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Let's not "say" you're the Buddha. You're not. Let's not "say" you're a Buddhist monk. Just tell us...are you a Buddhist monk? Those are simple questions based on what you brought up.
If I must say something, I would rather say I am the Buddha. Take me on if you can make it to that other shore.
If I must say something, I would rather say I am the Buddha. Take me on if you can make it to that other shore.
so then let us know your views on the nuanced distinction between rebirth and reincarnation. that is an excellent topic for exploration and discussion.
so then let us know your views on the nuanced distinction between rebirth and reincarnation. that is an excellent topic for exploration and discussion.
so then let us know your views on the nuanced distinction between rebirth and reincarnation. that is an excellent topic for exploration and discussion.
I agree it is an excellent topic. We have an existing base of information about how births occur from which to extrapolate how a rebirth might occur without imputing a bunch of esoteric and largely unprovable assertions (a la the many reincarnation belief systems.) Each new individual birth results from the insemination of the mother's egg by the father's sperm. I am not seeing any mechanism for injecting the prior Spirit of any previously existing individual into that process, so, IMO the typical reincarnation assertions are non-starters from a scientific perspective. However, if we consider the existence of a rebirth consisting of the growth and development of an immaterial Spirit within the physical individual, that poses some intriguing and puzzling issues that inevitably seem to evoke the use of esoteric and imaginary speculations of what I call magical thinking.
If we consider the Spirit to be something that preexists the birth of the physical body we have problems explaining how to inject it into the birthing processes we do understand, again using largely inexplicable esoteric and scientifically unsupportable processes. But if we see the physical birth as the occasion when the spiritual seed of a new Spirit is inseminated into the body and brain of the newly born physical individual, there is a known sequence to the resulting birthing process that would result in a rebirth of that same newly created individual from its physical "womb" to its spiritual existence as a newborn Spirit - No esoteric or unsupportable or imaginary birthing processes involved.
Why not? Consciousness is the state of awareness. Hindus call it the Atma. It's the same thing. Empirical consciousness research is an ongoing project across multiple disciplines involving neuroscientists, psychologists, philosophers from the west and India.
Atma is Sanskrit and it is not consciousness, it is what illuminates the consciousness, the reason why you are aware that you are aware. In deep sleep we are conscious, in fact all consciousness and nothing else, but we are not aware of our consciousness.
Cognitive and neuro science does not have the means to measure or observe the Atma. Just because there is research does not mean they have the answers. The ancient sages were way ahead of them to even conceptualize the nature of Atma.
so then let us know your views on the nuanced distinction between rebirth and reincarnation. that is an excellent topic for exploration and discussion.
First of all, before I launch into this discourse as the Enlightened One, let me inform those, whose feet are still on the ground, that academic research could not trace any scriptural records of any teaching that came directly from the Buddha. In other words, no one knows what the Buddha taught. Any accredited scholar on Buddhism would not dispute this. In other words, practitioners of Buddhism base their faith in the Dharma invented by monks. The case is the same for Christian theology which can be traced back to the early Christians (notably St. Paul) with no input from "Jesus Christ" who is plausibly a mythic figure.
If you have any objections to my above statements, present it now.
I agree it is an excellent topic. We have an existing base of information about how births occur from which to extrapolate how a rebirth might occur without imputing a bunch of esoteric and largely unprovable assertions (a la the many reincarnation belief systems.) Each new individual birth results from the insemination of the mother's egg by the father's sperm. I am not seeing any mechanism for injecting the prior Spirit of any previously existing individual into that process, so, IMO the typical reincarnation assertions are non-starters from a scientific perspective. However, if we consider the existence of a rebirth consisting of the growth and development of an immaterial Spirit within the physical individual, that poses some intriguing and puzzling issues that inevitably seem to evoke the use of esoteric and imaginary speculations of what I call magical thinking.
If we consider the Spirit to be something that preexists the birth of the physical body we have problems explaining how to inject it into the birthing processes we do understand, again using largely inexplicable esoteric and scientifically unsupportable processes. But if we see the physical birth as the occasion when the spiritual seed of a new Spirit is inseminated into the body and brain of the newly born physical individual, there is a known sequence to the resulting birthing process that would result in a rebirth of that same newly created individual from its physical "womb" to its spiritual existence as a newborn Spirit - No esoteric or unsupportable or imaginary birthing processes involved.
if someone considers paths of religion and spirituality to be "a bunch of imaginary speculations unprovable non-starter magical thinking unsupportable assertions" then it is likely that attitude prevents them from getting much of anything out of paths of religion and spirituality.
Last edited by Tzaphkiel; 01-04-2021 at 02:40 PM..
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