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**VIAGRA-VIAGRA** · 09-01-2010, 09:55 AM

The Pure Abodes thing and similar stories are mildly interesting to me as metaphors, but that's about it. Most Buddhist scholars are convinced that such stories were designed as responses to pre-existing doctrines in the Vedas or among the Jains, etc, many of which have been lost to history. One thing that the scholars I've read* all agree on is that they weren't meant to be taken literally. Literalism wasn't applied to the suttas, they say, until later commentors and apologists tried to systematize the suttas into a consistent logical structure. Seems those people didn't know their metaphor from a hole in the ground.

*I'm thinking of Gombrich, Rhys Davids, Hwang, etc.

09-01-2010, 09:55 AM	#31
VIAGRA-VIAGRA Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 528 Senior Member	The Pure Abodes thing and similar stories are mildly interesting to me as metaphors, but that's about it. Most Buddhist scholars are convinced that such stories were designed as responses to pre-existing doctrines in the Vedas or among the Jains, etc, many of which have been lost to history. One thing that the scholars I've read* all agree on is that they weren't meant to be taken literally. Literalism wasn't applied to the suttas, they say, until later commentors and apologists tried to systematize the suttas into a consistent logical structure. Seems those people didn't know their metaphor from a hole in the ground. *I'm thinking of Gombrich, Rhys Davids, Hwang, etc.
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