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What are we supposed to do?
genie
Explorer
Buddha said consciousness is dependently arising, meaning it exists with brain and not separately. So it doesnt travel to another body, so no rebirth. So this is the one life we have, according to Buddhism. What exactly are we to do, just have fun like materialists who also believe in only one life?
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Well, for a start, the word is 'are'. 'R' is a letter, not a word. You don't need to text-speak, because it's a website, not a phone. Thanks. (Title of thread now edited.)
Secondly I think you need to do a little more research on Kamma and Dependent Origination, before you consider what Consciousness is and where and how it arises....
Up to "dependently arising," you were on to something.
"Dependently arising" means interrelated. We inter-are, which has nothing to do with "existing with the brain," as if the brain were the seat of your consciousness.
We have five skandhas, and the brain is just a physical organ.
In Buddhism, there is a belief in rebirth or continuation, as Thich Nhat Hahn prefers, with a stream of consciousness passing on in several rounds of lifetimes.
Whichever case, matter gets transformed, not destroyed.
Dwelling in the here and now has nothing to do with "having fun."
Just that this life is precious and should not be vainly dissipated.
"Do no harm, act for the good, purify your mind," is the teaching of the Buddha.
"The whole aim of the Buddhist teaching is to develop the reflective mind in order to let go of delusions," said Ajahn Sumedho.
@genie you might like to start with "this" to get a grip on what consciousness is from a Buddhist perspective...
Hi Genei,
Good question. Yes just have fun (which apparently is all gals just wanna do according to the dharma of Cyndi Lauper).
However fun in the one life of Dharma is a Middle Way between asceticism (living on vinegar) and hedonism (living as a honey).
What is your plan?
I believe in rebirth. But in the end, I don't know just like no one else knows. I don't know if I'll zap into another life, go to a waiting room, meet Peter at the pearly gates (or his counterpart in the depths of hell) or what. But it really doesn't matter. What happens after my body dies just doesn't matter. What matters is how I live today. Perhaps rebirth truly only means we carry on in those people and deeds we leave behind. But what we do now does matter. What are we supposed to do? That's for each of us to figure out. I certainly don't know what you are supposed to do. But without proper understanding it is very easy to turn Buddha's teachings around to be something of a "what does it matter?" point of view. That's not the intention of all the work he did and teachings he gave.
Thank u. I will read about it and see how it goes.
Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta
https://suttacentral.net/en/mn38
-So the universe is what, 14 billion +/- years old; and might very well be existing in separate and distinct dimensions simultaneously. And within this context your consciousness has discovered this life has a finite lifetime so you want to know what to do now.
May you be well...
consciousness or vijnana reforms in another body. but vijnana isn't a 'me' or a you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijñāna
The Buddha did not teach only one life. The Buddha routinely rejected the idea that there is only one life and this is it.
The Buddha called "one life" a "wrong view".
Thanks, but I am assuming he meant something different than the hindu notion of rebirth?
well, if you want to go into details, then you can read about Atman in Hinduism, Anatta in Buddhism, Tao in Taoism, Soul in Christianity etc - they all will seem different, but nobody will tell what exactly is the ultimate truth about our existence because it existed before language, so language cannot describe it. so how to know what is the ultimate truth - the only way seems to be go inside ourselves and find it out for ourselves - keeping in mind that do not believe a single thought which arises in your mind, as thinking however intelligent cannot help to realize the ultimate truth.
as for rebirth, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism etc all say that rebirth happens, though the context and the internal details can vary and we can debate over rebirth, reincarnation etc. the common point across all spiritual teachings is the universal law of karma, which tells as we sow, so we reap - so we should do skillful things and we should not do unskillful things - so logically, if in this life, we do not get the results of our bad karma or good karma done in this life, then there shall be another birth to get their results.
metta to you and all sentient beings.
The difference with materialists is this. The materialist thinks there is a self that was born, ages and then dies. The eternalist believes this self carries on after the body dies.
Dependent origination teaches that this self is an illusion. Without thoughts, there cannot be a thinker. Thoughts and thinker are dependently arisen like the front and back of the hand. No thoughts, no thinker and vice versa. They are not independent things.
According to my teacher, our karmas rebirth.
Our personality does not.
Karmas are imprints we have made within ourselves, through our intentions, actions, words, thoughts and feelings. And the teaching is that we are NOT our personality ... we are only our habits/karmas/imprints .. and that these move on to the next life and indeed shape what kind of life we are drawn to.
My next life will not be as FoibleFull, nor even as FoibleFull in some other form .. but my essence will experience the suffering of the unenlightened nonetheless.
So what ARE we supposed to do? Seek release from the cycle of rebirth by working to attain enlightenment. And while we will probably not achieve it in this lifetime, if we set strong imprints for doing the dharma in us now, those imprints will propel us to a birth situation where we have the ability to practice the dharma and the opportunity to learn how to practice it.
So I am taught.
Having no awareness of this process from MY own experience, I cannot say for sure.
And if there IS no rebirth, I know only this.
That my body is growing old and Yama/death approaches me.
This is not a comforting situation.
But the longer I practice Buddhism, the more I can relax into this inevitability and the better I can handle physical pain, fear, etc etc.
Put your investments into material things, and you are impoverished as you approach death. Put it into your inner life, and the riches build.
My opinion.
Yes.
He essentially meant rebirth without transmigration of any permanent soul entity. Hindu notion is rebirth with transmigration of a soul entity, or "reincarnation". So Hindu would say you have this soul inside you and it will be transferred to your next body. Buddhism is different. Sometimes the analogy of a candle is used describe it. When we light one candle from another candle, no substance of the candle really travels from one to the other, and yet the first is the cause of the second. Or, the 2nd is "dependently arising".
For a living example of "rebirth". You could say there is "something" undergoing change or rebirth from pupa to butterfly. The alternative view is there is only change but "no-thing" that changes. From this viewpoint every moment is complete and doesn't "become" something else. Isn't this the end of rebirth or reincarnation?
http://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/Dogen_Teachings/Genjokoan_Okumara.htm
Open are the doors to the Deathless
to those with ears.
MN26
The difficulty with this moment-to-moment view is that in the suttas birth and death are always described as actual physical events.
They actually are as you said, real physical events. Strangely enough the newborn infant doesn't experience death. At least not until you give it a name and start celebrating its birthdays. So you now have a "Peter" who was born on such a date, starts growing old and eventually dies. What if Peter was just a convention?
There is conventional/provisional truth and the "ultimate" truth.
Here is a sutta passage illustrating this:
There is no living being to get reborn. Only dukkha and its end.
The last sentence says it all. The conventions only apply when the aggregates are assumed to represent a being.
I'm not seeing the relevance of this Dogen quote - could you explain?
What is born doesn't die, what dies wasn't born just as the 'caterpillar' remains a caterpillar. The caterpillar doesn't become a butterfly although it would appear so because of the false view that there is a something or essence that turns into another. Would you say that the caterpillar is immortal since it doesn't die but merely changes? Birth is a complete expression as is death. The newborn did not die and the old man was never born. What you end up with is the birthless, ageless and deathless since there isn't a thing that was born, ages and dies. Yet there is the obvious event of birth, aging and death. Each in their own place.
Sorry, I can't explain any better.
@pegembara, I'm going to throttle you! (just kidding)
Well, I suppose I could explain myself, but then the mystery would be lost, and what fun is that?