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Are we too eager for re birth?

JohnGJohnG Veteran
edited September 2013 in Philosophy
Following the threads in other forum, with the questions of rebirth and reincarnation (and yes I know I'm one :clap: ) Are we just too eager to shed this life for the next?

Comments

  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
    Conversationally, it does seem like a delicious way to avoid the enlightenment in front of our noses.
    FullCirclelobsterriverflowGui
  • karastikarasti Breathing Minnesota Moderator
    I'm not eager, myself, but I'm not averse to it, either. Sometimes I can't help but wonder what the next adventure might be, even knowing it could be something really bad. But for the most part, my life is enough of an adventure on a daily basis for me to spend too much time wondering about the next life.

    The part that has me most curious lately is wondering if my "stream" that carries on after my body dies, already know what will happen, or not. It makes me wonder if people who believe really strongly in one particular happening after they die get a sort of shock if what they expected doesn't happen at all.

    My grandma is in poor health, and probably will not live much longer. She probably won't die tomorrow, she still lives at home and does pretty well, but we talk about death a lot as she goes through that process. She is intent on being able to see my grandpa again, who died 30 years ago. It makes me wonder if it'll be a shock to her in some sense if that doesn't happen.

    So sometimes when I have questions like that, it makes me wish my next adventure was at hand, but I know better than to wish for things, too often you get what you wish for ;)
  • JohnG said:

    Following the threads in other forum, with the questions of rebirth and reincarnation (and yes I know I'm one :clap: ) Are we just too eager to shed this life for the next?

    Great question. Worried too much about what's next to enjoy what's now.
    Suffering......
  • :D
  • JohnG said:

    Are we just too eager to shed this life for the next?

    It might take a whole lifetime to get to that question.
    Now that you have a dukkha based life. Now that you have asked the question, what is the plan?

    Still hoping for the perfect life to practice the eight fold path in?
    Me neither . . .

    :thumbsup:
  • It is the clinging to existence that
    results in you being reborn again and again.


    JohnG said:

    Following the threads in other forum, with the questions of rebirth and reincarnation (and yes I know I'm one :clap: ) Are we just too eager to shed this life for the next?

  • I was told once, that we are reborn to a life of things we coveted in this one. So many people who want to skip the lessons here, only to be regressed in the next? To me, what I learn here, I take with me into the next, to better not only myself and those around me. So, why rush this one and skip the lessons? People, learn and be happy! :wave:
  • The "next life" -- whatever that may or may no mean-- will take care of itself. Being mindful of what happens right now matters more. Chan/Zen = K.I.S.S. :D
    mfranzdorf
  • BeejBeej Human Being Veteran
    i like this question, because it reminds me to point to this very moment. :)
    42bodhiEvenThird
  • See, I have a purpose after all. :om:
    BeejlobsterEvenThird
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    edited September 2013
    I can honestly say I'm not because I'm just far too curious for that.

    How it unfolds is as interesting as the end result... If there is an end result.
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    Even the grass we've never seen seems greener...

    Dilemma, dilemma.

  • JohnG said:

    Following the threads in other forum, with the questions of rebirth and reincarnation (and yes I know I'm one :clap: ) Are we just too eager to shed this life for the next?

    Why would we be eager to shed this life for the next? There's so much Bodhisattva work to be done during this lifetime. There's a whole planet full of suffering beings to help out, and our time is limited. Make the most of it! There's not a moment to waste!

    Jeffreylobster
  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran
    Dakini said:



    Why would we be eager to shed this life for the next? There's so much Bodhisattva work to be done during this lifetime. There's a whole planet full of suffering beings to help out, and our time is limited. Make the most of it! There's not a moment to waste!

    Good point!

  • So many people, so little time.
  • Dakini said:

    JohnG said:

    Following the threads in other forum, with the questions of rebirth and reincarnation (and yes I know I'm one :clap: ) Are we just too eager to shed this life for the next?

    Why would we be eager to shed this life for the next? There's so much Bodhisattva work to be done during this lifetime. There's a whole planet full of suffering beings to help out, and our time is limited. Make the most of it! There's not a moment to waste!

