Countless corpses of past life

An Eternal Now SG

Thusness used to tell us about seeing faces of past lives and wrote:

Today I saw a forummer 'upekkha' in another forum. She is a Theravadin practitioner and was awakened to Anatta a few years ago, and thanked me for my blog. (I shared Thusness's writings in Ajahn Brahmavamso's forum years ago, and those writings helped her realize Anatta)

Recently she also spoke about remembering her past lives:

http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17652/corpse

An Eternal Now SG

Here's what the Buddha said:

..."The blood you have shed when, being water buffaloes, you had your water buffalo-heads cut off... when, being rams, you had your ram-heads cut off... when, being goats, you had your goat-heads cut off... when, being deer, you had your deer-heads cut off... when, being chickens, you had your chicken-heads cut off... when, being pigs, you had your pig-heads cut off: Long has this been greater than the water in the four great oceans.

"The blood you have shed when, arrested as thieves plundering villages, you had your heads cut off... when, arrested as highway thieves, you had your heads cut off... when, arrested as adulterers, you had your heads cut off: Long has this been greater than the water in the four great oceans.

"Why is that? From an inconceivable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. Long have you thus experienced stress, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling the cemeteries — enough to become disenchanted with all fabrications, enough to become dispassionate, enough to be released."

That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the monks delighted in the Blessed One's words. And while this explanation was being given, the minds of the thirty monks from Pava — through lack of clinging — were released from fermentations. - http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn15/sn15.013.than.html

Bamboo Ocean Army21 SG

i only see countless chiobus...............

newgal SG

i only see countless chiobus...............

hahaha...joker

John lim2004 SG

夫妻是缘孩子是债无缘不聚无债不来

夫妻是缘，不管是善缘还是恶缘，无缘不聚。孩子是债，不管是讨债还是还债，无债不来。所以，善缘的夫妻能和和睦睦过一辈子，恶缘的夫妻吵吵闹闹一辈子妻离子散。讨债的孩子一辈子不成器让父母操心，还债的孩子始终让父母省心并知恩图报。人世间如此多的悲欢离合恩恩怨怨，说白了都是因缘和合的结果，如是因如是果，无论何种因何种果，都是缘……

第一种是报恩的。过去生中你们彼此互相有恩惠，他这一次又看到你了，到你家来投胎。这个就是我们中国人讲的孝子贤孙，他是来报恩的，怎么都学不坏，所谓的好儿女、孝顺儿女，这是过去修的善因。

第二种是报怨的。过去世你跟他有仇恨，这一世遇到，来做你儿女，将来长大了，做败家子，搅得你家破人亡，他是来报复的。所以与人不能结冤仇，外面的冤仇可以预防，他投胎投到你家里怎么办？你怎么防法？你把那个人害死了，好了，他的神识到你家来做你的子孙，做你一家人时，你怎么办？所以决定不能存害人之心！这就是所谓忤逆的儿孙，搅得家破人亡。

第三种是讨债的，讨债鬼。是父母过去欠他的，他来讨债。如果欠得少，养个两、三年他死了，你为他花了不少钱，还清了，他也走了。如果欠得多，大概供到大学毕业，快要可以做事情，他走了，这就是讨债鬼，债务讨清，没事了，就走了。

第四种是还债的。是他欠父母，他这一生遇到了要还债，他要努力工作供养父母。那也要看你们之间债务欠的多少？如果他欠父母很多，他对父母物质供养很厚，如果欠的债务很少，他对父母的生活供给很刻薄，反正让你饿不死就好了。为什么？还债的！这一类人对于父母虽然能供养，没有恭敬心，没有孝顺心。报恩的有孝顺心，还债的没有孝顺心，甚至于眼里还嫌弃父母，讨厌父母，但是他生活费用会给你，至于多少？那要看他从前欠你多少。佛告诉我们事实真相，一家人就是这个关系集合。

http://www.xuefo.net/nr/article7/68728.html

Basically, the above sentence means: To become husbands & wives is to have met the right conditions; Sons & daughters are born to you because of debts. Without the right conditions, a relationship will not arise; When there is no debt to be paid, they won’t come after u.

I want to ask, what is your view regarding this?

Imagine parents & their childrens listening to a dharma talk that preaches this, and the dharma teacher keeps emphasing naughty kids are 讨债鬼 (debt-seeking devil). What kind of impact does this have on family relationship? Will kids listen to the dharma in future when they are depicted as some kind of devil? (sorry, I ask this because I listened to a dharma talk & this teacher can go to the extent of painting a really negative view of human relationships, to the extent of, I think quite an embarrassment for a family sitting together listening to such a speech)

Also, I feel it is unfair to call somebody 讨债鬼 in the first place. Why not label ourselves as a debtor rather than calling someone else a debt-seeking devil?

