How do you feel about the Buddhist Kama Sutra.

[DreadFish]

No. I heard it from a documentary about the Buddha.

But I think that documentary was more from the Mahayana and Tibetan perspectives of Buddhism, since the Dalai Lama was one of the prominent interviewees.

I'm not necessarily saying that one is true and the other false; it's more likely historically that he would have returned to his wife and kid. I'm just pointing out that the story of the Buddha has many variations.

Ok, I was just curious.

 

[crossfire]

Can you explain how you take this particular passage non-literally? It seems to be intended as literal.

It's about greed, one of the three poisons:

From the Kama Sutta:

A man who is greedy
for fields, land, gold,
cattle, horses,
servants, employees,
women, relatives,
many sensual pleasures,
is overpowered with weakness
and trampled by trouble,
for pain invades him
as water, a cracked boat.​

(notice how sensual desire is likened to a head of a snake in the previous line? Sensual desire is like a snake whose poisonous bite is greed.)

That's how you can understand it non-literally.