why do people believe in past lives?

january SG

As a atheist and pro-scient person... it is very clear to me that past life theory is bullsh.t....

some of the explanation and evidence given in some post are....

some people have vivid memory of blar... blar...
some people can recall certain places although they never been there before....blar blar blar....
those mediation experts has .....

all these explanation to me reflects nothing more than poor reasoning skills.

all the evidence are so weak, does not lead to any application and real use in reality, and are base on what we call anedocate evidence...

does not mean that mediators experience a certain transcendent state.. remember vivdly their past lives... means that there is indeed past lives........

seriously evidence is something that is very consistent.

Cenarious SG

You don’t NEED to believe in it until you see it for yourself. I neither believe it nor disbelieve it.

viciouskitty74 SG

Ever have feelings of deja vu?

NotFromVenus SG

That is because you know that there is this Holy spirit, and we all carried spirits or fragments of our spirits from it.

Cool In Christianity , you must have believed in the Holy Trinity.

An Eternal Now SG

Although I want to add one thing: confidence in the Three Treasures is still very helpful and necessary.

Why? Because unless we are confident in a particular scientific method - though it is already a tried and tested method by countless others - we would not do the experiment ourselves.

So faith - in the sense confidence in the 'scientific methods' of Buddhism - is still required for a beginner.

But if one does the practises himself, gradually, he will see for himselves that the truths that Buddha taught is true. Then his confidence will gradually grow further. This is important.

Cenarious SG

But past lives is not necessary for enlightenment.

NotFromVenus SG

Even Buddha , was a creation. So the question is Buddha was God's creation?

An Eternal Now SG

There are very consistent evidences - try Ian Stevenson, and many others. It is not just memories, many are traced and proven.

Herzog_zwei challenged recently that memories of past lives could be false. I replied:

These is just a very brief example.

There are lots and lots of others which are documented.

An Eternal Now SG

I'm sorry if you have Christian beliefs... but.. in Buddhism we do not believe in a Creator God.. so the question of God does not apply.

An Eternal Now SG

I'm not saying blindly belief in everything that is said Wink Blind faith is never required, in fact despised, in Buddhism.

I mean the practises, confidence in practising, the ability of the triple gems to lead us to enlightenment, nirvana, is most important.

But for other issues... well, since we are discussing about his book these days I will use Dharma Dan for an example. Even though 'high level practises' are discussed in Dharma Dan's books, I think he rarely or even never discussed about it. He certainly did remember past lives, but he knows it is not so important to discuss it, so he left that topic out in his book.

Ajahn Brahmavamso also did recall his past lives, but when people interested to know about it he replied "Go meditate and remember your past lives yourself."

january SG

for those people who claim that they have seen their past lives.....

so what? what is the application then? does that mean that death is not a bad thing because you will always have another life....

if you look at science and nature of knowledge.... it is something that is built upon time over time... theories lead to application leading to more discoveries, more theories, more application and lead to the civilisation of human race....

vehicles today have round wheels is something that the past has discovered like many centuries ago.... all these knwoledges are useful and past down, modifed , improved and lead to more and more application....

computer knowledge integrates with vehicle and leads to smart cars....

this is how science and knowledge does.. they lead to more and more useful things and through intergration of different knowledge, new things are being built.....

cannot you see that a building of a ship requires the cooperation of different knowledges in different people......

therefore, you people who believe can talk all you want about seeing vivdly your past life.. so therefore there is indeed past and future life....

but the question is.. so what are you going to do about it..... is there any real benefits and applications you have come up with... does it lead to more knowledges....

all i can see of religions, god and past lives theories is that it always come up wtih some pseudo reasonings, plus many evidence from some people experiences, and may kinds of stories and finally string them all up with a kind of reasoning which in the end therefore is an unbreakable truth to believers......

this is the reality that there are many believers of god, past lives so i keep thinking how i can help you people to "see the light" and walk out of your shadow of ignorance....

first there are two groups of people. their older generation in the 40-50 and above they have little education and it is extremely difficult to talk to them about proper reasoning.

the younger generation are only a little better than the older generation.. and the lack of studying useful subjects and the spending of most of the time playing and enjoying our lives has made the younger generation not very knowledgeabel about truth...

they are more knowledgeable about things like PS3, Pornograph, how to be a good basketballer, how to get a girlfriend......and where to find good food....watch nice television shows....

i feel like i am gandalf. i need to find back my white stick which will act as a beacon of light to guide people out of the darkness...... and become smarter people with more correct beliefs... only then..... the world will improve faster if its human inhabitants are smarter people

Cenarious SG

So what is the application of our appendix then?

NotFromVenus SG

So buddhahood is a manifestation of extreme "highness" upon death?

