The Way to a Fortunate Rebirth

…liberation from the cycle of karma and rebirth, according to the Buddha, right?

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There’s absolutely no inconsistencies nor vagueness when it comes to the Buddha’s teaching on rebirth. He was actually quite explicit in talking about it. In so many suttas, He kept saying that common stock phrase: “with the breakup of the body, after death, one is reborn in hell/heaven/…” (ref: breakup of the body site:suttacentral.net - Google Search ).
Furthermore, the Buddha also explicitly defined what wrong view means ( MN 117 ):

And what is wrong view? ‘There is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed. There is no fruit or result of good or bad actions. There is no this world, no next world, no mother, no father, no spontaneously reborn beings; no contemplatives or brahmans who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim this world & the next after having directly known & realized it for themselves.’ This is wrong view.

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We might assume he said those things, but only because that stock phrase is repeated mechanically in the suttas whenever the topic comes up.

What if he actually said those things then?

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We’ve talked about that before. We then have to use our full critical faculties to determine which of his beliefs are worth paying a lot of attention to, and which are not.

If we find a repeated emphasis on cultivating a state of mind in which there is no concern for future states of existence or future states of non-existence, and in which we have achieved total detachment from the impermanent, ongoing physical processes of coming into conditioned existence and passing out of conditioned existence, then I think we can say that any additional theories the Buddha might have had about what the future is like are of secondary interest, at best.

What if , rather unfortunately, due to ignorance - our full critical faculties are simply not up to the job?

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Nope.

Greed, violence, fear did not drive the Buddha to become an ascetic. Disease, old-age and death did. And his solution to overcome these ‘three messengers’ also involves the eradication of greed, hatred and fear in the mind.

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Well, your critical faculties and personal experience are the only thing you have to go on, ultimately. They are what you are using to tell you, among other things, which texts to trust and which texts not to trust. If you stop relying on them entirely, then you are completely adrift, and have no basis even for your judgment that the Pali texts are trustworthy.

I don’t recall saying you should stop relying on your critical faculties entirely, but merely making the suggestion that these might have their limits.

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That’s according to later biographies. But we have earlier texts:

When embraced,
the rod of violence
breeds danger & fear:
Look at people quarreling.
I will tell of how
I experienced
dismay.
Seeing people floundering
like fish in small puddles,
competing with one another —
as I saw this,
fear came into me.
The world was entirely
without substance.
All the directions
were knocked out of line.
Wanting a haven for myself,
I saw nothing that wasn’t laid claim to.
Seeing nothing in the end
but competition,
I felt discontent.
And then I saw
an arrow here,
so very hard to see,
embedded in the heart.
Overcome by this arrow
you run in all directions.
But simply on pulling it out
you don’t run,
you don’t sink.

Sutta Nipata 4:15

I agree they definitely have their limits, but that means our ability to rely on them to tell us which texts we should trust also has its limits.

Not necessarily, IMO - my knowledge of math has its limits, but this doesn’t mean my ability to do simple integer operations is limited. And despite the fact that I cannot offer complex proofs for higher mathematics, I don’t doubt that there are others who can.

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But you yourself have an understanding of standards of mathematical reasoning and proof, and have probably verified for yourself, by whatever contact you have had with the mathematical community, that those standards are strongly enforced within that community, and applied by that community in the peer review and critical appraisal of the papers they produce. So you have good reason to believe that, even if you yourself do not understand a theorem or the proof of that theorem, the acceptance of that theorem is based on the application of standards whose validity you yourself have ascertained.

If there were a community of mathematicians, however, who were in the habit of producing assertions about number theory, while generating no proofs, papers or arguments related to their conjectures, and who just went around saying, “Well, we possess the Number Eye,” I assume most people would ignore them.

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Western converts to Buddhism often don’t want to hear this, but there is a hell according to traditional Buddhist teachings, and we are all potentially headed there, if our actions cumulatively violate the Buddha’s teachings.

While hell in Buddhism is only temporary, its duration can last for eons, depending on the negative karma we’ve accumulated. As Buddhists, we need to be mindful of the karmic consequences in this life and the life to come:

A Naraka differs from the hell of Christianity in two respects: firstly, beings are not sent to Naraka as the result of a divine judgment or punishment; and secondly, the length of a being’s stay in a Naraka is not eternal, though it is usually extremely long, as measured in many millions or billions of years.[2]

A being is born into a Naraka as a direct result of his or her accumulated actions (karma) and resides there for a finite period of time until that karma has achieved its full result.[3] After his or her karma is used up, he or she will be reborn in one of the higher worlds as the result of karma that had not yet ripened.
Naraka (Buddhism) - Wikipedia

Become a stream entrant (at least realise not-self anatta, one of the 3 fetters):

"Sariputta, when you know of a householder clothed in white, that he is restrained in terms of the five training rules and that he obtains at will, without difficulty, without hardship, four pleasant mental abidings in the here & now, then if he wants he may state about himself: ‘Hell is ended; animal wombs are ended; the state of the hungry shades is ended; states of deprivation, destitution, the bad bourns are ended! I am a stream-winner, steadfast, never again destined for states of woe, headed for self-awakening!’ AN5.179

with metta

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Why do some deeds lead to rebirth as an animal or in an unfortunate human birth, while other deeds lead to rebirth in a hell realm? What is the difference between these deeds?

There might be hells according to certain traditional Buddhist teachings, but there is very little reason to believe that such places actually exist. Thus, those traditional teachings are most likely in error, and the fears and terrors of such hells that plague people’s nightmares are based on illusion and ignorance.

