What if i'm not reborn as a Buddhist in my next life?
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Originally posted by Larryteo:
there is also absolutely no evidence that the body has some form of spirit, since emotions, favourites, and decisions are all caused by the chemicals in the mind. There is no such thing as a spirit in the body. It is just man's answer as to where the person will go after they die since they don't know what happens after they die
Use the term cling consciousness instead, which not independent of the body, and is not permanent in form or essence.
If life only due to chemistry, then it would be possible to raise the dead,eg. Frankenstein, or maybe create life from the primordial soup of chemicals.
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Very interesting topic, and a very valid question - What if we are not born buddhist in our next life?
My simple advice would be - to do a lot of good things in this life, and try our very best to uphold morality, and make a lot of strong determination (adithana) whenever we perform merits. Make an adithana that we will be born into a Buddha's Sasana again in our next life, that we would encounter the True Dhamma , and be guided by a competent friend of dhamma (masters).
All these aspirations , by the virtue of Cause-Effect, would come true.
We live at the Dhamma-ending age, and there is an urgency to do as much merits as possible in this life. It's very hard to say what our next rebirth would be, but I wish all of us here today , would be enlightened one day!!!
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Originally posted by Dawnfirstlight:
hahahahaha..............................Larryteo will be the founder of this new religion. I wonder what will he name it.
I know i know, it is larrycentific, whahahah -
Originally posted by soul2soul:
Very interesting topic, and a very valid question - What if we are not born buddhist in our next life?
My simple advice would be - to do a lot of good things in this life, and try our very best to uphold morality, and make a lot of strong determination (adithana) whenever we perform merits. Make an adithana that we will be born into a Buddha's Sasana again in our next life, that we would encounter the True Dhamma , and be guided by a competent friend of dhamma (masters).
All these aspirations , by the virtue of Cause-Effect, would come true.
We live at the Dhamma-ending age, and there is an urgency to do as much merits as possible in this life. It's very hard to say what our next rebirth would be, but I wish all of us here today , would be enlightened one day!!!
Dharma-ending age ? i've not heard of it, what do you mean ?
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Originally posted by As romanista2001:
Dharma-ending age ? i've not heard of it, what do you mean ?
The general trend of decline in Buddhism, predicted by the Buddha to last from 500 years to 5000 years depending on the morality of the humans.
We might become human in our next life, but might not meet the Dhamma due to the following reasons;
1. being born into a different religion
2. being born far away from practicing buddhists (bhikkhus and lay buddhists)
3. being born at the time when the Dhamma has disappeared
4. being born with incomplete faculties (blind, deaf, etc)
Or being born into the Apayalokas (evil destinies).
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but there are many countries that are predominantly Buddhist so i think thing'sare gonna be alright, also more and more Angmohs or people from other religions also converted to Buddhism lately.
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You are not born with a religion ,
You are born with karma of your previous life and this life what you are, are fated to be.
Anyway , all religion is teaching us to be good , so we must not have the means of what is good and what is bad.
So my advise ,
If mankind are to be reborn , in buddism , due to our previous life karma has brought us back. If this life u devoted to Buddha teaching and follow his way , u will never be reborn anymore , you will be in the world of enlightenment where everybody is practicing to be enlighten and becomes like buddha or buddha.
Those story of reborn buddha in Nepal , they are enlighten ones and they are back to ensure to help people to enlightenments. This is a facts.
Remember , in buddha teaching , not all are reborn to be human , some becomes animals and others living , this is a facts.
So you should not worried reborn to be what or religion , you should starts to practise what your religion has to taught and abide to it and becomes enlightened.
In Youtube , there is a good monk , 淨空法師 ，he has be teaching and answering people about the kind of question you ask , believe me all races of people also listen to him , including clinton and george bush also invited him . he is globally known.
He believes in all religion are the same . we should respect each other .
good luck !
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Originally posted by Johnkoh889:
You are not born with a religion ,
You are born with karma of your previous life and this life what you are, are fated to be.
