--- frank <frank@...> skrev:

> The lesson that the follower of the Buddha can
> take from this is that all
> of the sacred texts are only a map.

True - and a map is never an exact picture of the
terrain; it's not meant to be, and if it were, it
wouldn't be useful. It's a means to help us find our
own way in the terrain, which is something different.

So when the Buddha, according to the suttas, tell
stories, the main thing is not whether these are
literally true (I don't think his listeners believed
in deer and human beings talking to each other, for
example), but how they are supposed to help us. As he
is told to have said, the only things he taught was
dukkha and the end of dukkha.

Gunnar


gunnargallmo@...