Hi Lal,
“There is nothing an animal, for example, can do until that life ends (by the life I mean that bhava, which can last thousands of years at a time).”
I remembered there’s two stories that I have come across where a Frog after it got killed, was birthed into the Deva realms and another story of some bats were able birth into the Deva realms due to some monks chanting in the cave. Can we say that in those two stories, the animals were at the end of their Bhava? You said that “there’s nothing an animal can do until that life ends”. Would it be appropriate to say that, having come across the Buddha Dhamma and done meritorious deeds in their previous Jati’s/Bhava’s. As well being in the right place at the right time, they had the opportunity to be birth in the Deva realms, (sooner?) because of that? Or is it, because their Bhava was coming to an end anyways, and their next Bhava was in the Deva realms, regardless being in the right place at the right time?
There’s also a Jataka story of the Bodhisattva being in hell. To make a long story short, he did/show something compassionate, and the other hell being that was next to him, did something similar and they found themselves born in the human realm after that. I don’t know what to think about this story, but if such a thing happened, it would be super rare. I can’t even begin to imagine the odds of that happening for almost any living being else besides the Bodhisattva. . .
I’m just wondering, besides your post on “the chance of being born a human or a Buddha appearing in our world” Is there any stories or teachings on like . . . umm . . . I’m not sure, but “how hard” or how much meritorious deeds we had to do just to get a human birth? If there is, I would like to use it as kind of motivation for myself and others to walk/continue to walk on the path. Thanks
Metta,