Reincarnation

[Josh Young]

One of the only things i feel comfortable saying I know; is that what I believe is relative and subject to change, which is why I believe that I cannot know anything, but only have belief after all.

 

I think it would be neat to see Alex take ayahuasca in a spiritual setting.

 

 

 

That dream stuff reminds me of something else...

I had insomnia very strongly as a child, it went away as a teen, and it came back some time ago. It is not like I can't get to sleep now though, it is like I need less sleep now about 6 hours.

[JustARandomPanda]

The earth was not always here. Where pray tell do Buddhists and Hindus say where all of us were busy rebirthing out our karma back then?

 

And why do I have no self-evident a priori awareness of this pre-earth karma-induced endless rebirthing?

 

You know...if I had even the tiniest inkling of a priori pre-birth experience it'd make all these arguments about whose ultimate truth is the real truth easier to navigate.

 

I think I'm still chained in Plato's cave....

Edited July 13, 2009 by SereneBlue

[Apech]

The earth was not always here. Where pray tell do Buddhists and Hindus say where all of us were busy rebirthing out our karma back then?

 

And why do I have no self-evident a priori awareness of this pre-earth karma-induced endless rebirthing?

 

You know...if I had even the tiniest inkling of a priori pre-birth experience it'd make all these arguments about whose ultimate truth is the real truth easier to navigate.

 

I think I'm still chained in Plato's cave....

 

 

According to Buddhism in as much as the earth is here anyway, it was always here. Samsara is 'beginingless' but has an end in nirvana.

 

The mind having fallen into identification with Samsaric existence has forgotten its origin and so looses connection with pre-birth experience.

[Vajrahridaya]

The earth was not always here. Where pray tell do Buddhists and Hindus say where all of us were busy rebirthing out our karma back then?

 

Buddhism and Hinduism speak of other worlds and galaxies as well as other universes that we have birthed into, even other species that are not on earth.

 

And why do I have no self-evident a priori awareness of this pre-earth karma-induced endless rebirthing?

 

Because your too busy identifying with this life. Your memories of past lives are trapped in your unconscious. Sometimes very young kids have dreams of their past lives, then they forget as this life really starts to take over.

 

 

 

According to Buddhism in as much as the earth is here anyway, it was always here. Samsara is 'beginingless' but has an end in nirvana.

 

Well. something like the earth comes out each time the universe expresses due to causes and conditions latent from the previous universe.

 

Samsara ends only in as much as the state of a Samsaric mind realizes the nature of dependent origination and thus the Samsaric realms become the experiential platform for the Nirvanic state of mind which is merely the experiential perception of dependent origination. Samsara though... never ends. Only one's experience of it as Samsara ends as Buddhahood.

 

One of the only things i feel comfortable saying I know; is that what I believe is relative and subject to change,

 

 

It is good to keep a beginners mind.

[Apech]

 

Samsara ends only in as much as the state of a Samsaric mind realizes the nature of dependent origination and thus the Samsaric realms become the experiential platform for the Nirvanic state of mind which is merely the experiential perception of dependent origination. Samsara though... never ends. Only one's experience of it as Samsara ends as Buddhahood.

 

 

Samsara is the cyclical world of suffering produced by the mind which clings to the objects of perception in a constant round of desire, ignorance and anger. As such it is a distorted, confused view which ends with the realization of nirvana - so it does end with Buddhahood. In saying it never ends you are making it sound as if it is a valid reality while it is actually a mistaken view.

 

Time and samsara are called beginningless because there is no creation in the sense of origin. If they are not created they cannot be said to have an origin or causal connection to anything. There cannot be said to be a time when they first arose, because they only seem to exist while the mind is confused. Buddhas may deal with beings who still have samsaric minds in a way which seems to acknowledge that samsara and suffering is real, but as they are actually free from these conditions this is only an expression of compassion to help them.

[Vajrahridaya]

Samsara is the cyclical world of suffering produced by the mind which clings to the objects of perception in a constant round of desire, ignorance and anger. As such it is a distorted, confused view which ends with the realization of nirvana - so it does end with Buddhahood. In saying it never ends you are making it sound as if it is a valid reality while it is actually a mistaken view.

 

 

For you, as a Buddha, it ends, but one still acts through countless Nirmanakayas throughout endless time to help endless Samsarins. That was what I was getting at.

Time and samsara are called beginningless because there is no creation in the sense of origin. If they are not created they cannot be said to have an origin or causal connection to anything. There cannot be said to be a time when they first arose, because they only seem to exist while the mind is confused. Buddhas may deal with beings who still have samsaric minds in a way which seems to acknowledge that samsara and suffering is real, but as they are actually free from these conditions this is only an expression of compassion to help them.

 

Neither Samsara nor Nirvana have any inherent reality. They are both Dependently Originated and empty of inherent existence. Yet, both still flow. As a Buddha remains through an endless accumulation of merits to help endless Samsarins, they are aware that Samsara still relatively exists, but they experience it all as inherently liberated from any clinging self entity.

[Gerard]

An excellent source for work done on past life regression:

 

http://brianstalin-pastliferesearch.synthasite.com/research.php

 

The following statement is so true:

 

"We reincarnate from one lifetime to the next retaining familiar facial features. This may be because we all carry a residual mental image of ourselves at the back of our minds and this is what remains with us in our dreams and even beyond death. We also display the same traits and habits, which is no surprise when we realize that we are essentially the same people returning in new bodies to explore new roles or perfect old ones."

[Lucky7Strikes]

Now I have a question:

What is there to be reincarnated?

Anybody?

You're looking at this possibly backwards.

[manitou]

It seems really likely to me that the 'I', if we look at it as All being One, reincarnates along family lineages - DNA. This also follows the law of reversion of the Tao, as investigating our own family lineages through DNA and other means will ultimately all revert back to being One anyway. A really good literal metaphor is Ancestry.com. In fact, everyone on there just calls each other 'cousins' anyway, because it seems like there's a branch connection at some point with any family you wish to connect to if you go far enough back. Already some of the Ancestry lines go back to Biblical lineage, if the Bible is to be believed for historical genealogical purposes.

 

If anyone has had the experience of connecting with the golden hum, the golden essence, the lifestream...you will know it when it happens. Once that has been tapped into, even for a moment, you Experience the fact that time is merely a construct of our own limited thinking; it's not capable of seeing all things as Here and Now. But when the golden aura place is entered, suddenly time is not a factor and lack of awareness is not a factor.

 

So why not reincarnation? Wouldn't it make sense to not have to re-invent the wheel in a cosmic sense every time a baby is born?

 

I am so sure of the Oneness (because of my own experiences) and the possibility of removing Time from the equation for clarity of vision - that I'm starting to think that the 90% of the brain that we don't consciously use is a collective brain that we all share. I think the 10% consciousness is merely our personality and delusion of separateness. Somehow, through our collective brain, we are actually the Creator who is projecting this all.