Rebirth

[Kotei]

...
On the Firewood & Ash analogy. I also look at it this way.

The firewood burns and creates ash.
Firewood is firewood ash is ash
Ash is also a good fertilizer
Ash as fertilizer allows a tree to grow
Once mature the tree is harvested for firewood
The firewood burns and ................

Is this not rebirth? Just a thought. Too many of them this first week of Ango and Jukai.

Back to my logs.

Std

Toby

Sent from my MID2809 using Tapatalk

Thanks Toby.

I am also moving quite some wood around, these days.

The atoms of my body, the carbon I exhale.
The tree takes it all, from all of us, without distinction.
Grows from it, makes sugar and starch and it's own body.
Feeds us with it's fruits. Warms us with it's wood.
Keeps us alive with our oxygen.
We are not separate from each other and not from the tree.
What is there to be born again?

The more I sit, the more I feel that I don't need to know and in a way, it doesn't matter.

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Shinshou]

To be honest, I have a sense that I'm not really 'alive' or 'here' in the way I think I am, so from that point of view I'm kind of already 'dead'.


Gassho
Lucy
ST/LAH

Well stated, Lucy, same with me. It's doesn't feel fatalistic, depressing, or mystical....just interesting.

Dan
Sat today


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Entai]

I used to wonder and worry and look for theories. But I don't think about it very much anymore. If there was something before this, I don't remember it. So I don't worry about that. If something happens after this, I'm guessing it's the same sort of thing. Either way, I still have to get through today and that's plenty of work in itself.
Gassho,
Entai
St /lah

[Seishin]

Wonderful Kotei.

std

Sent from my MID2809 using Tapatalk

[Sean]

I feel really grateful for this sangha. A question starts to form in your mind, and you do a search and there is so much wisdom and considered guidance to draw on.

Thank you

Gassho

Sat today

[Doshin]

Interesting discussion on how folks view this topic. Thank you. I will state from the start when I first heard of Buddhism and reincarnation a half century or more ago, in my youth of body and mind, I doubted it very strongly.

Now, all I know (but then maybe I should add but I don’t “know” ) is when I die my ashes will be spread in a mountain range that brought me much joy during my life (which reminds me that the next time my son visits I need to show him where ) My vision is that my molecules are absorbed by plants, then consumed by animals, then consumed by other animals and they will soar into the clouds, slither across the ground and hop into the woods. Then it repeats, and repeats again, in an ever increasing interconnectedness and so forth as it has always been and will be. That is the rebirth I am after. A long time ago I was at a retreat with Thich Nhat Hahn and he said something similar (of course more concisely and he referred to a flower) and I thought yep as I smiled. But then maybe I did not understand him Other than that, I don’t think on this much, my time now is the chopping wood and carrying water advocated around here. Reading this thread this morning allowed me to revisit this matter of importance and brought a smile of contentment.

Gassho

Doshin
Stlah

[Jundo]

When you smile, the whole universe smiiles. When you cry, the whole universe cries.

When you are born, the whole universe is born as you in this time and place. When you die, the whole universe dies.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Doshin]

When you smile, the whole universe smiiles. When you cry, the whole universe cries.

When you are born, the whole universe is born as you in this time and place. When you die, the whole universe dies.

Gassho, J

STLah

Yep!



Doshin
Stlah

[Jundo]

When you Yep! the whole universe Yeps!

[Mp]

When you Yep! the whole universe Yeps!

Gassho
Shingen

Sat/LAH

[Emmet]

The only heavens and hells which I am aware of are those which we create within our own minds, believe to be true, then proceed to inflict upon ourselves and each other.
If you believe in rebirth, I would suggest that you practice the Noble Eightfold Path, as it accrues spiritual merit leading to an auspicious rebirth.
If you don't believe in rebirth, I would suggest that you practice the Noble Eightfold Path, as it demonstrably leads to the amelioration of suffering in this life.

"For sixty years I have wandered through the various states of existence, forsaking the fundamental for the derivative, generating a great deal of enmity and distaste and bringing an unlimited amount of injury and discord upon others. My present suffering constitutes the fruition of my past crimes and karma, rather than anything bequeathed to me from any heavenly or human being. I shall accept it patiently and contentedly, without complaint...."

Simple, straightforward, and empirically demonstrable cause & effect, sans magical thinking, mysticism, and hocus pocus.

Sat today.

[Anka]

Gassho Emmit,

James F
Sat

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[Mattias]

Thank you Emmet , absolutely beautiful.

Sat today

[Sean]

Thanks Emmet. I do love how Bodhidharma just gets to the crux of the matter! He is my go to at the moment.

Gassho

Sat today

[Jundo]

"For sixty years I have wandered through the various states of existence, forsaking the fundamental for the derivative, generating a great deal of enmity and distaste and bringing an unlimited amount of injury and discord upon others. My present suffering constitutes the fruition of my past crimes and karma, rather than anything bequeathed to me from any heavenly or human being. I shall accept it patiently and contentedly, without complaint...."

Just to clarify the record, as far as I can tell, the original begins: ""For innumerable eons I have wandered through the various states of existence ... "

Of course, every moment is all time, and an instant or 60 years is "innumerable eons," so no telling just how long or short that is either.

It is from the "Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices," maybe the only writing attributed to Bodhidharma that, historians believe, actually has a good possibility of actually being by Bodhidharma or someone in his close circle and not another author.

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?16413-The-Zen-Teachings-of-Bodhidharma&p=227951&viewfull=1#post227951

Gassho, J

STLah