versions, the one contained in the Ekottara-āgama, attributed to the Mahāsānghikas, preserves a simpler, shorter and older form of this sutra. It treats Dona's questions as enquiries about the Buddha's present status, but omits the specific answer given by the Buddha, that he is a Buddha, found in all other versions. Here, the Buddha merely states that he knows that attachment and desire are the sources of the skandhas (the constituents of individual existence) and through that knowledge he has ended suffering. Thus, though the Mahāsānghikas are known to have espoused a form of docetism, the version of the Dona-sutta used by them does not imply that the Buddha is a transcendental being in human form, while the version preserved in Pali may be open to that interpretation.