[evalayCap]

Thanks for the replies and the link guys. I've had a hunt around and it seems the Brahma / Brahman question is wide open:
In this respect it is noteworthy that the neuter Brahman is quietly ignored, That is quite in accordance with the method of the Suttantas. The Buddha is in them often represented as using, in his own sense, words familiar to his interlocutors in a different sense, The neuter Brahman is, so far as I am aware, entirely unknown in the Nikâyas, and of course the Buddha's idea of Brahmâ, in the masculine, really differs widely from that of the Upanishads. http://www.buddhistlibraryonline.net...8-tevigga.html

Logic would dictate that Buddha would not confuse the two, as he met the deity Brahma on many occasions. He is portrayed as a limited being whom Buddha sometimes instructs, not something with which one can attain union. I tend to side with Aloka-D's quote that "Union with Brahma̅" is being used as a metaphor for Nibbana.

Others claim that it is a sutta which teaches rebirth in the Brahma Lokas, rather than liberation but this seems a tad forced.

I'm interested to hear what anyone else thinks.

namaste
Kris