Hi Lola
It’s lovely to hear from you. I really appreciate this perspective; thanks so much for sharing this with all of us.
This is just so true.
I often feel that to truly imagine what it means to not only do all this over again, but to have the possibility of things being so out of control - so annica and so anatta - that the overwhelming sense of suffering hits where we feel it most usefully, requires us to really try and put ourselves in the shoes of someone who not only believes in rebirth, but also accepts it with a degree of openness that can only come from genuine experience of it. It’s easy for those who have some direct experience, that’s for sure. When you know a thing, the quality of the experience has no doubt attached to it. But for the rest of us, we need to imagine…we need to play a game of what would my world, my life be like if this were true. For me, practising with an acceptance of rebirth, a deliberate imagining of the possible ramifications, means that I am making myself sure on two counts: 1. there isn’t any after life, 2. there is an afterlife. Imagining rebirth to be real and acting through the lens of this imagination keeps me safe regardless of the reality.
Whereas the opposite path, if I imagine it, for me personally, allows me a great deal more relaxation as far as my more worldly tendencies go - and of course, this is a slippery slope leading, ultimately, to greater difficulty and discomfort. And if rebirth is real, practising as if it isn’t, to me, just doesn’t go deep enough for me personally; in a sense I feel that to Practise with the absence of the very acceptance of rebirth into one’s view, will be like putting obstacles in front of me, like stopping myself from tasting and experiencing some of the results that arise through simply cultivating this view (never mind actually experiencing it to be a truth!); it’s, for me, like I’d be selling myself short, like I was not allowing myself to look through particular windows and take in the vistas they offer and allow these to nourish my very ways of being. It’s like I am closing down my options; like I’m closing off even the possibility of experiencing any other paradigm than the one I am currently within. If you don’t even look in the direction that the Buddha is pointing in, if you don’t even look/imagine, you will never give yourself the chance to see it for yourself, for real. First you have to look, to engage meaningfully, not combatively, with the View He’s offering; that’s why Right View comes first in the 8 Fold Path; it shapes all the entire sequence of the rest of the 7 factors. I know I can get too caught up in the linear-ness of the Path - because it often loops back and leap frogs - but the linear quality is I think an over-riding pattern of great relevance.
Many of the contributions to this thread are truly examples of how imagining a deep acceptance of rebirth can affect us and I think Lola has shown this again very beautifully. Thank you again Lola.
One of the things I learned by looking at anatta as a lack of control and dependent origination as a process that can only be seen in it’s entirety over a span of three lives (the immediate past, the present one and the immediate future life) is that I have learned to relax more…because I am beginning to see that all I can do is kindly and patiently put in the causes for the 8 Fold Path to Slowly blossom. However, the motivation to Practise is also rather heightened; only as I go on, it becomes the motivation to learn how to relax on many wonderful levels. I feel like I’m such a novice. But my confidence in this Path just grows. It just works and serves me so much. Learning to View anatta and dependent origination within the context of rebirth and kamma, as motivating as it is, also has taught me to experience forgiveness and ease, especially for myself; it’s fostered understanding for myself in a way that I could never have expected before - the implications for forgiveness for myself have been rather huge.
It’s such a wonderful Path Lola, I feel so much mudita for your opportunity of growing within it; thank you so very much for sharing your thoughts and feelings.
I do also want to offer my apologies if anything I’ve said is too challenging or even too completely opposite to what you (here, I don’t just mean Lola , but any other reader) may see as true - it is not my intention to offend. It is difficult sometimes to share who we are and how we see the world, without saying something that’s directly in opposition to someone else’s view. My apologies and of course, this is just a sharing of views and so please, of course, only take what you find of use and leave the rest behind.
With much metta,