1. The main teachings of the Buddha (who lived in North India some six centuries before Christ) were written down by Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka some 5 centuries after the Buddha's passing away. Mahinda, the brother or son of the Emperor Asoka is said to have brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka in the 3rd Century CE. The Buddha, (literally, the enlightened one), is a moral teacher who claimed that others too can reach his level of moral perfection and happiness when, having overcome all greed, and lust, one reaches a state of benevolent happiness and satisfaction. This mental state is Nirvana or Nibbana in Pali, the language said to have been used by the Buddha. Unlike normal people who continue to have new desires, new cravings and lusts, the mind of a person who has reached Nirvana will overcome all desires (Thanha), and will NOT regenerate new desires, lusts and cravings. Such a person is called an Arhanth. This is the end of the cycle of rebirths of such cycles of craving. The Buddha is an Arhanth and a teacher who attained enlightenment and showed the way to others.
We will show from the Buddha's early sermons that the word rebirth (punnab-bava) applies to the regeneration of Thanha (i.e., greed, lust, cravings,desires), and not to rebirth at the end of physiological life, as is usually claimed by traditional Buddhists who follow a modified version of the Hindu concept of a cycle of lives after each death.
2. The Sinhalese language, very like the Pali language, is a vernacular form (Prakrit) related to Sanskrit. It had been the vehicle that contained the Buddha's teaching, reverently preserved by the oral method of memorizing and reciting them in "Pirith sanghayana", i.e., group recitals of the teaching of the Buddha. Such "pirith recitations" occur even today in Buddhist countries.
3. Unlike the Jews and Christians, the Buddhists do not consider their texts to be revealed, sacred truths. They are more like the dialogues of Socrates, and take the form of reports of sermons or Sutras, which begin with "Thus have I heard ...". So there is no such thing as "heresy" in Buddhism, and there are no heretics, in the Judo-Christian sense.
However, different Buddhist groups have debated various philosophical views in many learned councils (sanghaayana) held in the course of time. The Buddha himself discourgaed "metaphysical" speculations, e.g., about the origin and end of the universe., idealism versus materialism etc., as being meaningless debates.