Anyway , all religion is teaching us to be good , so we must not have the means of what is good and what is bad.
So my advise ,
If mankind are to be reborn , in buddism , due to our previous life karma has brought us back. If this life u devoted to Buddha teaching and follow his way , u will never be reborn anymore , you will be in the world of enlightenment where everybody is practicing to be enlighten and becomes like buddha or buddha.
Those story of reborn buddha in Nepal , they are enlighten ones and they are back to ensure to help people to enlightenments. This is a facts.
Remember , in buddha teaching , not all are reborn to be human , some becomes animals and others living , this is a facts.
So you should not worried reborn to be what or religion , you should starts to practise what your religion has to taught and abide to it and becomes enlightened.
In Youtube , there is a good monk , 淨空法師 ，he has be teaching and answering people about the kind of question you ask , believe me all races of people also listen to him , including clinton and george bush also invited him . he is globally known.
He believes in all religion are the same . we should respect each other .
good luck !
Hi, it is certainly not the case that Buddhism is the same as all other religions. Only Buddhism leads to liberation and enlightenment. Other religions only teach good and becoming reborn in better worldly states of existence, but are still part of samsara and still have not broken out of the cycle of suffering and rebirth.
As Daniel Ingram said:
While I can see arguments for all religions sharing the same goal in some broad, fundamental, abstract sense, functionally, practically and in terms of how the wide range of followers interpret and practice and strive in those religions, the answer is a clear "no". The primitive Baptists that live near me are not striving for enlightenment, strong jhanic abilities, or even the same morals I did. I am not striving for my own planet like I hear some Mormons are. At no time have I worshiped my ancestors so they will intervene for me. The list goes on and on.
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Originally posted by Johnkoh889:
You are not born with a religion ,
You are born with karma of your previous life and this life what you are, are fated to be.
Anyway , all religion is teaching us to be good , so we must not have the means of what is good and what is bad.
So my advise ,
If mankind are to be reborn , in buddism , due to our previous life karma has brought us back. If this life u devoted to Buddha teaching and follow his way , u will never be reborn anymore , you will be in the world of enlightenment where everybody is practicing to be enlighten and becomes like buddha or buddha.
Those story of reborn buddha in Nepal , they are enlighten ones and they are back to ensure to help people to enlightenments. This is a facts.
Remember , in buddha teaching , not all are reborn to be human , some becomes animals and others living , this is a facts.
So you should not worried reborn to be what or religion , you should starts to practise what your religion has to taught and abide to it and becomes enlightened.
In Youtube , there is a good monk , 淨空法師 ，he has be teaching and answering people about the kind of question you ask , believe me all races of people also listen to him , including clinton and george bush also invited him . he is globally known.
He believes in all religion are the same . we should respect each other .
good luck !
淨空法師said we should respect all the religion but he did not say that they are the same as Buddhism. In fact, he always emphasize the difference between Buddhism and other religion, he always emphasize what AEN said "only Buddhism can help us to break out of the cycle of suffering and rebirth."
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Why worries about your reborn, live your current life well, be sincere and honest. Leave the rest to the Gods.
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Originally posted by ahtansh:
Why worries about your reborn, live your current life well, be sincere and honest. Leave the rest to the Gods.
No, gods cannot control your karma. Your karma is entirely your own making. Even gods themselves cannot escape the law of karma, and gods themselves born and die and reborn according to their karma.
Only enlightened beings become liberated from the uncontrolled cycle of rebirth, but even they cannot interfere or control other people's karma. They can only advice and teach. It's up to us to practice what they teach, to cease bad karma, perform all that is good, and most importantly to attain enlightenment and be liberated from the cycle of samsara. And even higher than that, is to not stop at one's own enlightenment and liberation, but to give rise to great compassion to help all other sentient beings attain enlightenment and liberation, which is to enter the path of Bodhisattva and Buddhahood.
