Notes (December 26, 2018)

Written on December 26, 2018

Bhikkhu Bodhi, Systematic Study of the Majjhima Nikāya, episode III.3 on MN 41, comments on buddhist teachers interpreting “being reborn” (in hell) as simply meaning “mental states” (in this life, not actual rebirth). He points out the stock phrase used every time rebirth is mentioned in the Theravada Canon: “on the dissolution of the body, after death”. Clearly, the Buddha is talking about rebirth, not psychology. This is a modernist rewrite.