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If We Ever Get There
ThailandTom
Veteran
I was thinking recently about the whole rebirth dealio. Yes some of us accept it and some of us don't, let's just put that aside for a moment.
I read that through each rebirth we learn through our mistakes and are subject to our karma, it is said once the Buddha was enlightened that he could see many life times that he himself had lived through, being little insects to a variety of animals and beings.
So I came to think this, if all of us here are a human form and we are for the most part buddhist, are we not pretty far along the line of rebirth and to ending the cycle of samsara? If you can see my point, we have been given a rebirth of human form which is a great rebirth in itself because you can practice the dharma and it is a very adequate form, but also we do practice the dharma and have chosen this path.
I read that through each rebirth we learn through our mistakes and are subject to our karma, it is said once the Buddha was enlightened that he could see many life times that he himself had lived through, being little insects to a variety of animals and beings.
So I came to think this, if all of us here are a human form and we are for the most part buddhist, are we not pretty far along the line of rebirth and to ending the cycle of samsara? If you can see my point, we have been given a rebirth of human form which is a great rebirth in itself because you can practice the dharma and it is a very adequate form, but also we do practice the dharma and have chosen this path.
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Now having obtained a precious human body,
I do not have the luxury of remaining on a distracted path.
~ Tibetan Book of the Dead
And some are given a great big box of chocolates and their first thought is to put it in their car immediately and keep the lot for themselves?
Life is like a box of chocolates. (i just realised I sound like Forrest Gump!)
But some use the gift for the better - and others use it for the worse....
We're all given a chance to really use the rare gift of this lifetime to the best of our ability....
(don't eat the ones that already have bite-marks.....
However say enlightenment typically takes a billion trillion years... then being a few million years away may be pretty far a long but still a long way to go! I guess also, if it were linear, there would me a unit of enlightenment - as its probably not linear, it doesnt really run with time (far along / not far along) in the usual sense...
Tying loose ends forever... the end is remote. Yet one moment of truly sitting, is the end realized now. Forever out of reach.... and closer to us than our own bones.
:clap: somehow we can be both.
I always liked the notion that human unfolding, our deep urge to bloom beyond urging, is mirrored all around us, or maybe we mirror it.
Some flowers bloom. Some get sown on poor soil. Some grow but curl oddly. Some get stepped on.... But every one is not other than "there"
....a nice picture anyway.
The practice is not about 'getting there', but 'being here'. If we don't practice now, whatever fortunate birth we may have had will not make a difference.
The other is thinking this now is remote from "it", this now is fallen.... and one day us poor forsaken ones will be Enlightened ... we can always hope.. and then we take the up the project of "polishing a brick", and being averse to what makes us human.... fearing "attachment" and taking on responsibility for our world.
It's a touchy subject that is seen from different perspectives in different Buddhist traditions... but somehow in practice there is this intersection of the timeless and time, nothing to do, and something to do.. both are one and we are it.
Supposedly we've had countless rebirths and been born a human many times, but we're still here. This time at least its for sure that we've come across the Dharma and have found the means to free ourselves. Maybe we have in the past too but we're still mucking about.
Once again for good measure.
I think you sum it up well. Perhaps it is the lack of clarity around the concept of enlightenment and who has or hasn't got it. Surely it is the end of suffering. I am also not of the school of thought which states that it does not take effort, that is a mistake in my opinon and risks clinging to ideas such as "I am enlightened because she said so" and other illusions. It does take lots of effort, for example reading and re-reading the pali cannon*, asking and answering questions until they start to link up is as important for some people as mindfullness and meditation. They can all be taken up.
As for effort, everything is an effort whilst there is a sense of doer
*I personally found http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ to be the best free Buddhist resource so far which is why I mention this above
The Theravadins hold that there has to be rebirth from stream entry onwards. I am yet to read the philosophical explanation on why and if that is always the case. Perhaps someone has a link which explains it well, please?
There is no seperation of 'realisation' from 'being human'. As it seems we may already agree, it is not a question of waiting for a futuristic life but of facing ignorance (Avijja) in this life, now. Ignorance, like everything else, is also subject to cessation in this life, and this leads to the end of suffering.