Maniam PS [Guru] Reward Points : 137200 Member Since : Wednesday, March 18, 2009
If there is such a thing as re-birth or if you believe in re-birth, what would you want to be re-born as and please explain why...
Posted On : 5/11/2009 8:42:08 AM
Indravadan Modi Reward Points : 23300 Member Since : Saturday, January 10, 2009
Interesting Post... I personally do believe in rebirth because belief in rebirth is the only aspect which can make us to lead a peaceful life. If given a chance i want to born as a human again..
Posted On : 5/14/2009 1:26:13 AM
Anil Tewari Reward Points : 17400 Member Since : Friday, April 17, 2009
We find different opinions on rebirth. Some accept, others deny. Now, the question is whether it is a reality irrespective of the fact that someone believes in it or not? For instance, I believe that there is a computer through which I am posting a blog. My belief in the existence of the computer is justified as I am able to perform certain functions through it and these functions are not my hallucinations. Is rebirth this kind of fact? And if we have a firm belief, what kind of justification we can supply for our belief? Apart from folklores, there have been certain cases where we heard a person recalling exactly the experiences of a departed person. How is it possible given the fact that I can recall only those experiences which I have really undergone? I cannot recall the experiences of others. There are studies which purport to show that rebirth is a fact. There is another interesting fact about such cases where the children were reported to have narrated the experiences of departed persons. All these children after some time were back to their normal stage and their alleged memory of the experiences of previous life faded away gradually. What does such recollection along with the later memory loss suggest? The existence of an eternal self as a unique substance residing in each individual s body, transmigrating from one body to another after death and thereby forming the notion of rebirth is ontologically suspected. Then what precisely is it that continues after death and carries all memory traces of previous life? In Indian philosophy, we find an explanation which all Schools, except the Charvaka, accept. The bearer of the memory traces is a subtle body. We find differences in opinion whether there is an essential core to this body or it is simply an aggregation of certain factors. But, it is almost unanimous that each individual involves a subtle body and this body carries over the experiences of previous life and when it appropriates a gross physical body in the form of new birth, it makes the newly born to recall the experiences. One may wonder if it is the case with every birth, why not everyone recalls his or her experiences of previous life. Our tradition has a unique response to such question. Recollection requires a level of mental pureness. When we obtain such state where our mind is undefiled, we can recall our experiences of previous lives. An ordinary pure mind can go back to only immediate preceding life, but an enlightened mind can reach out to the experiences of many previous lives as the Jataka-stories of the Buddhist tradition show. To a modern mind, all these may sound funny because one cannot supply the kind of justification such mind would accept. But there are so many truths which are beyond the reach of an entangled mind.
Re-birth
