Are my future parents already here?

[SarathW]

I had this thought today.
The whole world is changing at the same time, may be in a different rate.
So when a person is dying, at the same time preparation for his rebirth also taking place.
So my future parents could be my next door boy or girl.
Perhaps the bird who is making the nest in the tree in my garden!

[Disciple]

This is an intriguing thought indeed. I've never wondered this myself.

[cooran]

Hopefully.........

Or .... They could be a fish in the Atlantic or a kangaroo in Australia. Human rebirth is incredibly rare.

With metta,
Chris

[pegembara]

"And what are the ideas fit for attention that he does not attend to? Whatever ideas such that, when he attends to them, the unarisen fermentation of sensuality does not arise in him, and the arisen fermentation of sensuality is abandoned; the unarisen fermentation of becoming does not arise in him, and arisen fermentation of becoming is abandoned; the unarisen fermentation of ignorance does not arise in him, and the arisen fermentation of ignorance is abandoned. These are the ideas fit for attention that he does not attend to. Through his attending to ideas unfit for attention and through his not attending to ideas fit for attention, both unarisen fermentations arise in him, and arisen fermentations increase.

"This is how he attends inappropriately: 'Was I in the past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Having been what, what was I in the past? Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future? Having been what, what shall I be in the future?' Or else he is inwardly perplexed about the immediate present: 'Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where is it bound?'

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html

With metta

[tiltbillings]

Hopefully.........

Or .... They could be a fish in the Atlantic or a kangaroo in Australia. Human rebirth is incredibly rare.

With metta,
Chris

I can imagine it is really a problem when they dung beetles.

[SarathW]

Hopefully.........

Or .... They could be a fish in the Atlantic or a kangaroo in Australia. Human rebirth is incredibly rare.

With metta,
Chris

I hope they are not those two kangaroos fighting in the street.

[Disciple]

Hopefully.........

Or .... They could be a fish in the Atlantic or a kangaroo in Australia. Human rebirth is incredibly rare.

With metta,
Chris

I hope they are not those two kangaroos fighting in the street.

If they're fighting then they probably won't be reborn as human.

[SarathW]

May be they will be reborn as human in Afghanistan.

[Disciple]

May be they will be reborn as human in Afghanistan.

Another terrifying prospect

[culaavuso]

So my future parents could be my next door boy or girl.

Whether any being would be a future parent would seem to still be a matter that present kamma could influence. The next door boy or girl may have been a parent at one time in the past, though. This may be a useful contemplation to help generate and sustain a beneficial attitude towards others.

At Savatthi. There the Blessed One said: "From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. A being who has not been your mother at one time in the past is not easy to find... A being who has not been your father... your brother... your sister... your son... your daughter at one time in the past is not easy to find.

"Why is that? From an inconstruable 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 fabricated things, enough to become dispassionate, enough to be released."

I tell you, monks, there are two people who are not easy to repay. Which two? Your mother & father. Even if you were to carry your mother on one shoulder & your father on the other shoulder for 100 years, and were to look after them by anointing, massaging, bathing, & rubbing their limbs, and they were to defecate & urinate right there [on your shoulders], you would not in that way pay or repay your parents. If you were to establish your mother & father in absolute sovereignty over this great earth, abounding in the seven treasures, you would not in that way pay or repay your parents. Why is that? Mother & father do much for their children. They care for them, they nourish them, they introduce them to this world. But anyone who rouses his unbelieving mother & father, settles & establishes them in conviction; rouses his unvirtuous mother & father, settles & establishes them in virtue; rouses his stingy mother & father, settles & establishes them in generosity; rouses his foolish mother & father, settles & establishes them in discernment: To this extent one pays & repays one's mother & father.

[Mkoll]

How do you know this (Earth, Sol System, Milky Way Galaxy, Laniakea Supercluster, Our Universe) is the only human realm? How do you know this is the only animal realm?

[SarathW]

Hi James
Agree.
It is just an example.
May be the bird or the next door boy or girl may be in a anther universe.

[Mkoll]

Hi James
Agree.
It is just an example.
May be the bird or the next door boy or girl may be in a anther universe.

In a certain more subjective sense, they are. Each of is a universe unto ourselves with our own kamma, mental habits, etc.

But in another more objective sense, we're all on this same Earth in the same physical universe. If a big earthquake happened where I am, the neighbors would feel it too.

[SarathW]

"And what are the ideas fit for attention that he does not attend to? Whatever ideas such that, when he attends to them, the unarisen fermentation of sensuality does not arise in him, and the arisen fermentation of sensuality is abandoned; the unarisen fermentation of becoming does not arise in him, and arisen fermentation of becoming is abandoned; the unarisen fermentation of ignorance does not arise in him, and the arisen fermentation of ignorance is abandoned. These are the ideas fit for attention that he does not attend to. Through his attending to ideas unfit for attention and through his not attending to ideas fit for attention, both unarisen fermentations arise in him, and arisen fermentations increase.

"This is how he attends inappropriately: 'Was I in the past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Having been what, what was I in the past? Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future? Having been what, what shall I be in the future?' Or else he is inwardly perplexed about the immediate present: 'Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where is it bound?'

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html

With metta

Thanks, but the same time Buddha taught about Kamma and rebirth etc.
===========
§ 70. {Iti 3.21; Iti 58}

This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard: "I have seen beings who — endowed with bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, & mental misconduct; who reviled noble ones, held wrong views and undertook actions under the influence of wrong views — at the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell. It is not from having heard this from other brahmans & contemplatives that I tell you that I have seen beings who — endowed with bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, & mental misconduct; who reviled noble ones, held wrong views and undertook actions under the influence of wrong views — at the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell. It is from having known it myself, seen it myself, realized it myself that I tell you that I have seen beings who — endowed with bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, & mental misconduct; who reviled noble ones, held wrong views and undertook actions under the influence of wrong views — at the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell."

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... ml#iti-084

[pegembara]

I suppose therein lies the difference between mundane and "supramundane" right view.

"And what is right view? Right view, I tell you, is of two sorts: There is right view with fermentations [asava], siding with merit, resulting in the acquisitions [of becoming]; and there is noble right view, without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path.

"And what is the right view that has fermentations, sides with merit, & results in acquisitions? 'There is what is given, what is offered, what is sacrificed. There are fruits & results of good & bad actions. There is this world & the next world. There is mother & father. There are spontaneously reborn beings; there are priests & contemplatives who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim this world & the next after having directly known & realized it for themselves.' This is the right view that has fermentations, sides with merit, & results in acquisitions.

"And what is the right view that is without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path? The discernment, the faculty of discernment, the strength of discernment, analysis of qualities as a factor of Awakening, the path factor of right view in one developing the noble path whose mind is noble, whose mind is free from fermentations, who is fully possessed of the noble path. This is the right view that is without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path.

http://www.metta.lk/tipitaka/2Sutta-Pit ... ka-e2.html

With metta