There is also little reason to believe that the Buddha’s practice of an abnegating spiritual path - one that aimed toward seclusion from worldly things, the liberation of the mind from its worldly burdens, and the eradication of suffering - also culminated in transforming the practitioner into a superman with the power to fly, multiply his body, see far into the future, past and every cosmic realm, descry the shape of the ultimate nature of the cosmos and measure the length of stays in the various heavens and hells. There is thus little reason for investing the Buddha with a nearly infallible intellectual authority, and for the fundamentalist readings of early Buddhist texts that treat Buddhavacana as a kind of infallible revelation.

Since there are probably no heavens and hells, there is also no basis for the belief that giving presents to monks, or having priests conduct rituals for you, is going to earn you a spot in a heaven, or keep you out of hell. Giving presents to monks is a perfectly nice thing to do, especially if that monk needs support to live a genuinely holy life of renunciation. But one probably doesn’t get anything out of it personally beyond the freedom and happiness that come from knowing one has done a good thing, and from relinquishing one’s hold on material possessions.

Adherents to these forms of Buddhism don’t like to hear that some of those traditional beliefs are superstitions. But in they are superstitions. That would be of little concern if they were harmless superstitions, but in fact they are quite harmful. The “traditional” Buddhism of which you speak is not a path of liberation. It is a system for manufacturing fear, terror and bigotry in the human mind, and incorporating those painful emotions into an authoritarian system of social control and abject obedience. Perhaps that’s why the authoritarian governments of South Asia are so fond of this “traditional” Buddhism, and have turned it into a state religion.

Just a few weeks ago, a person visited us here who had been convinced - apparently by the teachings of “traditional” Buddhism - that the abuses and miseries he had suffered at the hands of others in his life was his punishment for a previous life lived incorrectly. Oh what a convenient doctrine for the thugs, bullies, exploiters, patriarchs and powerful rulers of the world! How nice to know that ones victims and subjects will generally blame themselves for their miseries, and seek to do better.

Yet contained in the early texts one can also find a doctrine of genuine liberation, and advice on the practices and way of life that lead to that liberation. The efficacy of these techniques can be experimented with, and positive results verified by one’s own direct experience.

Is that what the suttas really teach?

The doctrine of kamma is probably the most misunderstood of all the Buddha’s teachings. The four most common misunderstandings are these.

  1. Everything which happens to us is the result of our past kamma. In actual fact Buddhism recognized at least four other broad causes of why things happen including natural laws (dhamma niyàma), biological laws (bãja niyàma), physical laws (utu niyàma) and psychological laws (citta niyàma).
    Kamma - Dhamma Wiki

"Monks, the taking of life — when indulged in, developed, & pursued — is something that leads to hell, leads to rebirth as a common animal, leads to the realm of the hungry shades. The slightest of all the results coming from the taking of life is that, when one becomes a human being, it leads to a short life span. AN8.40

  1. It depends on how habitual the bad action is… (there will still be a spectrum of results…)

"Monks, for anyone who says, ‘In whatever way a person makes kamma, that is how it is experienced,’ there is no living of the holy life, there is no opportunity for the right ending of stress. But for anyone who says, ‘When a person makes kamma to be felt in such & such a way, that is how its result is experienced,’ there is the living of the holy life, there is the opportunity for the right ending of stress.
.
"There is the case where a trifling evil deed done by a certain individual takes him to hell. There is the case where the very same sort of trifling deed done by another individual is experienced in the here & now, and for the most part barely appears for a moment. AN3.99

  1. It is also influenced by how wholesome the person is generally:

"Now, a trifling evil deed done by what sort of individual takes him to hell? There is the case where a certain individual is undeveloped in [contemplating] the body, undeveloped in virtue, undeveloped in mind, undeveloped in discernment: restricted, small-hearted, dwelling with suffering. A trifling evil deed done by this sort of individual takes him to hell.
.
"Now, a trifling evil deed done by what sort of individual is experienced in the here & now, and for the most part barely appears for a moment? There is the case where a certain individual is developed in [contemplating] the body, developed in virtue, developed in mind, developed in discernment: unrestricted, large-hearted, dwelling with the immeasurable.[1] A trifling evil deed done by this sort of individual is experienced in the here & now, and for the most part barely appears for a moment.
.
“Suppose that a man were to drop a salt crystal into a small amount of water in a cup. What do you think? Would the water in the cup become salty because of the salt crystal, and unfit to drink?”
.
“Yes, lord. Why is that? There being only a small amount of water in the cup, it would become salty because of the salt crystal, and unfit to drink.”
.
“Now suppose that a man were to drop a salt crystal into the River Ganges. What do you think? Would the water in the River Ganges become salty because of the salt crystal, and unfit to drink?”
.
“No, lord. Why is that? There being a great mass of water in the River Ganges, it would not become salty because of the salt crystal or unfit to drink.” AN3.99

MN136 is also informative.

with metta

A person who is suffering intensely for the misery in his or her life needs compassion, rather than didactic arguments that bolster one’s views.

We all seek a helping hand in times of intense personal anguish and the Dhamma is a purifying teaching that calms the mind, if somehow the pain overwhelming it can be subdued a little. Accepting the Dhamma is a leap of faith and it involves full acceptance of the Buddha’s Awakening. Faith is required to accept his attainment of the first knowledge of rebirth, the second knowledge of kamma and parts of the third knowledge (like the steps which describe iddhis). If all of this rejected based on scepticism, then most of the Dhamma has been tossed away.

Nothing is left but some bits and pieces of common sense that lots of people possess in this world - those who live their lives quietly, accepting all the ups and downs, happiness and sorrow, as part of life and then die, surrounded by their family. What good would the path of renunciation prescribed by the Dhamma do to them ? It wouldn’t even appeal to their minds…

The Buddha rejected everything that life and the world can offer because he saw that there is more to this drama than what we are accustomed to see.

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