Many of you know and if you don't, you should go read the bulletin board: I've made up an edited list of twenty Suttas. If you haven't got them, you should get them, you should read them. They are very interesting and will help you in your practice. One of the Suttas is where a monk came to the Buddha and he was very upset that the Buddha had not told him yet, where an Enlightened person goes when they die. He was also very upset that the Buddha hadn't told him whether the world was "infinite" or "finite", or this or that, all sorts of these big questions. The Buddha asked him, "When you came to me, did I promise you I would tell you the answer to those questions, did I promise I would tell you where an Enlightened person goes when they die?" He said, "Well, no". "And did you say to me that you would only become a monk because I was going to tell you the answers to these questions?" He said "no". "Well, listen," (and this is paraphrasing of course) "well, why do you want worry about this stuff anyhow?".
Whether or not you know where an Enlightened person goes when they die, does that change the fact that you might have greed, aversion, or ignorance right now? You might have fear, you might have jealousy right now. Does it change the fact that you might die right now? So if I gave you an answer, and told you where an Enlightened person goes when they die, if I tell you, East Thorsland or I could tell you Heaven or I could tell you Berlin or anywhere. So what? How's that going to change your practice? If you absolutely know from me because I tell you, are you going to believe me? Does the Kalama Sutta tell you that you should believe me when I say that an Enlightened person is reborn at Wat Kow Tahm? The Kalama Sutta says no, no don't believe that. Don't believe it just because your teacher tells you. Now if it was something that could help in your practice, is it a teaching that is skilful, is a teaching that is praised, is it a teaching that would be approved or encouraged and so on by wise people. "That is where an Enlightened is reborn" will that help you? Will that give you benefit and happiness? No. These sorts of questions the Buddha never answered. Sometimes he'd say, "If you try to work out these questions, you're just going to go insane". The arrow in the back story is helpful to remember. You don't have to know where an Enlightened person goes when they die. When and if you get Enlightened, come and tell me where it is!