Gerard Posted March 6, 2015 Some valuable information for your practice: 1. The elaboration of these beliefs is very detailed, focusing on how the beliefs (faiths) come to be and the way they are described and declared. The elaboration ends with the Buddha's statement about the danger of clinging to these beliefs, as they are still influenced by desire, hatred and ignorance that its faithful followers will not end in the final liberation but still in the cycle of Samsara. "Believers of these faiths are compared to small fish in a pond which will be captured by a fine net no matter how much they want to escape, while those who see reality as it is are beyond the net of Samsara." Brahmajala Sutta 2. A meditator's experience and insight into this matter: "With the divine eye you can see the sphere above the earth in which bodies made of mind soar in light feeding on joy. If you had the divine eye, if you had simple clairvoyance, this would be obvious to you. Then the question would be settled and you would see that it is quite literally not important to the practice of Buddhism. Why? Because you have no idea where you are heading. Good people wind up with Bad Fates. Bad people wind up with Good Fates. And Bad people have bad fates, while good people have good ones. All of these possibilities exist and since no one understands how karma fully operates, you're best off simply trying to improve the way you live in the here and the now. This is the criteria for living which Buddhists practice; whether a world exist for us after death or not, the question of living right remains unchanged. But to be clear, there are many things to be seen with the divine eye. A heaven above us and many more in different places. There is one particular heaven that is quite interesting. The occupants are made like solid bricks. Their forms are white and radiant. There are no more than 20 or 30 of them. There are males and females. They remain still and they have no burdens. It is a rare event for anyone to be reborn in this place and it is also rare event for anyone of these beings to meet their death in this place. The heaven they live in is cold. A quick silver light circumscribes the plane. They live in the centre of a whirlpool of consciousness. They are pure white. They are thick solid. Immovable. Thoroughly benevolent but able to crush a man into pile of dust with a single impulse. They are strong and beautiful. The divine eye is not craziness. The divine eye is the extension that we make to the infinite nature of consciousness. Simply because consciousness is infinite we who have the power, ability, and insight can view whatever we wish, whenever we choose. If I choose to view the gas station down the road from my house I view it in my consciousness. I am able to do so because I am attached to the infinite field of consciousness. That consciousness has a proximity to the gas station and I have a natural ability to take up a point of reference in side that proximity. Thus I can look at gas stations, the back of my own head, anything I want, and the heaven that lies above. With age the power diminishes, as so too does the vitality of the heart from which all things spring. I haven't read specific details about the 31 planes of existence, but if I looked it up such that each plane was given a description I could easily go there in my mind. So, for me it is not even a question. But why would you even care what I think? The monks say, "keep meditating". You're not happy with the answer, most likely because you don't understand their intent. Develop the divine eye, then observe whatever plane it is you wish to observe. This still will not tell you whether you will exist or not after death. It will also fail to tell you if you will reappear on any of these planes. It sounds stupid, but assume your heading straight for "the bad destination" and practice living well as if your immortal 'soul' depended on it, because if the assumption is true, it does." The 31 Planes of Existence, and the whole debate about... It would be frightening to be reborn in that heavenly plane, honestly. It's all in the mind, going up and down the ladder according to karma, spending time (each lifetime) in the many mansions in the 'big house of the Lord.' Insane, ending rebirth becomes sometimes an obsessive quest! So, it is best taking it easy and practice with determination, approaching the mind softly, like treading water, and above all with an unbending sense of MORALITY. It makes sense as the path one walks on becomes progressively thinner with advanced practice. Refer to Cula, Majjhima and Maha Sila in the same sutra. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
