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Do we have life after death ? Can we believe that !!! Expaliin ?

chaitunadimpallichaitunadimpalli
edited July 2011 in Philosophy
Is it true that we do have life after death.

Comments

  • taiyakitaiyaki Veteran
    no idea, not dead yet.
  • SpinyNorman2SpinyNorman2
    Is it true that we do have life after death.
    Do we have life before death? ;-)

    Spiny
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited July 2011
    Meditate and see who you are.. see if THAT is inside time or not. Is it born?
  • YishaiYishai Veteran
    Some good things were said about rebirth in this Newbuddhist topic 'ghosts or spirits' http://tinyurl.com/3zf57qf

    The Buddha believed in rebirth and said that it was right view.

    However, I don't believe that there is a particular 'we' that has life.

    If you're going to question afterlife, might as well question beforelife too. Also, what would stop Buddhism saying 'suicide ends suffering' if there were no afterlife?
  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
    @chaitunadimpalli -- People can and do believe anything they choose. Sometimes those beliefs inspire clear action. Sometimes the action is merely wishful and confused. Luckily, in Buddhism, we are encouraged to practice and see what actually happens, rather than to rely on the uncertainties that belief implies.
  • BonsaiDougBonsaiDoug Simply, on the path. Veteran
    Even though I do not follow the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, I did find this book (dealing with death and beyond) an enjoyable read: "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche.

    See if your local library has a copy. You won't be disappointed.
  • YishaiYishai Veteran
    Even though I do not follow the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, I did find this book (dealing with death and beyond) an enjoyable read: "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche.

    See if your local library has a copy. You won't be disappointed.
    More than a rental, I think it's a good book to purchase in general. There are parts in the book for all sorts of Buddhists and even Non-Buddhists.

  • BonsaiDougBonsaiDoug Simply, on the path. Veteran
    More than a rental, I think it's a good book to purchase in general. There are parts in the book for all sorts of Buddhists and even Non-Buddhists.
    Wholeheartedly agree; why I purchased a copy for myself ($0.99 on ebay!)

    I just sometimes feel odd about recommending someone purchase a book and then have them "hate" it.
  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran
    In the OP's question is the key word -- believe.

    What does each person believe about life after death. Obviously, no one KNOWS.
  • YishaiYishai Veteran
    In the OP's question is the key word -- believe.

    What does each person believe about life after death. Obviously, no one KNOWS.
    We do not know that some people know. :)

    However, we cannot go on the word of even those who do know because there is no way to prove their knowledge until we ourselves know.
  • auraaura Veteran
    edited July 2011
    I was a child who remembered dying as an old woman in the bombed ruins of a great city. I told my parents and they told me to shut up from about the time I learned to walk. My experience offended their religious beliefs and frightened them.

    I was a child who grew up and found that city half a world away in photos on the internet in a language I don't understand. The buildings that were left standing at the time of my death are still standing. From them I can navigate to where my house used to stand before the bombing; the main roads and rails remain to this day.
    So is it true that we have life after death?
    As far as I am concerned, I have been there and done that.

    I grew up and met my former sister.... a man in this life, still as flirty as ever, and in this life seeing that from the other side, the other gender.
    My former adopted child.... older than me in this life, yet still struggling with fears of what it means to grow up because he never got the chance to do that in the last life.
    The former priest who buried me.... in this life wondering why he has difficulty dealing with women.
    The soldier torn between following orders and following what he thought was right at the end of that life..... in this life dealing with that same issue.
    The soldier who killed my neighbors.... in this life tried to kill himself.
    And the list goes on...
    everybody is living another aspect of their karma, their issues.

    As a woman who has conceived and birthed children in this life I have also experienced just how impatient and fussy human beings can be before they are conceived. They follow you around complaining that they have got things to do on this earth and that you're not exactly showing any great hurry or enthusiasm about helping them get there. Some are more fussy than others and can be just as harassing and fussy as the dead at their funerals who want messages delivered to their grieving loved ones. Some women complain of hearing a crying sound haunting them some time before they conceive a child; it's a fairly common phenomenon. People come here by... agreement. They also leave here by... agreement.