For those who can see their previous lives, what do they think of human relationships? Is it purely of repaying & seeking debts?

Thank you. Smile

An Eternal Now SG

There are many many reasons why one person can take birth in a particular life... seeking debt is only one kind. There are also those who want to pay debts, these are the ones that are usually very good to their parents.

There are also those who are not born because of 'debt' but because of other reasons, such as wanting to seek a human birth to continue his Buddhist cultivation. This is also possible.

http://www.jenchen.org.sg/vol7no1c.htm

5 types of offspring

It is normal to expect kinship between parents and their children. Loving parents and filial children are the basis for a warm and harmonious relationship. However, there are exceptions to this norm. According to Buddhist sutras, there are five types of conditions under which people are born to their parents:

1. They are reborn into the family to pay back their indebtedness to the parents. For example, the child is filial, obedient and diligent in his studies or at work. Regardless of the financial situation, he would provide for the needs of his parents.

2. They are here to seek the return of what their parents owed them in the past. This might be due to the parents owing unsettled matters or debts to the child incurred in their past lives. Thus, not only does the child not bring fortune to the family this life, but the parents have to spend a lot of money on him. For example, the child may be sick very often thereby causing the parents to incur a huge amount of medical expenses, or other situations where the parents have to spend a lot of money on him and driving them to financial difficulties. Some of them may even cause the family to break-up or the death of family members. Some may become incapacitated and cause the family to run into huge debts or even bankruptcy. These types of children are reborn to their parents to seek the return of their dues.

3. A child may be born into a family to return the benevolence that his parents had accorded him in his past lives. In this lifetime, everything is smooth sailing for the child and he is successful in his studies and career to bring honour and pride to the family. Hence, he is here to repay kindness of his parents.

4. They are here to seek revenge on their parents. Perhaps there might be hostility between the two parties in their past lives. The parents might have hit the person; insulted him, ill-treated him, or treated him unfairly. He could not forgive and forget. For example, he would beat up his parents, ill-treat them, or even to take their lives in return for what they owed him in the past lives. Hence, he is reborn into the family to seek revenge.

5. They merely borrow the mother's womb to be born into this world. The great sages and virtuous men, monks and nuns, the Bodhisattva path cultivators and the Buddha belong to this category.

If there is hostility between parents and their children, the parents have to sincerely repent and perform meritorious deeds in the name of the children. Parents should not bear hatred and anger but to treat them with compassion and loving-kindness. Then, the situation would slowly improve and the animosity would soon dissolve.

Aik TC SG

Corpses ---- Past dwellings or past lives?

AEN’s posting of Bhikkus K. Nanananda on the subject of ‘The Mind Stilled’ was most informative. The Venerable quotes from SN 7.6 the Jata Sutta that;

“Where name and form as well as resistance and the perception of form are completely cut off, it is there that the tangle gets snapped."

It shows the importance of why one need to realise and not just understanding that form itself is consists of nothing but the 4 great Elements and nothing permanent. With this realisation, there will be a growing dispassion of our wants. This mental state will certainly go a long way to help us untangle the tangles in our lives.

Steveyboy SG

Hi all,

This thread reminds me of the Buddhist tradition of rejoicing in this life and opportunity that we have and to strive to create the cause for a future life with similar circumstances so we can continue our practice. The conducive conditions to practice is classified under the 18 opportune conditions and that is further broken down to 10 endowments and 8 freedoms. Here's the breakdown so it makes it easier for everyone to understand this:-

Remember that right now I have the 8 freedoms:

1. I am not in hell being continuously tortured

2. I am not living as a hungry ghost, always having hunger and thirst

3. I am not an ignorant animal

4. I have some feeling for good and bad

5. I am able to study religion

6. The teachings of the Buddha are now available

7. I have a healthy mind, not crazy

8. I am not a god, only indulging in pleasures

Remember that right now I have the 10 endowments:

- 5 Personal:

1. I am a human being

2. I have access to the teachings of the Buddha

3. I have all my organs

4. I have not killed my parents or bodhisattvas etc.

5. I have the possibility to choose my life philosophy or religion freely

- 5 Circumstantial:

6. A Buddha has come in this era

7. He has taught the Dharma

8. The Dharma is still available in the world

9. People are still practising Dharma

10. Others generally have love in their hearts