Also, some amount of worrying about the afterlife is important for a beginner. For example, a murderer, thief, etc, better start reflecting on their actions and their circumstance in their afterlife: rebirth in the lower realms of hell, hungry ghost, and animal. If they continue creating bad karma for themselves, that is certainly where they will land in. If you tell these people "why worry about future, just live your lives as it is", that is deluding them because it is a fact that they will suffer tremendously in their after life and that is what they must be aware of.
As I was saying earlier on: if I apply the logic of 'why bother about the future', then applying this logic, you will start telling hardworking students 'why bother about your career, just be good boys and girls and enjoy life'. Just doesn't make sense, you will surely not advice recklessly in this way or discourage them from pursuing their academic or career goals. Similarly, when you want to plan for your future, you must be far sighted, career and immediate life is just short range even though not unimportant, but what is even more important is your lifetimes to follow.
Of course, even that is still low level Buddhism, because the goal of Buddhism is not just to stop creating bad karma (although important) but more important to attain enlightenment and liberation from all sufferings and the cycle of samsara.
But being concerned about one's afterlife is already one step higher than the narrow concerns of most human beings, which is only on the betterment of their current life.
It should be noted that the narrow worldly concerns focused to improve this present life is not even considered level 1 of Buddhism, it is not even at the doorstep of Buddhism, it is non-Buddhism.
That is why there are different levels of aspiration to enter Buddhism:
- Worldly scope is taking refuge to improve this life (not Buddhist)
- Lowest Buddhist scope is taking refuge to gain high rebirth and avoid the low realms
- Middle Buddhist scope is taking refuge to achieve Nirvana
- High Buddhist scope is taking refuge to become a Buddha
- Highest Buddhist scope is also sometimes included, which is taking refuge to achieve Buddhahood in this life (using Buddhist Tantra techniques)
Furthermore as Loppon Namdrol said:
Whoever is attached to a result for this life, is not a Dharma person.
The purpose of Dharma is liberation, not feeling better in this life. The purpose of Dharma is not the cultivation of mundane compassion, and so on.
The purpose of Dharma is to control afflictions, then overcome them, and finally, to attain a state of total omniscience and freedom.Btw, of course Buddhism will produce results in your life: the total end of suffering. But it is not through changing the worldly conditions of your life, rather, it is found in Nirvana, enlightenment, liberation, which can certainly be attained in our present life and many had, including even people in this forum.
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
No, gods cannot control your karma. Your karma is entirely your own making. Even gods themselves cannot escape the law of karma, and gods themselves born and die and reborn according to karma.
Only enlightened beings become liberated from the uncontrolled cycle of rebirth due to karma, but even they cannot interfere or control other people's karma. They can only advice and teach. It's up to us to practice what they teach, to cease bad karma, perform all that is good, and most importantly to attain enlightenment and be liberated from the cycle of samsara.
Correct me if I am wrong - I was told there is no god in buddhism
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i think God is in all of us...depends on how we transcend it from within....we each have a seed for good as well for bad...
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Originally posted by Fantagf:
Correct me if I am wrong - I was told there is no god in buddhism
Depends on what you mean. In Buddhism, there is no Creator God. Our universe and man are not created by a creator God.
However, there are celestial beings, devas, who live in heaven. They are sometimes called 'gods' but even that is pretty misleading, because in Buddhism we don't worship devas or samsaric beings, even though they are worshipped in many other religions. These gods are still in the cycle of suffering, and are not our idols of worship, nor do we aim to become like them.
We aim to attain Buddhahood, to attain full enlightenment and freedom and help other beings be free.
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in times of wars...we can go to every temple or church to pray for help from brutal soldiers........but these "Gods" come from someone or people who save millions...it can happen to some once in their lifetime and they became wartime heroes....
one good example is our wartime hero Lim Bo Seng...who knows what is to be done and risk himself against the japanese...he took over the role as a God to save people as best he could with very limited powers and resources but with great spirit and endurance....
there are still many to list but i will not do here....