    Conception is quite a light show, having another human being's light pass through your own and attach itself to this plane through you is quite an experience. Miscarriage/death is also quite a light show, having another person's light pass through you and detach itself from this plane through you is also quite an experience. The light of a human being is not small and babylike at all, nor are its thoughts. Just because one is attached to you (conceived and waiting to be born) doesn't mean it doesn't spend its time astral traveling all over the place. It was only celibate male Buddhist monks who had never experienced conceiving and birthing a child themselves who believed that the light they observed entering a pregnant woman somehow had as its origin the consciousness of some animal that died across town, and that they were somehow witnessing a conception of a human being from out of an animal consciousness.
    Obviously none of them had ever observed the conception of a child in their lives, but it is understandable, being men... and celibate monks.

    Before conception or after death, people are on a different plane that they call "the other side." They are also no different from how they are in life. Their dominant issues and personality traits stick with them. Their karma sticks with them; they are simply on another plane of existence.
    Human beings are pan-dimensional beings with barriers in their minds that protect their normal waking consciousness from their greater consciousness with its memory of their past lives. A lifetime is like being in a certain class studying a certain subject in a certain school. School is never easy...it is all about learning, all about growth.

    It does not matter whatever anyone believes or does not believe. Over time everyone will see and experience all for themselves. Meditation and practice shorten that time.
  • KundoKundo Sydney, Australia Veteran
    Is it true that we do have life after death.
    Do we have life before death? ;-)

    Spiny


    :bowdown:

    In metta,
    Raven
  • KundoKundo Sydney, Australia Veteran


    It does not matter whatever anyone believes or does not believe. Over time everyone will see and experience all for themselves. Meditation and practice shorten that time.
    Well said aura.

    In metta,
    Raven

  • IronRabbitIronRabbit Veteran
    Life after death is the imponderable. We have stories of life after death....we have life of which death is one very important part....and we have death of which we know nothing.....but we have very good stories about life after death....very good stories.....
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited July 2011
    Do we have life before death? ;-)
    Do we know death, during life, before death? :confused:
  • footiamfootiam Veteran
    We have a life now.
  • VincenziVincenzi Veteran
    yes, as certain of that as the fact that energy and matter exist.
  • seeker242seeker242 Zen Florida, USA Veteran
    Is it true that we do have life after death.
    The Buddha was not called "deathless" for no reason.:)
  • TheswingisyellowTheswingisyellow Trying to be open to existence Samsara Veteran
    edited July 2011
    Every moment you cling to ideas of self you are born.
    This birth will, as with all things, die.
    How many selves have you given birth to?
    How many deaths have you suffered?
    One day the physical elements of you body will break apart, what happens after this physical form dies who can say.
  • MellowViperMellowViper
    It doesn't seem absurd to me that there may have been lives lived before this one, nor does it seem absurd that there might be lives lived after this. You know now that its a possibility to live life through the eyes of a human. Patterns are bound to repeat, and similar manifestations to what you're experiencing now will probably happen at later times.
  • KarmaDondrupTashiKarmaDondrupTashi
    With regard to this, a wise person considers thus: 'If there is causality, then this venerable person — on the break-up of the body, after death — will reappear in the good destination, the heavenly world. Even if we didn't speak of causality, and there weren't the true statement of those venerable brahmans & contemplatives, this venerable person is still praised in the here-&-now by the wise as a person of good habits & right view: one who holds to a doctrine of causality. If there really is causality, then this venerable person has made a good throw twice, in that he is praised by the wise here-&-now; and in that — with the break-up of the body, after death — he will reappear in the good destination, the heavenly world. Thus this safe-bet teaching, when well grasped & adopted by him, covers both sides, and leaves behind the possibility of the unskillful.
    MN 60 – Apannaka Sutta – translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
  • ThaoThao Veteran
    I have my own beliefs here. I am reading a book titled, Journey of Souls by a psychologist who does past life regression, and who was at first shocked by what his clients were saying, and at the same time, and just by accident, I am reading Ram Dass' book, Grist of the Mill, and he is giving the teachings that he learned in Hinduism, and they are very much the same.

    I have read other books by those who talk about NDE, and how the mind expands during death, well, the mind expands during meditation too, for some people, and during this expansion you can be surrounded by Love, just as you can in near death experiences. Often I have heard from teachers, mainly Hindu, that mediation is a practice of dying.

    Aura, that is so beautiful. I have experienced past lives, and I have also experienced the mind expansion in meditation where I experience the same as the people who had NDE.
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