Over the past month or two, several newsgroups on usenet and the Tricycle
Magazine bulletin boards have been flooded with posts claiming that the
Buddha taught of an eternal soul. Typically, this claim is followed by a
series of translations of alleged snippets from the Pali canon in support
this claim.
While I read and enjoy the early canon, I can read it only in english, with
access to translations by Bhikkhus Bodhi and Thanissaro. I have been unable
to correlate these snippets to other english translations despite the
references provided in the snippets. And the posters of these snippets
uniformly refuse to provide the full text of the suttas from which they
assert the snippets come from.
If someone has the interest, I would be grateful for any
comments/information that the group members have regarding the following:
"For the soul (attano) in the hereafter (parato) is the great fruition
(mahaphala)."--AN 3.337
"Those who have become the soul, this is the ariyan heart of dhamma. This is
the celestial light of true dhamma." -- Itivuttaka 108
"He who becomes the soul (bhâvitattaññataram), he is Tathagata and
Brahma-become." -- Itivuttaka 57
"The Soul is everlasting (attanam niccam)." -- AN 5.24