So what is God? Is it a memory that is imprinted in our hearts so that we, in our human capacity, to continue his great works for all?
God comes from one of us.
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Depends on what you mean. In Buddhism, there is no Creator God. Our universe and man are not created by a creator God.
However, there are celestial beings, devas, who live in heaven. They are sometimes called 'gods' but even that is pretty misleading, because in Buddhism we don't worship devas or samsaric beings, even though they are worshipped in many other religions. These gods are still in the cycle of suffering, and are not our idols of worship, nor do we aim to become like them.
We aim to attain Buddhahood, to attain full enlightenment and freedom and help other beings be free.
Thank you
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Originally posted by Fcukpap:
in times of wars...we can go to every temple or church to pray for help from brutal soldiers........but these "Gods" come from someone or people who save millions...it can happen to some once in their lifetime and they became wartime heroes....
one good example is our wartime hero Lim Bo Seng...who knows what is to be done and risk himself against the japanese...he took over the role as a God to save people as best he could with very limited powers and resources but with great spirit and endurance....
there are still many to list but i will not do here....
So what is God? Is it a memory that is imprinted in our hearts so that we, in our human capacity, to continue his great works for all?
God comes from one of us.
These beings and people are certainly worthy of utmost respect and reverence, though of course, they are not Gods because we don't worship them or take them as objects of refuge. Particularly if you are Buddhist, your only object of refuge is the triple gems: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Taking refuge however is also not 'worship', but that we rely and return to the triple gems to guide us to enlightenment.
But I certainly agree that great people and men come from within us, and not necessarily far and distant away 'out there'.
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TS,
Perhaps the question u may want to consider, muse over is this: Am i really living now?
Why bother when even the tomorrow is uncertain
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
No, gods cannot control your karma. Your karma is entirely your own making. Even gods themselves cannot escape the law of karma, and gods themselves born and die and reborn according to their karma.
Only enlightened beings become liberated from the uncontrolled cycle of rebirth, but even they cannot interfere or control other people's karma. They can only advice and teach. It's up to us to practice what they teach, to cease bad karma, perform all that is good, and most importantly to attain enlightenment and be liberated from the cycle of samsara. And even higher than that, is to not stop at one's own enlightenment and liberation, but to give rise to great compassion to help all other sentient beings attain enlightenment and liberation, which is to enter the path of Bodhisattva and Buddhahood.
Also, some amount of worrying about the afterlife is important for a beginner. For example, a murderer, thief, etc, better start reflecting on their actions and their circumstance in their afterlife: rebirth in the lower realms of hell, hungry ghost, and animal. If they continue creating bad karma for themselves, that is certainly where they will land in. If you tell these people "why worry about future, just live your lives as it is", that is deluding them because it is a fact that they will suffer tremendously in their after life and that is what they must be aware of.
As I was saying earlier on: if I apply the logic of 'why bother about the future', then applying this logic, you will start telling hardworking students 'why bother about your career, just be good boys and girls and enjoy life'. Just doesn't make sense, you will surely not advice recklessly in this way or discourage them from pursuing their academic or career goals. Similarly, when you want to plan for your future, you must be far sighted, career and immediate life is just short range even though not unimportant, but what is even more important is your lifetimes to follow.
Of course, even that is still low level Buddhism, because the goal of Buddhism is not just to stop creating bad karma (although important) but more important to attain enlightenment and liberation from all sufferings and the cycle of samsara.
But being concerned about one's afterlife is already one step higher than the narrow concerns of most human beings, which is only on the betterment of their current life.
It should be noted that the narrow worldly concerns focused to improve this present life is not even considered level 1 of Buddhism, it is not even at the doorstep of Buddhism, it is non-Buddhism.
