SuttaCentral
"At that time Pilindavaccha had arthritis of the hands and feet.
“I allow …
Actually that is a beautiful example of Buddha teaching a gradual wise approach to healing. Starting with the simplest and mildest to see if that works, if not then make it more complex etc.
It reminded me of how the Patimokkha developed, from a basic teaching of the Middle Way and 3-fold advice for practice, to 10 precepts and then more rules as the sangha grew and need arose. 
Two things might help answer your question:
Buddha’s teaching to Jivaka MN 55
Considering the Buddha’s actions and teaching in the context of the place (northern India), technological development and people’s needs of that time. They grew food through permaculture, which included use of animals. Even now eating eggs and drinking milk or eating cheese involves passive participation in killing young roosters and calves.
We can only do our best, dependent on the social conditions of the place and time. We are fortunate now, in Australia for example, to have a wide choice. 
I think, instead of pointing out your opinion on “what the Buddha got wrong” in EBTs, it may be better to just identify what the Buddha in EBTs admitted that he made a mistake, and/or presented a solution for his mistake.
For example, he admitted he made a mistake to teach asubha ‘impure’ reflection that caused some problems for monks; he then taught mindfulness on breathing. He admitted he made certain Vinaya rules that needed to be changed, corrected, explained for monks/nuns.
I agree with this general principle, but I think metabolism must still be functioning in some subtle way. Breathing may also be suspended and imperceptible, which may be another interpretation of cessation. In SN 41.6 and MN 43, someone who is in the Nirodha Samapatti is said to still have physical warmth, which to me indicates thermogenesis, thermoregulation, metabolism, etc.
From the much later Mahavibhasa of the Sarvastivadins (ca. 2nd century), there is advice to only dwell in the Nirodha Samapatti for 1 week or less. Some anecdotes about monks who dwelled in it for 2-4 weeks and died due to lack of nutriment. So it seems like nutriment was being slowly used up during this time. But interestingly enough, the monks only collapsed and died after emerging from samadhi.
“What’s the difference between someone who has passed away and a mendicant who has attained the cessation of perception and feeling?”
“When someone dies, their physical, verbal, and mental processes have ceased and stilled; their vitality is spent; their warmth is dissipated; and their faculties have disintegrated. When a mendicant has attained the cessation of perception and feeling, their physical, verbal, and mental processes have ceased and stilled. But their vitality is not spent; their warmth is not dissipated; and their faculties are very clear. That’s the difference between someone who has passed away and a mendicant who has attained the cessation of perception and feeling.”
I was a committee member with Animal Liberation in Perth in the mid-80s and I can assure you that all of these issues were very much understood and were are regular part of our messaging. A search for cruelty-free cosmetics shows that, unlike in the 80s, there are many options for those who care, which suggests that the animal welfare campaigns did make a difference.
One of the little curiosities of my time in Animal Lib was that the WA government gave us two inspection licenses each year. These in principle allowed us access to anywhere that animals were being used for commercial or research purposes. I held such a license and with it was able to visit a number of places that the public usually shies away from. We saw the sheepyards, where out the back there is literally a pile of dying sheep each day. When the trucks come in for the sales, there are always some sheep who are injured or sick or old, and they are unable to make it for sale. So they are dragged out the back and literally just tossed in a heap with other rejects. An officer from the RSPC comes by and shoots them all once a day.
We went to the abbatoirs near Fremantle and spoke with the workers there. They were, to a man, convinced that the animals feared death and knew death was coming. And they told us that the workers who actually do the killing—usually with an electric bolt-gun—spending all day every day just killing, well, there’s something wrong with them.
We saw university laboratories and factory pig farms, the whole spectrum of industrial cruelty. You’re absolutely right, it is hell on earth. It’s vile and unconscionable.
Those who oppose vivisection do not, however, advocate letting natural selection have its way. The vast majority of vivisection is carried out for things that have no medical purpose—cosmetics, cleaning products, student classes. And for research, there are multiple different modalities, such as computer modelling, through which research may be undertaken.
On the contrary, we believe that in our day, the health issues that confront us are overwhelmingly determined by race, wealth, gender, and class. We would like to see money allocated so as to effectively improve human health outcomes, especially for the poor and the vulnerable. There are many simple, cheap things we can improve, such as mosquito nets, clean water, provision of basic hospital services, education and support of women, and currently, oxygen.