Do you know that tibetan monks meditate themselves to death by exfuming the liquid from their heads and caused a rainbow to appear from the beams of lights from holes in the ceilings and people think they have achieved buddhahood ???

The next thing they knew is these so call "arhats" are nowhere near heaven and hell and the angels have to keep them until they can find new births to bind their spirits back to earth.

laoda99 SG

I dun think that chap is a Christian. So you can safely ignore him.

An Eternal Now SG

if you look at science and nature of knowledge.... it is something that is built upon time over time... theories lead to application leading to more discoveries, more theories, more application and lead to the civilisation of human race....

vehicles today have round wheels is something that the past has discovered like many centuries ago.... all these knwoledges are useful and past down, modifed , improved and lead to more and more application....

computer knowledge integrates with vehicle and leads to smart cars....

this is how science and knowledge does.. they lead to more and more useful things and through intergration of different knowledge, new things are being built.....

cannot you see that a building of a ship requires the cooperation of different knowledges in different people......

therefore, you people who believe can talk all you want about seeing vivdly your past life.. so therefore there is indeed past and future life....

but the question is.. so what are you going to do about it..... is there any real benefits and applications you have come up with... does it lead to more knowledges....

Originally posted by longchen:

------

[quote]all i can see of religions, god and past lives theories is that it always come up wtih some pseudo reasonings, plus many evidence from some people experiences, and may kinds of stories and finally string them all up with a kind of reasoning which in the end therefore is an unbreakable truth to believers......If something can be totally disproved then we might have to accept it.

However, so far, and I don't think it can be, rebirth has never been disproved.

But so far, countless have realised this to be true.

this is the reality that there are many believers of god, past lives so i keep thinking how i can help you people to "see the light" and walk out of your shadow of ignorance....

first there are two groups of people. their older generation in the 40-50 and above they have little education and it is extremely difficult to talk to them about proper reasoning.

the younger generation are only a little better than the older generation.. and the lack of studying useful subjects and the spending of most of the time playing and enjoying our lives has made the younger generation not very knowledgeabel about truth...

I agree with you that logic is higher than mythic. I will elaborate on that. (Oh by the way are you the one who replied me in the Atheist Unite thread whereby I pasted Ken Wilber's article?)

they are more knowledgeable about things like PS3, Pornograph, how to be a good basketballer, how to get a girlfriend......and where to find good food....watch nice television shows....

i feel like i am gandalf. i need to find back my white stick which will act as a beacon of light to guide people out of the darkness...... and become smarter people with more correct beliefs... only then..... the world will improve faster if its human inhabitants are smarter people

Yes again logic, intelligence, knowledge, is more valuable than all those.

But there is something even higher. I will elaborate on that.

An Eternal Now SG

Originally posted by NotFromVenus:

So buddhahood is a manifestation of extreme "highness" upon death?

Buddhahood is the highest, yes. But it is achieved when a person is living, not when he is dead. But an enlightened person can enter Nirvana at death.

Do you know that tibetan monks meditate themselves to death by exfuming the liquid from their heads and caused a rainbow to appear from the beams of lights from holes in the ceilings and people think they have achieved buddhahood ???

The next thing they knew is these so call "arhats" are nowhere near heaven and hell and the angels have to keep them until they can find new births to bind their spirits back to earth.

Never heard of such things. Can you pls provide sources, articles, etc.

An arhat means he does not need to reborn. A liberated person merges with the Clear Light of our primordial nature and does not need enter the cycle of rebirth. Unless he returns to samsara due to Bodhisattva vows, but that is not due to karma, but due to the strength of vows, and is an entirely different thing altogether.

There is definitely no 'soul' or 'spirit' waiting for rebirth. There is no intermediate consciousness for one who is enlightened.

Cenarious SG

Isn't a vow also a condition?

NotFromVenus SG

Erm you may want to look at the "Self Mummification of Tibetan Monks"
So called living buddhas, they starved themselves during long meditations and ate herbs that could mummify themselves.

Finally those who have the abilities to dehydrate themselves at will.

An Eternal Now SG

But it is neither virtuous nor unvirtuos karma that binds us to higher or lower realms respectively. I am not sure if it is considered pure karma.

Any experts here?

Also we have no controls over our next life because karma is the factor which will result in our next life. No control does not mean I cannot do good things to be reborn in better place, it means, at the time of death, you cannot 'choose' your next birth. If you come by vows, you can 'choose' your birth.

An Eternal Now SG

I am not sure if this is true and I will take note of it if I come by the library.

But if this is true, I believe they are led to practise wrongly and does not lead to liberation.

Countless others have been enlightened and liberated, they do not end up in such states. This is the first time I heard such a weird thing.