That is why there are different levels of aspiration to enter Buddhism:
- Worldly scope is taking refuge to improve this life (not Buddhist)
- Lowest Buddhist scope is taking refuge to gain high rebirth and avoid the low realms
- Middle Buddhist scope is taking refuge to achieve Nirvana
- High Buddhist scope is taking refuge to become a Buddha
- Highest Buddhist scope is also sometimes included, which is taking refuge to achieve Buddhahood in this life (using Buddhist Tantra techniques)
Furthermore as Loppon Namdrol said:
Whoever is attached to a result for this life, is not a Dharma person.
The purpose of Dharma is liberation, not feeling better in this life. The purpose of Dharma is not the cultivation of mundane compassion, and so on.
The purpose of Dharma is to control afflictions, then overcome them, and finally, to attain a state of total omniscience and freedom.Btw, of course Buddhism will produce results in your life: the total end of suffering. But it is not through changing the worldly conditions of your life, rather, it is found in Nirvana, enlightenment, liberation, which can certainly be attained in our present life and many had, including even people in this forum.
As I said before, not even yourself can control your fate, much less cause and effect. -
Originally posted by Fugazzi:
TS,
Perhaps the question u may want to consider, muse over is this: Am i really living now?
Why bother when even the tomorrow is uncertain
You have touched on one of the important points in Buddhism, impermance.
Sometimes the lives we are living seems unreal, moments flowing through us are fleeting, hard to grasp, like a dream.
It is acceptable to like this, but do you want do this for the rest of your life, for that matter, future lives?
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Originally posted by Fcukpap:
in times of wars...we can go to every temple or church to pray for help from brutal soldiers........but these "Gods" come from someone or people who save millions...it can happen to some once in their lifetime and they became wartime heroes....
one good example is our wartime hero Lim Bo Seng...who knows what is to be done and risk himself against the japanese...he took over the role as a God to save people as best he could with very limited powers and resources but with great spirit and endurance....
there are still many to list but i will not do here....
So what is God? Is it a memory that is imprinted in our hearts so that we, in our human capacity, to continue his great works for all?
God comes from one of us.
Peace, be still, to know that I am God.
For "I" am the creator of all my sufferings!
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Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:
As I said before, not even yourself can control your fate, much less cause and effect.I cannot stop what has happened, what is happening or even what is going to happen.
But I can decide what I can do! So I do what I can do!
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Between the cradle (birth) and the grave(deth) - one can reconcile to the polarities/dichotomies and accept the paradox of complementaries/contradictions and abide to what is. Egs - hot/cold. nite/day, good/bad so on so forth. Or one can go on living with a conceptualized model of what should or or can be. That (conceptualized models) sure is not living but akin to struggling or swimming upstream. One has mistaken the forest for the trees!
Otherwise, one is merely trying to live as opposed to living.
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Originally posted by Fugazzi:
Between the cradle (birth) and the grave(deth) - one can reconcile to the polarities/dichotomies and accept the paradox of complementaries/contradictions and abide to what is. Egs - hot/cold. nite/day, good/bad so on so forth. Or one can go on living with a conceptualized model of what should or or can be. That (conceptualized models) sure is not living but akin to struggling or swimming upstream. One has mistaken the forest for the trees!
Otherwise, one is merely trying to live as opposed to living.
When we go to the core of our happiness and anguish, everything is "I" centered.
In relation to, and in reference to "I', I try dealing it on a basic personal level.
Current underlying frustration, I believe is our underlying sense of self worth.
Conceptualised models is reaction to conditions arisen, as long conditions are present, is remains relevant. Models, will also need to change.
There is always talk about seeing the BIG picture, but there is no big picture without the many small pictures. Whether we florish or chafe is conditions pending.
I may not be able influence external conditions to a large extent, but I can affect "me"
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Originally posted by likeyou:
I always think when I died, my dad will be waiting for me, hold my hand, hug me and bring me to another world.
I know pple over here will say me is stupid to have this idea.
But, I sincerely wish that will happen when I died.
Hi, likeyou, It is not stupid for having that idea. I believe many of us out there do share the same thinking as you. =)Btw, you went to look for fortune teller to have your past life told, or you check it yourself?