Yes, the same thought occurred to me too. It seems reasonable to think so. Yet I wonder …
It seems always to be the case that after deep samādhi the body is absolutely at ease and comfortable. This effect on the body seems to be the same regardless of the external temperature. In other words, the body is never cold when you emerge from samādhi. (Although feeling cold can certainly stop you from entering.) If we agree that the metabolism slows down as the samādhi deepens, then this in itself is rather counterintuitive. There seems to be something going on which does not fit with the normal connection between metabolism and the production of heat.
I would guess the missing factor is the power of the mind. A mind in samādhi has the ability to affect the body directly. The samādhi seems to stabilise and ease the body, as if it is pervading it with a benign and powerful energy. I tend to think the body temperature is directly regulated by the mind.
In the end I don’t know, yet it seems to me to be a real possibility. The world of samādhi is amazing and marvellous. Things happen that under normal circumstances would be impossible.
I believe the Buddha and ancients failed to notice a seventh sense, the balancing function of the inner ear that enables one to be oriented to gravity.
It could be argued that the vestibular system is just part of the sensation of the body/touch. Indeed, what we consider “touch” consists of multiple different systems that are fairly distinct on a biological level (mechanoreception, innocuous thermoception, nociception, etc.).
Many thanks for this honest conversation and for also giving the space to raise some concerns. The Dhamma is more than robust to withstand investigation.
I have some points:
In several suttas, the Buddha refers to himself as “Tathāgata”, which is often translated as “the Perfect One”. Is this a problem with translation into English. Is there such as thing as a “Perfect One”?
How is that the Buddha – with his psychic powers – not see his brother-in-law, Devadatta coming? The schism nearly disrupted the movement, which was carefully built by the Buddha.
The use of “ekayanoti ekayanamaggo” – the only way. Do we disregard other ways?
Some clarity would be welcome. Thank you.
It doesn’t mean “Perfect One”, although translating such epithets is always highly inadequate. The term is mostly explained in terms of truth and reality, that someone has realized the way things are and lives according to that. So I translated it as “Realized One”.
OTOH, I translate arahant as “perfected one”, since they have fully abandoned all defilements.
Indeed, although there is nothing in the suttas that says the Buddha was actually reading the future in that way. It seems to be a lapse in character assessment.
OTOH, as a monk we always want to give people the benefit of the doubt. If you want to argue based on psychic powers, you could equally argue that the Buddha saw that in the future, Devadatta would find redemption.
The phrase ekāyano maggo doesn’t mean “only way”. It means “the way to oneness”, i.e. the path to where all things come together as one. In the context of satipatthana, it means that this is the practice that leads to samadhi, i.e. unification of mind. This was a misunderstanding caused by the fact that it is a term from the Brahmanical Upanishads, which later Buddhists were not familiar with. Note that in the Samyutta Nikaya, the phrase is literally put in the mouth of Brahma.
Again OTOH, the phrase eso va maggo, natthi añño “this is the only path, there is no other” occurs in the Dhammapada. The context there is the noble eightfold path. I dunno, i find it difficult to think of how one could get enlightened without all the factors of the eightfold path. Maybe you might not call it that, but still.
Wonderful find!
I am not here assuming that the Buddha is wrong about that certain humans can spontaneously reproduce. I would see it as another clue to understand what spontaneously reproduce is.
I had speculated on what could devas be in Physics/ Science fiction. So given that devas are spontaneously reproduced, the various possibilities has to account for how and what spontaneously reproduced means.
What could devas be?: What’s spontaneous reproduction then?
Aliens: cloning? Since cloning is not womb, egg, or moisture. Since it’s possible to clone humans, it fits the sutta if this is the case. Also, starfish splitting itself into two (asexual reproduction) doesn’t seem to fit in the other 3 modes of rebirth. Who knows future genetically modified humans can also reproduce like starfish?
Beings from a higher dimension: Entering into our lower 3 dimensional world is considered spontaneous reproduction? Cause it’ll be like appearing from nothing. Anyway, maybe too much of a stretch for this one as it’s more fitting with invisibility than spontaneously reborn.
