August 14, 2023

Is Rebirth for Real? | Ajahn Dhammasiha | Dhammagiri | Buddhism

40 minutes

We all know that the Buddha teaches Karma and Rebirth. However, unless we have special psychic powers, we have to admit that we do not know for sure what happens after death. We take it on faith in the Buddha that consciousness continues after death, and attaches to a new body in a new rebirth according to our karma. But we usually do not know it from our own experince, as we usually can't remember past lives.

The Buddha actually fully acknowledges that fact. He admits that life

after death is a matter of faith for someone without any psychic powers like past life memory.

However, the Buddha suggests that we're better off assuming that rebirth and karma are for real. The potential risks and rewards are just too great:

If we assume rebirth is not for real, we may end up making lots of bad karma, and we're really in big trouble, if it actually turns out to be real.

If we assume karma and rebirth are for real, we will lead a good

life, not harm other beings, and try to make lots of good karma. If then it turms out to really be real, we're enjoying millions of years in great happiness in heavenly world.

On the other hand, if it turned out that rebirth is not real, there would simply be nothing after death. No big difference in outcome, then, whether we believed in it or not.

There are actually many indications that rebirth and karma are for real! Ajahn Dhammasiha brings up quite a few in this talk:

Someone shares their past life memories, and later details of their

memories are verified in the real world.

Children remember a previous life, and researchers like Dr Ian

Stevenson succeed in finding the previous family of the child, and the child can even identify previous relatives on first encounter.

Near Death Experience (NDE). While they are 'clinically dead', someone sees a beautiful light their floating towards, or meets deceased loved ones, or observes their dead body from above. After successful medical resuscitation, they remember and share this experience. Sometimes, details of their experience can be verified in the real world.

Strange preferences in food, music and so on. Someone really likes the food, music, or culture of a foreign country they have no connection with in this life. But due to past life in that country/culture, they just really like it, and it feels very familiar to them even on first encounter.

Some people we meet we immediately get on with, like we know them already for a long time, although we just met them now. But due to past life association, we're very familiar.

and so on ...

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