[Buddha-l] angels

[Piya Tan]

Brahma Sahampati has been somewhat maligned due to lack of focussed study.
Actually he is a non-returner from the time of Kassapa Buddha. In other words,
he is a arya (saint of the path).

As such, his invitation to get the Buddha to teach is not suprising. Even if
this is only Buddhist mythology.

Sukhi

Piya

"r.g.morrison" wrote:

> Robert:
>
> : >What about Brahma Sahampati pleading with the Buddha to teach, when the
> : >Buddha thought that trying to communicate the Dharma would be, in
> coloquial
> : >terms, 'a pain in the ass'!
>
>  Erik:
>
> : As far as I understood the passage, B was a god and he could communicate
> directly with humans. In the desertreligions there's only one god who's so
> far away from his business (transcendent) that he needs messengers. This
> lone ranger god also has no attributes, clothes, vehicles and even no face.
> This all has been given to the angels who need it for their jobs.
>
> As far as I understand it, Brahma Sahampati is just Brahma, not just a god
> but topdog God of the brahmins at the time (which is the whole point of this
> 'satire' sutta).  Also, as far as I can recall (I haven't looked at a bible
> for at least 50 years), the god of the bible also communicates directly with
> humans - just ask Job.  And there were plenty of other gods among the desert
> tribes, the god in the bible was just the god of one tribe (or was it a
> group of them?) - after all, why all the fuss about false gods? And when
> William Blake saw god looking at him through the window, what he saw was no
> attributeless noumenal 'thing'. Anyway, doesn't he always look like an old
> man with white hair and beard?  And as Nietzsche observed, he's now dead
> anyway, but it will take quite a long time for this to sink in!
>
> Robert Morrison
> _______________________________________________
> buddha-l mailing list
> buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
> http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/listinfo/buddha-l