Hello lal and ynot.
By lexical pages i just meant that i did not find the pali glossary right away as it was kind of “hidden” in the menu.
I read the “what reincarnates” post carefully.
I would like to share some reflexions and difficulties i have with this post. Of course this is not made for the sake of purposeless arguing but constructive criticism.
Overall the post made a lot of sense to me, and i can picture myself the mind continuum always changing but always a continuum. Therefore, it is difficult to see how a human mind, even though it might be inhabited by greed or other mental impurities, could regress toward an animal life form post mortem. Most of past life material i have read rarely if ever mention non human past lives. Some therapists specialize in past lives regression and it is apparently a rare occurence to see non human past lives.
I also have an issue with the following belief, the “last thought at the death moment” determines your next incarnation. I have heard buddhist monks repeat this belief.
Most dying people are extremely tormented and unhappy. It seems absurd to me that they should be directed in a negative direction for a few understandable negative emotions. I do believe that the global state of their karma / mental continuum is what determines their future, and the mental state at the moment of death is only a small and unsignificant part of that karma.
This passage is also hard for me to grasp.
Out of the 31 realms of existence (see, “The Grand Unified Theory of Dhamma“), the mind has much less capability in most other realms. Thus, it is very difficult to get rid of bad kamma seeds and cultivate good ones while in realms other than the human. Therefore, one should make the utmost effort to get rid of the bad seeds and to develop “good seeds” during this short life span of 100 years or so.
Human existence is extremely difficult for most, and we are probably part of the small fraction of humanity that didn’t had to actively get involved in warfare, strong material difficulties, strong ignorance… I just went out for a footing and neighboor’s dog tried to bite me. I had to shout at the dog and adopt a violent posture. the owners have little care for their dogs and what they do unto others. Life is often difficult and it drags you incessantly in conflict, survival needs… However i am lucky enough so i don’t have to deal with these realities like people before us had to.
So human existence has a natural tendency to drag you toward fighting, hatred, accumulation of goods for survival, etc…. Even if you tend to be a moral person. Also if you are not born in a good environment, it is very difficult to develop intellect and understanding.
On the contrary i would tend to think that higher realms are more desirable if one is to practice dhamma, as you probably don’t have to work there, and get in the day to day struggle, while being physically vulnerable to accidents, disease, fatigue and so on. I think being human isn’t a very good karma, but that is of course relative. I think we should strive for better understanding of life and its mechanism so we can become more wise and more in “control” of our destinies, and reach for higher realms.
Also, physical death does not necessarily mean the end of human rebirth. If the kamma seed that led to his human life has more kammic potential left, a human can be reborn a human again and again. That stops when kammic potential is exhausted;
What would cause the end of this kammic potential? Could it be giving up greed / hatred / egotism and adopting selflessness / generosity / compassion that would propel you in higher realms?
Because average people will keep fueling attachments from life to life and therefore they will keep fuelling the karmic energies toward human incarnation.
I shortened my message because otherwise i will never stop questioning and debating :)
Anyone reading this might feel free to answer.