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Afraid of rebirth
The very idea that one might go through this business of life all over again is frightening. If we aren't liberated in this life, Karma will persist. We will take birth and suffer the same things again. Pretty depressing, eh?
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I remember being appalled and in a kind of panic when the reality of this sank in, that I might be reborn millions of times, struggling, striving, suffering, dying, again and again.
Must
Get
Out!!
I once asked a monk, "So, if I can't remember any previous lives, and in my next I won't remember this one, then why should I care about future lives, because if I've got no memory, then it's like this next life is someone else?"
His reply was good - even though he answered a question with a question - he said something along the lines of:
"Well, who would you be if you lost your memory? Would you still be you, or would you be someone else? And even if you were someone else, would this 'new person' be deserving of love and compassion?"
I liked that and I haven't agreed with other stuff the monk said (Tibetan mechanical view of karma); but that was good.
At least you have met with the Dharma and have the leisure and brain to be able to change your habits to create good karma and work to free yourself from this mess altogehter. Most people are in the same situation but hopelessly stuck.
It might be helpful to think of it not so much as lives continuing, but life continuing.
It has been said that this is the best form to be in.. not this typed word! But a human life with 8 respites
More precious than a wish granting gem..
The thing that makes it less daunting @music or anybody else is to simply contemplate cause and effect.
Positive action brings positive effect.
Negative action brings negative effect.
I'd rather not come back and deal with all the shit again but the "better" you get now, the better off you'll be later.
Birth and death happens in each moment.
The actual death of the body is just a more blatantly obvious aspect of impermanence.
As I go on about days sometimes I ask myself in a moment,
"What am I taking refuge in right now?"
"Is it this body? Oh hell no, not that!"
"Is it this music I'm listening to? Certainly not!"
"Is it this "happiness" I feel? No."
What is it that I'm taking refuge in?
Something along the lines of the four seals. The body, music, happiness, etc. etc. all shaky as a shoddy sand castle.. the four seals, I've found those to be "solid".
It's just that this is the best time in history for us to be alive and my life is really awesome, so I'd kinda like to end it on a high note, you know?
What if I don't get reborn for a few thousand years and when I come back we have this like, giant sun and no green space?
So those are the reasons I wouldn't want to come back (plus, you know, all the general pain we experience in life) but I don't think it would be horrible if I did come back. I'd be born in a different country next time though, somehwere exotic, and pick a body with a better skin tone and bigger boobs.
This current "you" , like all other "you's" are unique compilations of karmic inertia from numerous sources. What the ego sees as "YOU" will never have this opportunity again to bring resolution to this particular karmic stream. There is karmic inertia to dissolve, ignore or instigate but "you" are just the will -o'-the- wisp.
Each one will be a new experience. A new perspective. That, in and of itself, is actually kind of exciting. Another chance for enlightenment as a completely different being.
(this applies to Tibetan Buddhism at least)
Samsara is painful
Karma only entangles us more and more in this life
The end of life is uncertain
Finally a positive:
We have this precious human life to practice.
This teaching doesn't work well for westerners who are often turning away from X-tianity/hell etc
For westerners most of us study meditation first rather than second from those four motivations. The reason Tibetans can start with the four motivations is that they already have a cultural faith like westerners grow up with a faith in God though they might lose that or not have a family to grow that. So the easterners have faith they just need a fire lit under their booty. Westerners start with meditation to start building faith in the path by enjoying the fruits of meditation.
If you want to use fear as a goad to spiritual effort, become a Christian. They have a superlative handle on threats and promises. But if Buddhism strikes you as sensible, then pay attention and take responsibility ... and don't forget the dry cleaning.
So, if you think about it, going from life to life isn't all that different from going from one moment to the next; and if we do the latter skillfully enough, we won't have to worry all that much about the former (assuming one is open to the possibility, of course) since the fruits of the practice persist as well.
C. Castaneda
You have the god realm, jealous god realm, human realm, animal realm, hungry ghost realm, and hell realm. The full range of possible human experience is included within those six realms. With Trungpa Rinpoche as a teacher, what we did was we explored the realms, and we're still exploring them. It's almost like he put a time bomb in us to explore those realms - all of them. Why? Because of the Boddhisattva vow to help sentient beings. We have to go through all of those experiences in order to be helpful to other people. If you can't be in a hell realm, if you've never been there, then you really can't help someone else who is there because you yourself are resistant to it. You are not willing to go there and so you can't be helpful. Trungpa Rinpoche was a very demanding teacher in that way. If you were looking for some kind of state of mind, or bliss state, or spiritual high, or charisma, or to be "zapped" in a certain way, he wasn't the teacher for you. Somebody once asked him, "Have you ever been in the hell realm?" "Of course," he said. "What did you do when you were there?" they asked him. "Tried to stay there," he told them. Now that is very different from the average guru, who is basically promising some kind of escape from reality.
I may follow the example of boddhi buddy Rabia:
One day, Rabia was seen running, carrying fire in one hand and water in the other. They asked her the meaning of her action and where she was going. She replied, "I am going to light a fire in Paradise and pour water on Hell, so that both veils completely disappear."
and another quote:
my Lord, if I worship You from fear of Hell, burn me in Hell; and if I worship You from hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. But if I worship You for Your own sake, do not withhold from me Your Eternal Beauty.
Not a reincarnation of a Buddha clearly . . .
:rarr:
I know my thoughts here are a little "off" to some but I beg of you not to be afraid at your time of dying. There is always a chance that what you truely believe and/or think is going to happen will.
I'm going to try to aim, just for fun.
If I have to come back, I'll come back, no big deal. This place is full of suffering but it is also filled to the brim with beauty and experience.
It's all a matter of perspective and with fresh eyes, perhaps our individual aspects will be able to see that beauty more clearly and eventually stop seeing each other as seperate.
The us and "them" disease is the worst disease to ever inflict mankind.
So for your sake, I wish you awakening but since (and this may be an assumption but since you're here, I doubt it) you understand the need for compassion, I kinda hope you come back around.