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DarkDream
Posts: 62
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 6:25 am

Hi

Post by DarkDream »

I'm DarkDream and thought I would just quickly introduce myself as a token of respect to this forum.

I am glad that the moderators or owners of this forum allow discussions of such issues as rebirth and karma that do not fit the truly orthodox interpretations. There are other forums (not to be named) that appear to not tolerate any person issuing heretical views.

In my opinion the freedom of respectful speech in the spirit of learning is essential. The Buddha, from what I have gleaned in the Pali canon, encouraged his monks to think over things, discuss and so on all in the name of spiritual advancement.

I am also glad to see some monks of the forum who offer there input. As representatives of the living tradition, it is nice to see them in educational roles utilizing the wonders of technology and the internet.

I personally have studied and contemplated Buddhism for years now and have had amazing experiences in meditation retreats that has changed me in a very concrete sense. If I had to die today, I would definitely say the insights I have gleaned have been my greatest achievement for really in the end the experience was the only thing that was ever real.

Having said that I am a bit of an iconclast. I have a blog http://dreamwhitehorses.blogspot.com/ in which I am deeply critical of the literal interpretation of rebirth. While in the future, I will contrast it based on my understanding on what the Buddha was really teaching and getting at, my main impetus of such an approach is to glean as best as possible what the Buddha really taught.

I personally believe the Buddha was too much a genious to fall into almost childish notions of being born as devas, or insects and so on. For me such beliefs were later popularizations which unfortunately obscured the really revolutionary message the Buddha was getting at. To me the idea of kamma and rebecoming (that is the proper translation of punarbhava) were psychological for the solution of suffering is a psychological one.

Best wishes to all of you,

DarkDream
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Ben
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Location: kanamaluka

Re: Hi

Post by Ben »

Welcome Darkdream
please review the terms of service - especially the guidelines for the Abhidhamma and Classical sub-fora of the Mahavihara forum.
Metta

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

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Ngawang Drolma.
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Re: Hi

Post by Ngawang Drolma. »

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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Hi

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

DarkDream wrote:I personally believe the Buddha was too much a genius to fall into almost childish notions of being born as devas, or insects and so on. For me such beliefs were later popularizations which unfortunately obscured the really revolutionary message the Buddha was getting at. To me the idea of kamma and rebecoming (that is the proper translation of punarbhava) were psychological for the solution of suffering is a psychological one.
Those who deny the literal interpretation of rebirth, choose to ignore most of what is said in the texts, and interpret what they do read on their own terms. I wonder what the psychological reasons are for such a myopic viewpoint?

What do you make of texts like the Kukkuravatika Sutta
3. "Here, Punna, someone develops the dog duty fully and unstintingly, he develops the dog-habit fully and unstintingly, he develops the dog mind fully and unstintingly, he develops dog behavior fully and unstintingly. Having done that, on the dissolution of the body, after death, he reappears in the company of dogs. But if his view is such as this: 'By this virtue or duty or asceticism or religious life I shall become a (great) god or some (lesser) god,' that is wrong view in his case. Now there are two destinations for one with wrong view, I say: hell or the animal womb. So, Punna, if his dog duty is perfected, it will lead him to the company of dogs; if it is not, it will lead him to hell."
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thornbush
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:22 pm

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Post by thornbush »

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Cittasanto
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Re: Hi

Post by Cittasanto »

:hello:
Blog, Suttas, Aj Chah, Facebook.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
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Ceisiwr
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Re: Hi

Post by Ceisiwr »

Welcome to the site


:hello: :hello:
“The teacher willed that this world appear to me
as impermanent, unstable, insubstantial.
Mind, let me leap into the victor’s teaching,
carry me over the great flood, so hard to pass.”
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