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what do you guys beleive
what do you guys beleive happens when we die......
Nothing, just a blank screen
or something, like reincarnation
Nothing, just a blank screen
or something, like reincarnation
0
Comments
Personally, I believe that if we are not an Arahant at the time of death then we will be reborn.
In what state exactly will we be reborn? I don't know. This (i.e. not knowing in what state we will be reborn) is one potential motivator to get off the wheel of Samsara, since our next birth could be an unpleasant state.
By the way, "just a blank screen" is still something.
What do you believe?
Metta,
Guy
beyond death, that depends on your karma.
Who knows? Why worry?
I just want everyone to have a 'chance'. the truth is i don't know a thing. I just think about so many children and people who die of hunger who are never given any tools to deal with there suffering. I just would find it so sad, if there were just born to suffer and die with no point or reason or chance for peace.
Rebirth skeptics might claim that those who believe in rebirth do so because of "wishful thinking". However, if we are at risk of being reborn into a worse situation than we are currently in, how is that wishful thinking?
I don't view rebirth as inherently "good" or "bad".
It is "bad" to be reborn over and over again for countless lifetimes, being born, getting old, getting sick, dying...without ever really "getting anywhere" or "achieving anything" of lasting value. It is "bad", just doing the same things over and over again; experiencing loss, grief, pain, sorrow, despair over and over again.
It is "good", in my opinion, if we use the belief in rebirth as a motivation to practice Dhamma, to realize an end of suffering and an end of rebirth.
Metta,
Guy
There is no reincarnation, how could there be?
...but hell if I know what happens upon death
Its not like Jason is going to continue on forever. Thank God cuz that would get boring.
Its like when I look back on old photo's i don't really relate to the old me. But one thing that remains is the consciousness and experience. Maybe thats what death is like, just a transformation, a change
but hell if I know what happens upon death...
and I shall surely find out...or not
Also, I always believed that it didn't matter since I don't remember what happened before I was born either.
Our bodies and mind are closely connected. If i used a substance that worked on my body, it could also change my perception of the world. I believe our mind is to our body quite like a computer program is to the hardware. If you change the hardware, the software may seem to work differently, even without programming.
The notion of me having a "self" with goals and ideas is not absolute, but is rather dependent on the state of my body. This can be proved by anyone taking drugs that may work on the mind - now i think i am a human having to do my homework, the next moment i could be equally persuaded i'm an orange that needs to be peeled.
The idea of self and the boundaries of the self is biologically pre-programmed. For example, there are people who due to a certain difference in their nervous system will have the perception that a body part does not belong to them - their own hand will seem to belong to them the same a cup may feel it belongs to us ("Somatoparaphrenia"). This will be as obvious to them as the fact that our own hands are ours seems to us. Therefore, when we die the structure of the nervous system will change, and boundaries of ourselves (and to where we consider our bodies to span to) will first become confusing, than vanish away. Our bodies will no longer end at the tips of our fingers.
Another "proof" of that would be robots - boundaries are not absolute. To people it is completely obvious (or pre-programmed) to notice where they keyboard, for example, ends. To a robot, it might as well be an inch less or more. We are composed of matter in a certain configuration and "programmed" in a certain way, just like robots are composed of matter in a certain configuration and programmed in a certain way. Our bodies act true to the same natural (physical) laws as theirs do.
We have a "self" that constantly changes. I perceive myself quite differently from how i did 20 years ago. My awareness is different when i sleep from how it is when i'm awake. In death, my awareness of myself will just keep on changing like it did up till now.
I believe death will be a similar transition like between being awake and falling asleep, but of course something entirely new. Kinda like if you mixed colors, if you knew the "feeling" of how blue, with the addition of yellow, would go towards green - would you then be able to know the transition when you added red to blue, so becoming violet; if you ever just experienced the transition between blue and green but never blue and violet? In the same way there will be a transition that is quite similar, yet completely new to us. Although every moment is a transition new to us if you think of it...
Then on the matter of karma and reincarnation:
When we do what is skillful, others may take it up and develop it, so we do not need to do it again when we arise in a similar state again.
How are we "reborn"?. Well, you know there was once just soil, of which grew grass, which was eaten by a cow, which as a stake may have been eaten by your mother. But really, soil, grass, cow, mother are just qualities of the same matter. A cup can be blue or white, matter can be cup or cow.
What your mother ate, changed form again, until it became your body. This body had a certain kind of awareness special to it, which it not to say it is exclusive to the body, you may just have pre-programmed boundaries to believe awareness is not a property of all matter. Anyway, what happens at death is very much alike to what was happening up till now. You become food for the next one in line - that will probably be bacteria, than other things will eat the bacteria, going on, you may arise as a human again. Death is the same natural process life is. A "fun" trivial fact is that if you wont be cremated, you will be actually eaten by the bacteria that are already a crucial part of you - or rather crucial the the way your intestine works^^
You just need to look at any matter to see what happens after death. There is a cup, the cup breaks to dust - where did the cup go, is it still there? It is in a form of dust. If you added water to it, from the clay you might be able to make a cup again - thus, it will again arise as a cup.
just like that.
I guess no matter what, its change change change
A deciple once asked the buddha what happens when we die, he answered with a remark similar to, 'that is not important as the aim is to end the suffering here and now, asking yourself this question will bring you suffering in itself'
But if you believe that the universe is all connected, then there is nowhere else to go.... you will still be part of the universe in some form or fashion, energy or wave.
I try to think that when i die ill know the ultimate answer whatever it is.
Also Death could be the motor for us to enjoy, search for enlightement and think.
Its like no death no life.
No change = Non existent/Really death.
Now matters.
All the best,
Todd
I also used in a discussion/argument that once the buddha was fully awoken, he could see way back into thousands of past life's, but who is to know that he said tgis at all - I mean it has been a little over 2,500 years and a lot could have been added, removed, changed or misunderstood along the way.
IMO, what matters is the now, living in the moment and trying to cultivate the mind, ending the suffering to you and those around you. Wait until you die to find out this question, for me it makes dying exciting and mysterious instead of fearful.
When the body you currently identify with ceases to function, I assume life simply continues unaffected.
Even religious practise it does not make much sense if death in not in the equation. If karma does not exist next life does not exist then we just do as WE like. We dont have to be aware, dont care, just do as I feel.
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