Reflecting on Rebirth: An Understanding That Can Go Beyond Faith and Theory

Thanks so much for the link to the Bojjhanga Sutta Mat…I think you must have edited your post as I was writing mine! :slight_smile:

Anyway…it’s all good because this is different to the one I’ve posted…hooray!! :grin: :anjal:

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@anon29387788, I was just about to post your link but changed my mind in the last moment for some reason! Lol!

with metta

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:grin: :rofl:

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Similar to yours @Pasanna, my wife has a very interesting story of remembering being in the womb, waiting to be born. Weariness was a word she used to describe it as well! She remembered details of it, what she thought, how she felt, and a familiarity of nearness to her last life. She was very frustrated as a kid whenever she was made to “wait” for things because of this experience. Perhaps a interesting explanation for children’s impatience! They’ve spent months waiting to be born, they want to hurry up and get on with things.

My wife is also not a Buddhist per se, so this experience isn’t confined to those studying the dhamma, although I do wonder what she could experience if she meditated more.

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Ah, yes. I had forgotten about Dhammaruwan!

A 3-year old cannot possibly recite this well, to such lengths, in a language he doesn’t speak, all from memory. It is fascinating.

Here are (I think) all the recordings of Dhammaruwan:
http://www.pirith.org/ (middle of page)

There is also the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, which is recorded quite well—and which might cause shivers to go down your spine! :slight_smile:

URL (right-click and ‘Save As’ if you want to keep it):
http://www.pirith.org/download/Dhammachakka.mp3

Dhammaruwan’s story from the above website:

Dhammaruwan was born in a small village near Kandy, Sri Lanka in November, 1968. From the age of about two, before he could read or write, he spontaneously started to chant the ancient Buddhist scriptures in the original pali language, known only to a few scholar monks.

Each day, somewhere around two o’clock in the morning, after sitting in meditation with his adopted and devoted Buddhist foster father for about twenty to forty minutes, he would spontaneously start to chant pali suttas. On the Poya or lunar Observance day, he would sometimes chant for two hours.

Dhammaruwan’s foster father started making amateur recording of the chanting and invited prominent scholar monk to listen. The monk verified that it was indeed the ancient pali language and the boy were chanting it in an ancient style which no longer existed in world.

@anon29387788, I’ll add this to the rebirth video/documentary thread, if you don’t mind.

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@Linda Thanks for the heads up about Ven. Anālayo’s new book and that Dhammaruwan is discussed in it.

Regarding duplicate posts, I think for reasons of either documenting or compiling important information, or to delve deeper into a topic, it is probably fine. Such as the topic of Dhammaruwan started in this thread, but by not adding it to the Most revealing documentaries/videos/research on rebirth that you’ve found? thread, people who would search for such information on SC—or even on Google—would not benefit from this information.

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Was your wife born prematurely?
This is getting into random speculation, but I was 6 weeks prem.

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Slightly premature. Like 2 weeks I believe.

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That looks awesome Linda, thanks very much indeed! :grinning:

Yes please! :slight_smile: Thanks!

Dear @daverupa

I had a quick look at your book and it looks amazing. I’m truly glad you brought it to all of our attentions.

However, I don’t think it quite fits in with this:

As I already said elsewhere, the OP openly assumes an acceptance - not a questioning or any reference to modern paradigms - of rebirth into one’s world view. This is a place for a more personal sharing.

I feel your book does connect with this topic, but I think it deserves a thread of its own - which can have a link to this one if you wish. I’m happy to do it when I get back from work later or you can do it yourself.

With much metta and apologies for any offense caused :heartpulse: :anjal: :heartpulse:


EDIT:

I know @Linda also posted a link to a book but I feel it fits better here and has an intimate connection with some of the other posts. However, Linda, I know you also expressed some reservations about whether your book fits into the OP…so, I’d like to invite you to also create another thread with a link to this topic. :anjal: I hope that’s okay…I feel it would be fairer to @daverupa.

With many thanks and metta to you both. :slight_smile:

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Sorry about that.

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This is a great thread.

One way I find useful to make rebirth closer to home, more a matter of experience rather than of faith or theory, seems to be commonly overlooked. Although few of us have episodic memories from before this life (memories of specific events or conditions), all of us have procedural memories from before this life (learned patterned behaviors). This is the kind of memory little Dhammaruwan demonstrated particularly vividly.

In fact, any of us should be able to remember patterned behaviors already established our earliest lives that were often quite unique to us, and parents of young children have a lot of opportunity to observe the same thing in them. These include how we go about investigating and cognizing our world, how we organize or arrange things in our rooms, how we respond to anger or frustration, how we interact with others, how we manipulate others to get what we want. It may even include specific phobias or sources of interest or joy. Young children, like adults, seem to have a repertoire of scripts at the earliest age, each of which they act out rather predictably under the right conditions. And each child has a different repertoire. Some of these scripts are so complex or clever that it is hard to imagine that the children composed or learned them in this life. Yet there they are. Children seem to be acting out age-old behaviors.

I like to think of our behavioral patterns as forming a karmic landscape deeply rut­ted by an ox cart whose wheels are disposed to falling into the deepest ruts and, when they do so, those ruts be­come ever deeper. In principle, our ox cart is free to steer toward open ground, beginning a new rut, or to choose the rut least travelled on (which might well make all the difference), or simply to follow the established routes. The landscape is thereby old kamma, whereas any choice to follow or to break out of the established ruts is called new kamma, which continu­ally reshapes the karmic landscape. The point is that we begin life with a deeply rooted landscape and the sense that someone was here long before we had a chance to travel over the landscape.

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Hi @anon29387788, thank for your thoughtfulness in being fair. Maybe it’s better to just delete my post as I really didn’t bring it up as a topic of discussion. The book isn’t even out yet so not sure what I would create a discussion thread about. Perhaps if someone wants to open a discussion recommending books on rebirth & other related topics, it could fit there. It’s not really my interest (i.e. I mean debate/discussion re rebirth, though I’ve enjoyed perusing this thread and hearing people’s experiences). I only mentioned the book here since there were posts about Dhammaruwan and the whole last chapter of the book is a study of his chanting, but it’s nice to keep the topic about personal reflections/experiences only.

So I’m happy to just delete the post; should I do that? If anyone wants to mention Ven Anālayo’s book in another thread on rebirth/books or whatever, feel free. Anyway, it won’t even be available until the spring, so maybe that would be an appropriate time for a discussion with those interested.

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Oh, a whole chapter deconstructing and studying Dhammaruwan’s chanting? That’s even more interesting and tempting to buy it. :wink: Thanks (seriously, I might buy it solely to read this chapter). :slight_smile:

No worries about the post (as well as this one). They were both interesting and useful. :slight_smile:

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P.S. I just opened @samseva’s other discussion and it seems the book would fit there, so I will move it there.

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Thanks for your thoughtful and beautifully useful reflection Cintita! :anjal:

Thanks Linda, that’s the perfect spot for it!

@daverupa…I’ll move your post to a new thread now :slight_smile:

No trouble. :pray:t6:

Hi all
A great quality of mind is our ability to focus in and also to expand out.

Does anyone ever reflect on the whole mire of suffering that has gone before us. That what we are now is the rebirth of so many that have gone before and how with our actions now we are contributing and shaping what comes after.

Walk gently.

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