Norman,

What exactly does this have to do with pali?
There's numerous references throughout the samyutta
and majjhima where the topic of rebirth is addressed.
If you're so interested in finding textual support for
your view in a buddhism without literal rebirth, the
onus is on you to diligently go through, find the
references, and provide a compelling argument for each
case to support your assertion - especially, why would
the Buddha, who was brilliant and known for denouncing
harmful wrong views and giving pragmatic explanations
of the utmost clarity, in this case give so many
explanations where it lends itself so naturally to a
literal rebirth interpretation. If there was no
literal rebirth, the buddha would have listed that as
pernicious wrong view #1 or #2, in the 62 wrong views
in the digha nikaya sutta#1(?). The Buddha is not
known for teaching in a way that would confuse and
easily mislead, and rebirth being a prevalent view at
the time, he certainly would have devoted a fair
amount effort into squashing that view. So it's not
just a matter of addressing the cases where the
buddha's discourse implies rebirth, but the glaring
omission of why he doesn't correct such a prevalent
allegedly wrong view [of literal rebirth].

The evidence and interpretation you give in your
initial query is weak. You're going to have to make a
stronger and more detailed case before anyone would
take you seriously.

-fk


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Search - Find what you�re looking for faster
http://search.yahoo.com