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Paradox of the human realm
Bunks
Australia Veteran
I know there are many paradoxes in Buddhism.
The one that has been capturing my attention lately is that monks and nuns in most traditions take a vow of celibacy therefore never have children.
As I'm led to believe, if the human realm is the only realm from which enlightenment is possible, shouldn't monks and nuns be having kids to give them the best opportunity to become enlightened?
Maybe they could donate sperm or eggs to couples that want to have kids but can't?
Just a thought...
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It would seem at the moment at least this planet has a few too many precious human rebirths.
Also, everyone isn't going to become a monastic not even a sizeable percent of the population so practically it isn't a real issue.
As a side note, in the pure lands where everyone follows the Dharma people are said to be born from a lotus flower (or maybe grown in test tubes).
In the Tibetan tradition, monks and nuns of some sects do marry and have kids. Or one might be the consort of the other, and if a pregnancy results, the child is raised as a monastic. The former head of the Nyingma order, Dudjom Rimpoche, was married to his consort. Whether or not they had kids, I'm not sure. Japanese "monks" marry and have kids, and pass along the role of abbot of their temple/monastery to their kids.
I guess you were speaking about other Buddhist traditions, OP. I didn't see that little word in your post, "most" traditions.
When it comes to "enlightenment," I have more faith in suffering than I have in monasteries.
Considering only a handful of people become fully enlightened I don't think we have a chance of running out of human births any time soon.
Plus who knows how many other worlds with conscious beings there are.
Not just in Buddhism, but in life too.
At present, I'm sat perfectly still in my office. Yet I'm travelling at 96,000 mph on an orbit around the sun. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....
Both are conflicting statements, yet both are true. I'm pretty sure that's the definition of a paradox.
My own favourite was when I thought (without really thinking about it) that my happiness was more important than anyone else's, I ended up miserable, at my first A.A. meeting, wanting to kill myself.
Yet when I try to make the happiness of others more important, I feel happier.
That's weird.
Like the world needs more children?
I was thinking something similar recently. If, as they say, the human realm is the only one that can give rise to Buddhas, and if we know that there are countless beings that are going to be reborn anyway due to past karma, wouldn't it be good to, in essence, reserve a spot for that being in this best of all possible realms, the human one, by having a baby?
This is of course assuming you can provide lots of love and a good life for the baby. If not, their negative experiences may lead them into a downward spiral into less auspicious realms.
Also, it assumes that this whole view of the world (six realms, human is best, karma, rebirth) is actually true.
Kids come with their own karmic momentum. To have a kid for the possible potential that they attain buddhahood is a bit insane.
But its not as insane as having a kid to fulfill some kind of lack of meaning one has.
As the world is going it would be quite the compassionate thing not to have kids.
Who says only a handful of people are enlightened?. You don't know and you will never know unless you can decipher what enlightenment is. I watched the Imitation Game about Alan Turing, great film about discrimination on many levels, and have now read his original paper which in my opinion poses essentially the same or at least a similar question to descartes proposals: http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/TuringArticle.html
Are you talking about all those other worlds in this universe or in the multidimensional universe of multiple universes that may exist, in which case there are more than a handful of conscious beings, which magnifies the number of enlightened at least to a small infinity of enlightened beings surely!
...\lol/...
Though chastity is an issue I will never understand nor practice no matter what, I do understand that some people choose a monastic path and are happy with their calling.
Those of us who are not made for a monastic life, choose to marry and have children.
And those in-between, like Dzogchen Rinpoche, the head lama of my sangha, have a foot in both worlds. He holds a lineage but is also married and has children.
To each his own. There will always be someone in the world who has children.
I respect people's personal decision not to have them.
We are reproductive beings.
We can choose not to be reproductive beings
That demonstrates choice!
what more evidence that you have control over your life than that.
Unless you were programmed to be reproductive - Oh the paradoxical nature of life!
I believe these beings to talk the truth. I listen deeply to those I see as pointing correctly. They express why so few teach enlightenment and it makes perfect sense.
I'm talking about any universe! But this was in regards to conscious beings and not necessarily enlightenment.
Gosh we have an extraordinary existence lol. So much we so not know.