[yann]

You may not have read my question correctly

Dead people meet their dead relatives “on the other side”. This directly contredicts the teachings on your website.
Thousands of nde experience contradict your views on the afterlife

Clear enough?
Or more clarity needed?

[yann]

well, i mean mankind wasn’t alway around, man existed for less than a million year, so humans have not always been around and will not always be around. So yes will there be 30 realms then? Human bhavas will not be able to incarnate, just like they did when men where non existent. So the 31 realms division isn’t valid anymore and wasn’t valid 2 millions years ago.

But you don’t have the answer obviously, so that’s fine, nevermind

[yann]

Hello lal,

I read the post but i don’t see how that answers my question. I do believe in rebirth and did so for many years, and i understand the concept of begining – less “mindrstream”.
I just ask myself what will happen of the human realm when mankind will be no more? This plane of experience will be gone and there will only be devas / lower realms and animals(maybe).

Also the path to nibbana / higher planes seems to be a similar path, nibbana goes further since they both need morality, non-attachment, non-greed, mindfulness, etc… What is the difference then between those path (and not between the results i understand that nibanna pulls you out of the existence cycle)

Namaste

[yann]

This is an important topic for me because this is something i have witnessed many times in my life, and that was sometimes overwhelming.
When i was a teenager i suffered severe depression and anxiety issues, that were correlated with insomnia. I entered very negative mind-body states, despite my will.
Those states where clearly unpleasant, and i knew clearly when i felt bad. Anyways. When i was like this, any time i would go out of the house bad things would happen to me. Either someone would attack me, but worst things happened. One day a group of teenage women just stared and me and told me something really mean, totally unprovoked. I could clearly see that what happened to me was linked to my condition at the time. When i was like this it was like i was marked. Nothing i would do would work, nobody would like me.
Even in my own familly.
The whole thing seemed totally unfair to me, as i never hurted or did something wrong to “deserve this” (in a traditionnal moral sense). All of this happened because of the negativity / tiredness / anxiety i suffered at the time.
People would start hating me for no other reasons that i just emitted a “feel bad” vibe. I experience powerful bad luck (after while i wasn’t surprised the least and started predicting events before they were about to happen)
I had to gradually work on myself to change this. I also healed physical symptoms by working on my mind AND my body/energy…. This was tough at the time. But it gave me an overview of some of the power we might have, and how you have to work on yourself to change things. At the time i delved deep into this, reading many books, but i came at much better conclusions and understanding by working and experiencing myself. Now this never happen to me anymore, and if it did, it wouldn’t be nothing more than a passing annoyance
And yes there is an effect of accumulation, that the more you practice something, the stronger it becomes, the more out of control it gets. This is how some people become insane, by not being mindful of what they create on a day to day basis. But the “attraction” effect is definitively real and is something one should be very mindful about.

In response to upekha question:

What if someone constantly thinks about misfortunes happening to them like breaking a leg, losing their house, their car burning down, getting a disease, turning blind, being in a airplane crash, etc.”

According to my experience in the subject (which isn’t limited to the story above), thinking about something or being afraid about something doesn’t create that something. What really “attracts” positive or negative circumstances is the way you feel, your energy so to speak.
Thinking about being in a plane crash or fearing something isn’t enough to attract it. But being constantly fearful, anxious, will create a negative energy around you that will make you very unlucky.

[yann]

Buddha’s teachings are vast and all self-consistent. The only way to disprove them would be to find any inconsistencies.

I though this website was based on revisiting bouddha’s teachings… Since they are 2500 years old, and since they were written by somebody else 500 years later, i think it is very safe to assume that they do not ressemble 100% the original teachings. I also think one should be able to think for himself and examine carefully what he believes.
They might seem consistent to you but to someone else they might seem absurd. The idea that the exact last thought will determine your next birth does not match people Near Death Experience.
I think this is a misunderstanding.
What is true is that when you die your fate is over and you canno’t change your karma anymore, so the global state of your mind/karma at the last moment will indeed determine your fate. Death is often a physically and mentally challenging event…I think there is no need to pretend otherwise…. Also body condition affects thoughts….
But i read your theory about the cows. It might make some sense but that is far from what i would call a consistent theory. Why would the last thought be one of the strongest karma? what would justify this.
This theory could also lead to absurd thinking like the following : if i kill myself in a pleasant state of mind and cultivate good thoughts, then i will reach better rebirth….

[yann]

Hello sybe07.

I do find it disturbing also and i don’t think this is the case. After meditating a bit about it, i think that what happens is that your dominant mindstate will manifest itself during the period after death and automatically direct you toward the approriate environment.
I can’t speculate much more than this but this is my intuition.

[yann]

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.

[yann]

Hello,

This has nothing to do with devas…
This is your own mind / karma attracting situations and experiences. This kind of things happen regularly and will keep happening to you.
Wishing something strongly often results in odds circumstances like those you witnessed. Get used to it!

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