[Buddha-l] rebirth

[Joy Vriens]

Mike Austin wrote:

> Hmm. Then one wonders what constitutes a teaching of the Buddha, for the 
> Buddha used concepts that tend to the truth.  Nowhere could his words be 
> taken as 'the truth' as they stand. So is rebirth any different from the 
> other 'teachings' in this respect?

If at the time of the Buddha a wanderer would meet a bikkhu and ask him 
about the Buddha's teaching, I can't imagine  the bikkhu would have 
mentioned that the Buddha taught rebirth, gods, probably not even 
samsara-karma-moksha... Whatever such bikkhu would say was the Buddha's 
teaching, must have been the Buddha's teaching. And whatever was the 
Buddha's teaching in that sense, was probably far less spectacular and 
far more recognisable to us than "rebirth" etc.

If a hypothetical "the truth" is not recognised as such by others, then 
what good is it, or what is true about it? I think the Buddha used 
concepts, methods that would help others to achieve detachment, but I am 
not sure he would have called it truth. I read and forgot the meaning of 
truth in the 4 truths (laws) somewhere, but all I remember now is it 
didn't correspond to our notion of truth. Truth? What in the Buddha's 
concept of the 500 pink-footed nymphs promised to Nanda is true, as a 
concept?

Joy