[Buddha-l] flat earth?

[Joy Vriens]

Curt wrote:
  
>It is a common misconception that "until recently religions maintained  
>that the earth was flat." ("Buddhism Without Beliefs" p. 35) 

If I may indulge you with some more autobiographical material. During my retreat (beginning 1980s), we had a bit of a row with one of our teachers (a Buthanese) about the flatness (not!) of the earth. The teacher insisted the earth was flat because the Buddha said so. When we confronted him with the more tolerant Dalai Lama's point of view on this matter, he got angry and insisted the Buddha said the earth was flat and that was all there was to it.

There was another disagreement with another teacher (Tibetan) about the human anatomy, when explaining hathayogic practises. We were perfectly ready to distinguish between the actual physical body with its internal organs and a meditated empty subtle body with channels and cakras, but he wasn't. There was only one body and when one breaths in through the nostrils, the air didn't go into the lungs but went straight down via the two side channels and then into the central channel...