Rebirth Revisited For a Western Reader |
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Author:
| Dissanayake, S. B. |
ISBN: | 978-1-4825-6855-4 |
Publication Date: | Feb 2013 |
Publisher: | CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
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Book Format: | Paperback |
List Price: | USD $30.00 |
Book Description:
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Kamma and Rebirth are intimately related to each other.It is like the two sides of the same coin. One sees only one aspect of it at a given time but if one looks at a coin tossed up and rolling like a wheel instead of falling on the head or the tail that actually describes the actual working of it intimately intertwined.The Wheel of Samsara is the better description since it rolls on without any cessation endlessly on a timeless scale from one birth to the other without any intervening...
More DescriptionKamma and Rebirth are intimately related to each other.It is like the two sides of the same coin. One sees only one aspect of it at a given time but if one looks at a coin tossed up and rolling like a wheel instead of falling on the head or the tail that actually describes the actual working of it intimately intertwined.The Wheel of Samsara is the better description since it rolls on without any cessation endlessly on a timeless scale from one birth to the other without any intervening phase or Untharbava stateOnce, one cycle is over it takes another cycle of it but the face of the coin changes appropriately to a penny, a 50 pence coin or a pound coin of ascendancy or from a pound to a penny of deceleration in many forms of life including animals.That is the closest description according to the scriptures.I must warn you that some authors have distorted its very tenet.But I should tell you at the very outset, that the Hindu version of Kamma has many descriptive terms irrelevant to Buddhist teaching like group Kamma and group Soul, which I would not entertain here.Unfortunately, very little is talked about rebirth except the Jathaka stories which are limited, by only about 550 stories recorded in detail. If, I assume that Buddha spent over 10,000 to 15,000 days preaching after attainment of Buddhahood Jathaka stories are only about 5% of that lot. Besides, the period of previous births, he spent on perfecting "paramitha", the absolute perfections , one is required to achieve, before becoming a Buddha is so numerous, it looks as, there is a big gap of credibility of the number of stories in scriptures.