hi HoylandThe view of Prince Payasi must be taken as a whole,...

hi Hoyland

The view of Prince Payasi must be taken as a whole, rather than what are superficially perceived as individual parts. What essentially makes this wrong view is the part: "Good and evil actions do not have consequences".

I previously explained language; how in Buddhism, words have two meanings, conventional & ultimate.

I have explained "death" already. The "being" of Prince Payasi, characterised by wrong view, "died" when he was converted to sound thinking. His mind entered in a godly realm of a great trustworthy noble ethical being; someone upright worthy of respect. That is a "god".

Please understand, for example, the following terms represent the 4 meditation jhanas:

the luminous gods... the gods of refulgent glory... gods of abundant fruit... the Great Being...MN 1

About the "worlds", the stock phrase in Pali is "paraloka", which does not mean "world beyond our own". It means "other worlds". Other worlds are the other worlds of heaven, hell, hungry ghost, animal, etc, that are beyond the ordinary & moral world when in the company of Buddha.

For example, now I am watching a You Tube called Sex Slaves Kidnapping and Prostitution Rings. Here, many girls thought they were leaving their "ordinary world" for a "heavenly world" of making money in tourism but ended up in a "hell world" in the "animal kingdom" of prostitution.

This animal world Buddha described as:

Two bright principles protect the world. What are the two? Shame and fear of wrongdoing. If, bhikkhus, these two bright principles did not protect the world, there would not be discerned respect for mother or maternal aunt or maternal uncle's wife or a teacher's wife or the wives of other honored persons, and the world would have fallen into promiscuity, as with goats, sheep, chickens, pigs, dogs, and jackals. But as these two bright principles protect the world, there is discerned respect for mother... and the wives of other honored persons

So in this sutta, Prince Payasi become "born again", as Jesus would say, as a radiant God or as John1 states: "a child of God". Buddha taught:

172. He who having been heedless is heedless no more, illuminates this world like the moon freed from clouds.

173. He, who by good deeds covers the evil he has done, illuminates this world like the moon freed from clouds.

200. Happy indeed we live, we who possess nothing. Feeders on joy we shall be, like the Radiant Gods.

Dhammapada

You are taking everything in material language, as I explained earlier. Although your interpretation may possibly for true, the teaching can be interpreted differently. For me, I see what is being described as happening in the here-&-now.

In MN 9X somewhere (I will find it later), Buddha says he declares the destination of "beings" so others can develop faith. But "death" is a word about the death of a state of mind. Generally, the death & destination Buddha described was related to the "death" that occurred in the past, when the mind of the new disciple changed into the dhamma realisation.

The new disciple was formerly a puthujjana; an ordinary unenlightened person or an immoral person. Then the person heard Lord Buddha & they died to the old self and were reborn into something new.

I recommend you watch this video about Angullimala, the mass murderer, who Buddha reformed. This may help you at least open your mind to how other Buddhists regard the Dhamma:

I must go now