I am a bit of a hands on person, so texts often confuse me. So can someone smarter than me (almost everyone )
tell me that does this mean that the Buddhist idea of being reborn into an animal is just a parable? Something to scare the masses. But not taken literally. I thought I understood this bit, but now I am very confused.
No idea really..... However, I think too, any translation from one languge to another 'looses' some of the essence, the thinking patterns of the original language... I know all about that being bilingual and not speaking English until I went to school where I learnt real quick... When I immigrated to Australia as a 2 year old with my family I lived in isolation on a farm and never got the chance to speak English until school...
However, I did find that certain types of expression, 'thought patterns' I call them... (cultural? perceptual?), which were understood in one language, do not necessarily exist in another language so then you have to find the closest 'interpretation' you can but even so, it often enough doesn't sound 'right' but is merely at best, 'vaguely close enough'...
Regardless how fluent the Translator is in both languages, every translation will always be slightly 'tainted' by the personal interpretation of that Translator when language based difficulties of expressions or 'thought patterns' arise.
I remember a time when for example, if you studied Freud at University, (Freud whose work were orginally written in German), it was compulsory to take some other extra subject, I forget what it was called, .....which involved trying to understanding what can be 'lost' or what extra can be 'added' when translating from one language to another, again, no matter how fluent the Translator is in both languages.
From my understanding, there are quite a number of different Buddhist religions and teachings, not just one... depending upon the Culture of whatever country or what particular region of a Country a Buddhist religion is from.
I guess similar to that there are many Chrisitian religions with varying differences including Cultural differences, depending upon Denominations, country of orgin and so on... You find many African socities which take on Chrisitianity have a vastly different undertanding and way of expressing their Chrisitian belief to for example, The Church of England followers in English speaking countries...
I remember reading books about life in various Monasteries from a certain part in Tibet where the Monks went through every bit of clothing before they washed them so as to make sure no insects were trapped lest they accidently squash the life out of a soul who has reincarnated as an insect...