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**Mr_White** · 05-05-2012, 04:17 PM

I am not sure 'metaphor' is the right approach. Buddha often used simile & metaphor but then usually explained the symbolism of the metaphor, such as:

Sense desires are like bare bones, has the Blessed One said; they are like a lump of flesh, like a torch of straw, like a pit of burning coals, like a dream, like borrowed goods, like a fruit-bearing tree, like a slaughter house, like a stake of swords, like a snake's head, are sense desires, has the Blessed One said. but if we are referring to words such as jati (birth), for example, they are not metaphor. jati refers to the birth (coming in being) of some something, although that something may be mental, physical, etc, such as:

Tamenaṃ jātaṃ samānaṃ sakena lohitena poseti

When the child is born, she feeds it with her own blood

MN 38 rūpaṃ attato samanupassati. Yā kho pana sā, bhikkhave, samanupassanā saṅkhāro so. So pana saṅkhāro kiṃnidāno kiṃsamudayo kiṃjātiko kiṃpabhavo?

He assumes form to be the self. That assumption is a fabrication. Now what is the cause, what is the origination, what is the birth, what is the coming-into-existence of that fabrication?

SN 22.81

05-05-2012, 04:17 PM	#3
Mr_White Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 594 Senior Member	I am not sure 'metaphor' is the right approach. Buddha often used simile & metaphor but then usually explained the symbolism of the metaphor, such as: Sense desires are like bare bones, has the Blessed One said; they are like a lump of flesh, like a torch of straw, like a pit of burning coals, like a dream, like borrowed goods, like a fruit-bearing tree, like a slaughter house, like a stake of swords, like a snake's head, are sense desires, has the Blessed One said. but if we are referring to words such as jati (birth), for example, they are not metaphor. jati refers to the birth (coming in being) of some something, although that something may be mental, physical, etc, such as: Tamenaṃ jātaṃ samānaṃ sakena lohitena poseti When the child is born, she feeds it with her own blood MN 38 rūpaṃ attato samanupassati. Yā kho pana sā, bhikkhave, samanupassanā saṅkhāro so. So pana saṅkhāro kiṃnidāno kiṃsamudayo kiṃjātiko kiṃpabhavo? He assumes form to be the self. That assumption is a fabrication. Now what is the cause, what is the origination, what is the birth, what is the coming-into-existence of that fabrication? SN 22.81
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