    I would think most people are eager to get out, considering the first noble truth.
  • What if this is the next adventure?

    Then another awaits this one. :D

  • betaboy said:


    I would think most people are eager to get out, considering the first noble truth.

    If they're familiar with the 1st NT, they're likely familiar with the other 3, so they know there's a way out of suffering, they know they're not stuck with it, and the more progress you make in this lifetime, the farther ahead you'll be when you start the next one. Every day of this lifetime is precious.

    I think someone's confusing Christianity's Pie-In-The-Sky-When-You-Die with Buddhism. They're very different things.

    lobster
  • What I find interesting is the difference in perspective between Westerners today and Indians from 2,500 years ago. In the time of the Buddha life really was suffering, most people didn't see their 40's, the concept of rebirth would have been frightening and the desire to have a better rebirth or not to be reborn at all a potent motivation for practicing the dharma.
    When you ask people in the modern West about rebirth they usually see it as a positive, because frankly most of us live like royalty compared with 3rd world countries and people two millennia ago. There are religions such as Wicca that believe in reincarnation and take comfort from the concept.
    I think this difference in viewpoint shifts the message that the concept of rebirth delivers away from it's original context, which is perhaps why people may be eager for another life.
    lobster
  • I am a result of the dancing of particles throughout the universe. As the particles that make up "me" get swished around with worldly forces, "my" particles will eventually disperse. Dispersing into particles that make up conscious or unconscious structures, I will eventually return to my origins. The decomposed state. This is the journey that everything must take. Even stars.

    I feel that death is just the journey back to nature. :)
    riverflow
  • Live long and perspire
    Mr Spick from Star Trick ;)
    42bodhi
  • That's Spock. :D
    lobster
  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    edited September 2013
    OooooH JohnG
    Vulcan blood doesn't lend itself well to catching terrian humor!
    42bodhi
  • Humor yes, but unfortunately working in an area where this reads into racial issues. Research chief Kessler. It's getting ugly here, a need to return a nation into a hateful past, and keep it there. Sometimes, I fall into the eagerness of rebirth/reincarnation/ or whatever one wishes to call it. And not to be reborn in the U. S. :(
  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    edited September 2013
    JohnG said:

    Sometimes, I fall into the eagerness of rebirth/reincarnation/ or whatever one wishes to call it. And not to be reborn in the U. S. :(

    I hear you.@JohnG
    But..
    Racism exists where ever there is a them & us mentality. That makes all of us variations of Skandha bound racists regardless of nationality until we are able to transcend the inertia of such ignorance.
    An existence beyond your death (rebirth/reincarnation)
    will not be the writer of your posting,
    will only be a remix of similar coalescing ignorance,
    has no guarantee to even ever come in contact with the Dharma
    and is destined to manifest that same racism that you say is ugly
    unless you stop it where it stands, in this life, in you.

    The eagerness for a new chance after death, in reality,
    is really us continuing to indulge our own racism.


    JohnG
  • There is much work to be done here, and now then there, and later; right?
  • JohnG said:

    Following the threads in other forum, with the questions of rebirth and reincarnation (and yes I know I'm one :clap: ) Are we just too eager to shed this life for the next?

    No, since it means you have to die first. It would also be too much a risk. You could end up being something else, something you don't like. It would be better that one turns one present life around.
    lobsterJohnG
  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    @ JohnG
    I just don't get it.

    Very few folks experience their past lives.
    Those who do experience past lives usual only experience those things as relatively insignificant when compared to the breadth & width of this life.
    If a new life (assuming that was possible as a cohesive representation of the last life) means a total memory loss of the old life, would you choose a new identity in this life right now if it meant a similar memory loss of everything & everyone you've ever experienced so far in this life?
  • It does seem a fanciful idea doesn't it? The desire to rid ourselves of our present life, and it's downs and failures, for a whole knew sense of life. But, as you said, for what purpose would it serve if we don't take our memories with us? What would we have learned to 'not' do those things we consider failures in this life? It's seems so many who seek a next life, in many cases, are sadists; don't go through that door, or you'll let in the bad guy! Don't do this act! But then, in the next do we do this all over again, like a very bad 'C' horror movie?
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