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My mind started running at a million Mph

BeydanBeydan
edited October 2011 in Buddhism Basics
Hopefully I can remember and type down everything that just went through my mind.

Here's assumptions I've made from reading and my own interpretations of what I've heard/read:
1 - Upon physical/mental death actions from earlier in life bring about continued existence in a new body and/or mind.
2 - A person who has done good in a past life will be reborn in conditions conductive to further good deeds and further production of good karma.

If Nirvana is the cessation of forming karma through volitional action(Whether good or bad), how can one be confident that numerous lifetimes of Sila, and numerous lifetimes of being in environments and conditions conductive to generation of good karma will reach Nirvana?

Comments

  • BeydanBeydan
    Also, I recently read a passage in which Buddha was asked how/why people end up with lives being ugly, or poor, etc. He stated that it was the result of past action in previous lives. Surely he didn't mean this is the case 100% of the time?
  • BeydanBeydan
    I'm sorry for not thinking this out better and properly forming my questions.

    I understand that there is kiriya, and that it is the result of volitional action taken as a result of proper understanding and application of the Eightfold Noble Path. I am just asking what fruit is born in a future life in another body/mind from acting in such a way. Supposedly a person who has lived a morally upright life is born in a situation more conductive of continued moral uprightness. In the case of Kiriya, what is a situation being more conductive of it?

    I also understand that it is wrong view to believe in determinism as a result of past karma, so obviously a person being ugly isn't 100% the result of a past life 100% of the time. I really shouldn't have asked about it, because I already knew the answer.

    Sorry ;/
  • Ada_BAda_B
    Whether our lives are 'good' or 'bad' is largely perspective. If we were truly enlightened, we'd see that our lives are neither good nor bad (but maybe something better? ), regardless of what is happening to our physical bodies.

    Perhaps, the truth is that these 'bad' things in our lives are better teachers than the 'good' things? And that no matter what is happening to us, it can always be seen as beneficial, if we have the eyes to see it.

    Either way, karma has no hold on us once we learn to see things as they really are, once we are Enlightened/Awakened. That is the real message of the Buddha - you stopped short in your reading if you did not go further than the fact that in life (in samsara) there is always suffering/dissatisfaction (dukka). That's the bad news. The good news it that it needn't be that way.
  • BeydanBeydan

    Either way, karma has no hold on us once we learn to see things as they really are, once we are Enlightened/Awakened. That is the real message of the Buddha - you stopped short in your reading if you did not go further than the fact that in life (in samsara) there is always suffering/dissatisfaction (dukka). That's the bad news. The good news it that it needn't be that way.
    Right, but I'm speaking from the perspective that enlightenment takes thousands, if not millions of lifetimes. I really wish I had properly worded and pointed toward my main subject of curiosity and it is entirely my fault that you didn't pinpoint what I wanted to focus on.

    I was trying to understand how it is that one would argue that following the eight-fold noble path for one's entire life would lead to an environment conductive of further following of that path in the next life. As you even stated, the "Bad" or "Worse" things in this world can be very conductive towards reaching enlightenment.

  • tmottestmottes Veteran
    @Beydan have you considered that buddhism might have nothing to say about life before or after your death? That these births (not rebirths) are your identification with various aspects of "you" in this life. You identify being this or that at one point, and then a new identity is born and you identify with that. Could it be that realizing that nothing is permanent strongly refers to how you cling/think/view yourself in any given "infinitely small" moment of time.

    I am still on the fence with this, but it seems as probable as a more eternal view.
  • bodhipunkbodhipunk
    If one truly follows the Noble Eightfold, Nibbana is attained and there is no longer any further becoming (or "rebirth"). Therefore, there is no fruit to be reaped in a future life as it is experienced in the here-and-now.

    The passage you referenced where Buddha explained that future conditions is the result of past actions is to demonstrate that things do not simply happen by chance. There are causes and conditions. Take for example a mother smoking while pregnant. The result of her past actions of smoking may possibly result in the child having asthma or birth defects. Nobody can (nor would they even want to, I'm sure) speculate about what the child's kamma must have been to be born with that woman, but the point of the teaching was that things happen not by sheer chance but due to previous causes and conditions.
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