Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
seeing what you want to see
yuriythebest
Veteran
right, I've searched the web for evidence of reincarnation - there are mny interesting accounts on youtube and there also lists of "confirmed" reincarnations. They are all quite believable, however, are we just seeing what we want to see? for instance, in medieval europe people used to spot witches everywhere, in, say ancient greece one might spot some zeus-related miracle or something, and of course christians like to have miracles of their own.
You might ask how would one really prove it? that "reincarnated" ppl are not just attention-seekers, this I do not know..
You might ask how would one really prove it? that "reincarnated" ppl are not just attention-seekers, this I do not know..
0
Comments
Palzang
why would anyone "want" to see this?
samsara sucks. uncontrolled rebirth is not a good thing.
there are excellent commentaries on the functioning of karma and rebirth that explain this clearly.
I think we can neither "prove" or "disprove" the theory of reincarnation. Besides, from a Buddhist point of view, the doctrine of reincarnation assumes a permanent self passing from one lifetime to the next whilst the doctrine of anatta points to the absence to such a permanent entity. Which doctrine to follow? ...believe? ... think we should just set it aside as it is not a part of the method (8FP) to end/reduce dukkha in the here and now.
well, cause otherwise nothing separates this belief, from say, the egyptian or anciant greek afterlife, or christianity/islam/judaism/etc -all are no more or less plausible. Makes all religions seem like fairy tales.
Palzang
I disagree here, As someone who doesnt see reincarnation as any passing on of a permenant self, to assume the I of this life becomes the I of the next life is false, it is the imprints of actions that ripens in the next life dependant upon
the ignorance of self grasping that formulates an I this I is not permenant it is subject to change and impermence as anything else.
Meh I tend to have a positive view of things, life is not just dukkha that needs to be overcome, if so, why bother having existence?
you see body die but what happens to mind and the subconscious? the subconscious which is so great and vast yet so invisible
maybe i've gotten too far into buddhist thought and my own experiences, but to me oblivion as conceived by a materialistic world view doesn't make much sense anymore.
I know from science that it is a model. A little game we play to predict reality. How far this idea extends I do not know. But I do believe that a model of reality is never going to be complete. Because it is only a pointer to reality.
Don't eat the map.
My understanding is that the five aggregates work together so seamlessly that they create the illusion of a single self. The five aggregates are subject to change and impermanence. That's okay. But if the "I" is also "not permanent and is subject to change and impermanence", does it then not become yet another "aggregate"? ... the sixth aggregate
The I is a collective of the 5 aggregates, The I in itself come included within the mental factors and so on as a collective for our current states of ignornace.
I died.....Depedant upon karma aggregates arise elsewhere, having arisen ( still in ignorance ) I is born and changed according to the place, time, body. ect.
I would say, belief in post-mortem rebirth as another sentient being should be based on personal experience (our own or others whose experience persuades us) not on the balance of probabilities, or a need to feel that 'we' must survive beyond death, nor on the actions of some sects in identifying tulkus or even living Buddhas.
Yes.... this clarifies your previous response. Thank you
Love & Peace
Joe