Beings from a parallel universe: Entering into our universe considered spontaneously reborn? Again too speculative, but like the previous one, humans, given the right tech maybe able to do the same.
Advanced intelligence (AI): How can one say codes are born? Typed out one by one. So maybe codes are typed out first, then it becomes a suitable body for that being to be reborn into? If we can upload humans, maybe this can fit in to how certain humans can be spontaneously reproduced.
Dark matter/ Dark energy beings: We know too little about Dark matter to speculate. However, Dark energy seems to be created with each new space created in expansion, for free. Unknown if humans can ever convert themselves to dark beings. Note: dark here means ignorance (by physicists), not evil.
We live in simulated universe, devas are simulated or programmers: simulated devas can be coded to be spontaneously reproduced, so too with humans if it comes down to the will of the programmers. As to the world of the programmers, we might be in the dark too on how they reproduce.
And of course the easiest option:
In the Pāli Nāga Saṃyutta SN 29 and Supaṇṇa Saṃyutta SN 30 (= their Chinese version EA 27.8), the Buddha said to monks that there are four types of garuḍa (jinchi niao 金翅鳥) and four types of nāga (dragon): Egg-born, womb-born, moisture-born, and transformation/metamorphosis-born garuḍas/nāgas.
The spontaneous reproduction seems similar to these transformation/metamorphosis-born garuḍas/nāgas.
These two Samyuttas on garuḍas/nāgas together with the other two, Gandhabba Saṃyutta SN 31 (“Connected with Gandhabbas”) and Valāhaka Saṃyutta SN 32 (“Connected with Valāhakas”) are a group of sequential collections about early Buddhist adaptations of Vedic mythical beliefs regarding nāgas “mythical dragons/snakes”, supaṇṇas “mythical birds”, gandhabbas “fragrant plant devas”, and valāhakas “cloud devas” (Choong Mun-keat “A comparison of the Pāli and Chinese versions of Nāga Saṃyutta , Supaṇṇa Saṃyutta , and Valāhaka Saṃyutta , early Buddhist discourse collections on mythical dragons, birds, and cloud devas”, Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies , 2020 (18), pp. 42-65).
Was the Buddha also wrong about these adaptations of Indic mythical beliefs?
I wonder if mythology falls into the “otherworldly” category.
Actually, ingesting healthy pop is today medically embrace! It is called [fecal transplants](https://fecal transplants) albeit you fo not actually eat them. As an anthropologist I can tell you albeit rudimental lots of those Ayurvedic remedies have a rationale and some were pointing towards the right solution!
Neurologically speaking even today, that it is not part of the senses.
Thank you, Ajahn Sujato, for taking time to answer my queries. I will study your responses and get back to you.
My teacher once told (rather humorous) that the Buddha made a mistake of coming to princess Yasodhara’s room to have a last look at her and his son before he left his family. But the Buddha got lucky that his wife didn’t suddenly awake from her sleep to find out about his intention and thus preventing him from going. If she did, then who knows. 
What will happen if there’s no buddha, how far will history change ?
Perhaps the Buddha’s biggest mistake was, after his awakening, not just secluding himself in a cave for the rest of his life. Perhaps, in the end, he entrusted his Dhamma to us Earthly humans, who have made something of a mess of it. We have a globe whereby most of the inhabitants practice religions that are simply factually absurd, and/or are the product of delusions on a grandiose scale. We have a globe that is focused on profiteering and war. We have millions of people that align themselves with sociopathic despots like Hitler, Mussolini, and Trump. We have a world that but for Sutta Central, and perhaps a few other sources, has either distorted his teachings, or ignored them completely. Perhaps he should have buried the Dhamma in a time capsule with the hopes that it would be found 4000 years later, after the outer-galactic aliens have already taken over this planet in an effort to save us all from each other.
The above is of course tongue in cheek. But for the Dhamma, what guidance would we have in this world? Perhaps the Buddha at the time of his passing understood what a train wreck we humans are, and without the Dhamma we would be hopelessly adrift in a sea of greed, violence and delusion.
That reminds me of how the eye catures images upside down and the brain flips the image right side up, a function of the visual process.