In this article, we’ll explore Buddha’s teaching on life rebirth and Lord Buddha on God or creator. It is a big topic, we’ll divide the teaching of Buddha into a few articles. In the first part, we had explored the way of Inquiry and the Four noble truths.
In this part, we learn Lord Buddha’s concept on following.
- Rebirth
- Rebirth takes place not only within this human realm
- Buddha on God or No Creator God in Buddhism
“If a man going down into a river, swollen and swiftly flowing, is carried away by the current — how can he help others across?
Buddha
Table of Contents
Rebirth
The Buddha remembered clearly many of His past lives. Every today, many Buddhist monks, nuns, and others also remember their past lives.
Such a strong memory is a result of deep meditation. For those who remember their past life, Rebirth is an established fact that puts this life in a meaningful perspective.
The Law of Kamma can only be understood in the framework of many lifetimes because it sometimes takes this long for Kamma to bear its fruit.
Thus Kamma and Rebirth offer a plausible explanation to the obvious inequalities of birth; why some are born into great wealth whereas others are born into pathetic poverty; why some children enter this world healthy and full-limbed whereas others enter deformed and diseased……
The fruits of bad Kamma are not regarded as a punishment for evil deeds but as lessons from which to learn about the need for generosity than to be reborn among the poor!
Rebirth takes place not only within this human realm
The Buddha pointed out that the realm of human beings is but one among many. There are many separate heavenly realms too, realms of the animals and realms of the ghosts. Not only can human beings go to any of these realms in the next life, but we can come from any of these realms into our present life. This explains a common objection against Rebirth that argues
” How can there be Rebirth when there are ten times as many people alive today than there were 50 years ago?”
The answer is that people alive today have come from many different realms.
Understanding that we can come and go between these different realms, gives us more respect and compassion for the beings in these realms. It is unlikely, for example, that one would exploit animals when one has seen the link of Rebirth that connects them with us.
Buddha on God creator: “No Creator God”
The Buddha pointed out that no God or priest nor any other kind of being has the power to interfere in the working out of someone else’s Kamma. Buddhism, therefore, teaches the individual to take full responsibility wealthy then be trustworthy, diligent, and frugal, or if you want to live in a heaven realm then always be kind to others.
Quot of Buddha on God
- If there is a God, It is inconceivable that he would be concerned about my day to day affairs. Buddha
- Buddha himself taught different teachings to different people under different circumstances. For some people, there are beliefs based on a Creator. For others, no Creator. The only “definitive truth” for Buddhism is the absolute negation of any one truth as the Definitive Truth. “Dalai Lama”
“He has no need for faith who knows the uncreated, who has cut off rebirth, who has destroyed any opportunity for good or evil, and cast away all desire. He is indeed the ultimate man.”
Gautama Buddha
There is no God to ask favors from or to put it another way there is no corruption possible in the workings of Kamma.
Do Buddhists believe that a Supreme Being created the universe? Buddhists would first ask which universe, from the moment of the ” big bang” up to now, is but one among countless millions in Buddhist cosmology.
The Buddha gave an estimate of the age of a single universe – the cycle of around 37,000 million years, which is quite plausible when compared to modern astrophysics.
After one universe – cycle ends another begins, again and again, according to impersonal law. A Creator God is redundant in this scheme.
No being is Supreme Saviors, according to the Buddha, because whether God, human, animal, or whatever, all are subject to the Law of Kamma. Even the Buddha had no power to save. He could only point out the Truth so that the wise could see it for themselves. Everyone must take responsibility for their own future well-being, and it is dangerous to give that responsibility to another.
His Holiness on reincarnation and rebirth
Listen to H.H. The Dalai Lama and some of the leading neuroscientists of 2016 as they talk about and consider what is subtle mind is and what is it that reincarnates?
“New theories in neuroscience suggest consciousness is an intrinsic property of everything, just like gravity. That development opens a world of opportunity for collaboration between Buddhists and neuroscientists.” ~ Sam Littlefair, Associate digital editor of Lion’s Roar, April 1, 2016.
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