Buddhism As Education

Not only is there scientific evidence to support the Buddhist belief in rebirth, it is the only after life theory that has strong evidence. During the last 30 years, parapsychologist have been studying reports that some people have vivid memories of their former lives. For example, in England, a 5 year old girl said she could remember her "other parents" and talked vividly about what sounded like the events in the life of another person. Parapsychologist were called in and they asked her hundreds of questions to which she gave answers. She spoke of living in a particular village in what appreared to be in Spain, she gave the name of the village, the name of the street she lived in, her neighbours' names and details of her daily life there. Se also tearfully spoke of how she had been struck by a car and died of her injuries two days later. And when these details were checked, they were found to be accurate. There was a village in Spain with the name that the 5 year old gir...

If being patient and kind was a pronounced part of your character in your last life, such tendencies will re-emerge in the present life. If they are strengthen and developed in the present life, they will re-emerge stronger and more pronounced in the future life. This is base upon the simple observable fact that long established habits tend to be difficult to break. If you are patient and kind, it tends to happen that you are not so easily ruffled by others. you don't hold grudges, people like you and thus your experience tend to be happier. Or you might come into this life with the tendency to be patient and kind due to your mental habits in the past life. If in the present life you neglect to strengthen and develop them, they would gradually weaken and die out and perhaps completely absent in the future life. Patience and kindness being weak in this case, there is a possibility that in either this life or next, a short temper, anger and cruelty could grow and develop, bringing wi...

Yes, that is why one of the steps on the Noble Eightfold Path is Perfect Effort. It depends on our sincerity, how much energy we exert and how strong your habits are. Some people simply go through life under the influence of their past habits without making an effort to change. Such people will continue to suffer unless they change their negative habits. The longer the negative habits remain, the more difficult they are to change. The Buddhist understands this and take advantage of each of every opportunity to break mental habits that have unpleasant results and to develop mental habits that have pleasant and happy results. Meditation is one of the techniques used to modify the habit patterns of the Mind as to speaking or refrain from speaking, acting or refraining to act in certain ways. The entire Buddhist life is a training to purify and free the Mind.

The most important factor influencing where we will born and what sort of life we shall have is Karma - our intentional physical and mental actions. What we are is to determined very much by how we have thought and acted in the past. Likewise, how we think and act now will influence how we will be in the future. A gentle loving person tends to be reborn in a heaven realm or as a human being who has a predominance of pleasant experiences. The extremely cruel person tends to be reborn in a hell realm or as a human being who has a predominance of painful experiences. The person who develops obsessive craving, fierce longings and burning ambitions that can never be satisfied tends to be reborn as a hungry ghost or as a human being frustrated by longing and wanting. Whatever mental habits are strongly developed in this life will continue in the next life.

Our minds being obscured by ignorance finds it difficult to remember the past. Also, many changes occur in our body and mind as we die and are reborn, making recollection difficult. Not remembering something does not mean that it does not exist - we sometimes even forget where we parked our car! However, some people can remember their past lives in meditation. What is more important is how we live our present life. Knowing what we were like in past lives is useful only if it helps to generate determination to avoid negative actions or to free ourselves from rebirth. The important thing is to purify our previous negative actions, avoid creating more and put energy into accumulating positive potential and developing our good qualities. If we want to know our past life, we only have to look at the state of our present life. If we want to know about our future lives, we only need to look at what we are doing right now. This is because we received our present rebirth based on our past actio...

Our mind streams are like radio waves, which is energy transmitted at different frequencies. Radio waves are transmitted, travel through space, are attracted to and pick up by the receiver with the same tuning and is broadcasted as music. It is similar to the Mind. At death, mental energy travels through space, is attracted to and picked up by fertilized egg. As the embryo grows, it centres itself in the brain from where it later "broadcasts" itself as the new personality. Is being Reborn Good? The idea of rebirth can be very comforting as it offers chances to amend the mistakes you have made in this life and time to further develop the skills and abilities you have nurtured in this life. If we failed to attain enlightenment in this life, you will have the opportunity to try again next time. If you have made mistakes in this life, you will be able to learn from your mistakes. Things you were unable to do or achieve in this life may well become possible in the next life. Ultim...

The sense of consciousness that see, hear, smell, taste and feel tactile sensations and the gross mental consciousness, functions actively while we are alive. When one is dying, they cease to function and absorbed into subtle mental consciousness. The subtle mind mind bears the imprints of the actions we have done (Karma) with all the tendencies, preferences, abilities and characteristics that have been developed and conditioned in this life. After death, the subtle mind leaves one body, enters the intermediate state and re-establishes itself in a fertilized egg in another body. After the subtle mind joins with another body at the moment of conception, the gross sense of consciousness reappear and the person again sees, hears, thinks and so forth. The subtle mind which goes from one life to the next is a constantly changing phenomena and it cannot be considered to be a soul or real personality. Thus, the individual is reborn and develops a personality conditioned both by mental charact...