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Robert Walker

In the “deva or “god”realms” - beings who have immensely long happy lives in Buddhist cosmology but still eventually die- then you just appear in the realm of the devas fully formed as an adult - they don’t have the problems of being born and growing up in this Buddhist mythology.

I particularly like the story of the frog deva - a frog that was listening to Buddha teaching, just enjoying the sound of his voice, with no understanding, and in the middle of the discourse, then a cowherd who had also come to listen to the Buddha leans a staff on the frog, not knowing that it was there, and accidentally crushes it to death. The frog instantly appears in the god realms, still listening to the Buddha. And Buddha being aware of the various realms also notices him and says “where did you come from?”, and he explains where he came from, and he listens to the rest of the discourse, which of course as a deva he can now understand, and has the realization of a “stream enterer” as a result. He then returns to his new celestial palace at the end of the discourse.

This is in the Mandukadevaputtavimana sutta apparently, see A frog becomes a god

About the Author

Robert Walker

Robert Walker

Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.
Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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