Buddhist talk: Being Awake to Rebirth in the Moment.
Karma & Rebirth
Our culture doesn’t encourage too much contemplation on birth and death
We see and know impermanence as a constant. And that is liberating. All the mental suffering about what is going to happen to us, about being this or that person who will eventually disappear, about becoming ‘nothing’, is dissipated and this moment becomes a vast timelessness. The Buddha called it ‘birthlessness’ and ‘deathlessness’, freedom from birth and death…
A Handful of Pain, by Diana St Ruth
To allow the body to be painful when it needs to be, without regarding it as a bad thing, can be a liberating experience, a relief even, because there is no further conflict in the mind. Of course it is difficult when pain is severe, but there is a way of separating oneself from it and changing one’s relationship to it…
The Misguided Monk
Short animation 3mins. When an old hermit monk has his day interrupted by an uninvited guest, he is unwillingly taken on a journey to discover the true meaning of companionship.
Clinging to Self, by Bhikkhu PA Payutto
A fun short story. The moral of this story is: if you want to say ‘there is no one who creates karma,’ you must first learn how to stop saying ‘Ouch!’
A Buddhist Case For Becoming Vegetarian, by Philip Kapleau
To Cherish All Life: A Buddhist Case For Becoming Vegetarian
By Philip Kapleau PDF book…
Understanding Karma and Rebirth
Rebirth and reincarnation are generally accepted realities in the East and have been since ancient times. What the next life will be is usually the question rather than whether it will be. In the West, on the other hand, we have our own religious and secular beliefs which usually do not include living another life, or at least not in this world or in this way…
The unborn does not come within the realm of time
Questions such as: Why was I born? What is my life for? What will happen to me when I die? are based on the premise of a solid, permanent entity living in a body and moving through time from day…