There's another sutta I'm thinking of relevant to the preacher's
question, but it turns the question and answer back on him. I believe
it occurs in Samyutta first or second sections (Devas and devatas).
I browsed through access to insight's selections on those sections and
didn't see the sutta I'm thinking of.
It's the sutta that goes something like this:
One of the Buddha's disciples, I don't think it was Mogollana, but a
disciple who did have the ability to travel to any deva realm.
He tracked down the highest ranking god/brahma, and asked him a tough
question, something like, "Is there a place where the four elements have
no footing, where light and consciousness have no place to land?" Brahma
repsonded with something like, "I am Brahma, the almighty, all powerful.
There is nothing that is not within my domain of knowing."
Yet he didn't answer the disciple's question.
Brahma then did some kind of evasive maneuver, trying to hide in a
higher brahma realm or realm of higher meditative attainment, but this
was a powerful disciple and for a second time and a third time he
tracked him down to ask the question, "is there a place where the 4
elements...". And for the 2nd and 3rd time, Brahma responded the same way.
The disciple, frustrated, said, "Look here Brahma, I asked you this
question and you keep giving me this weak evasive response without
answering. What's up with that?"
Brahma replies: " Hey man, you made me look bad in front of my guys, the
other Brahmas and devas who look up to me by asking me a question I
don't know the answer to. Why you hassling me in the first place, when
you're a disciple of the Buddha, the all knowing one? He can answer your
question." The disciple asks the Buddha, who of course answers it.
I just pulled out the CDOB and flipped quickly through the first
sections, didn't see it. Maybe the sutta I'm thinking of is in Digha or
Majjhima?