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Purpose of the end stations in Buddhism
Ficus_religiosa
Veteran
This question may sound quite base, but I've been wondering. The teachings tell of both heavens and hells, Buddha saying he's seen them himself. Good incentive to practice, one would think.
But throw in the concept of re-birth combined and the idea kinda goes away. I once read, that re-birth could be seen as leaving your suitcase of karma on the conveyor belt in an airport and don't get on the plane. Someone else picks up the suitcase at the destination. A good suitcase (good karma) will be a good base for the new life picking up the suitcase. In a sense it picks up on your old stuff, starting life "like you" - in your shoes, with your laptop etc - but not being you. A good way of portraying my understanding of the concept. Something is carried over when a being dies, which enters a new being, forming it.
So, since they won't be around, what's the logic in threatening people with torture or bliss to make them practice Buddhism?
But throw in the concept of re-birth combined and the idea kinda goes away. I once read, that re-birth could be seen as leaving your suitcase of karma on the conveyor belt in an airport and don't get on the plane. Someone else picks up the suitcase at the destination. A good suitcase (good karma) will be a good base for the new life picking up the suitcase. In a sense it picks up on your old stuff, starting life "like you" - in your shoes, with your laptop etc - but not being you. A good way of portraying my understanding of the concept. Something is carried over when a being dies, which enters a new being, forming it.
So, since they won't be around, what's the logic in threatening people with torture or bliss to make them practice Buddhism?
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Comments
I don't know anybody who is threatening people into practicing Buddhism.
It's like saying "the person to inherit your shoes will be burnt with hot iron sticks and impaled unless you take care of the sick". Not that I wish for any person to experience such treatment, but it's not a real incentive to treat the sick that someone else might suffer if I didn't..
And sure it is a threat.
If we believe in rebirth, even if it's not of a self, it's like going to sleep and suddenly a new awareness waking up to the world that has no memory... but is still born into suffering. Does it matter if it's not us? This is how we began also, and do we now perceive we are in a state of suffering that we wish to end? It's a chain. We should be concerned, because it would be the same as if we got amnesia. There's no self even now, so it's not about self... but it is just the same as us. The same situation, and it's causally related to this life. We will be the cause of that suffering if we don't sever it.