Why bother about future lives when this life is uncertain?
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My reply to someone at http://forums.sgclub.com/singapore/question_about_reincarnation_271318.html#post3672364
Actually the poster is asking in the right direction.Quote:Originally Posted by unclejoe
you mean rebirth? Since your future this life has so much uncertainty, why think about next life?
continue your good deeds with the right purpose in mind. Bring happiness to others...
Because if we only concern ourselves with our current life situation, then we lose sight of what's even more important: our future lives, and our liberation.
We all have lived countless lives. But due to our short sightedness (as a result of forgetting our past lives), we live each life over again, concerning ourselves with accumulating things in our lives, only to lose them all at the end, and then restarting the cycle again. It is very short sighted kind of living. In fact, as my Taiwanese teacher said, if you can remember (and he can) your innumerable past lives, you will be sick and tired of it and find it pointless, meaningless and full of suffering.
If we want to start learning dharma, we have to enlarge our scope. Our scope cannot be just for the benefit of this life alone, e.g. making your life better, as whatever conditioned things are impermanent and eventually end. In fact as you said, your present life is uncertain: there's no telling what will happen next day, next month, next year, next decade. In fact, you cannot even guarantee you'll live to the next day! However one thing is certain: There's nothing you can bring to your next life except wisdom, merits, karma, and other conditions. Therefore instead of totally investing our whole life on something so temporary and uncertain, we should invest in something that is of long-term benefit and certainty.
Just think about it: It is likely that in this life, you will only life up to around 80 years. You may accumulate a lot of things in life, but then in the end, you cannot bring them into the next life. Not any possessions, not your money, your house, or your spouse, your children, your kins, your friends, etc. But if you have cultivated much merits, you can live thousands or milions of years next life in the celestial/heaven (deva) realm due to the ripening of wholesome karma. Isn't that infinitely better than anything you have accomplished in this short human life? And yet, in Buddhism that is *not* the ultimate aim because a rebirth in heaven is still a temporary birth and limited by the 'amount' of good karma we have (eventually it will be used up). Hence rebirth in heaven is not ultimate, it is not the end of samsaric cycles of rebirth, it is not the end of sufferings, it is not the end of birth and death.
To attain a rebirth in heaven is already far better than any of the limited and short term comforts you can find in this life. And yet, to attain the first stage of enlightenment, Sotapanna, is hundred times better than rebirth in heaven as it assures one's liberation.
And hence, the Buddha said:
Dhammapada 178:
Sole dominion over the earth,
going to heaven,
lordship over all worlds:
the fruit of stream-entry
excels them.
Hence, it is very important that we should aim to end the cycle of rebirth and samsaric sufferings. This should be the base-line aspiration or scope for all Buddhists, and even higher than that, if one practices Mahayana one should work for the liberation of not only oneself but all other sentient beings as well, and attain Buddhahood.
Buddhism isn't meant to let you live your life more comfortably, have more money, etc, as all these are conditioned and eventually comes to an end.
As Loppon Namdrol said:
Whoever is attached to a result for this life, is not a Dharma person.
The purpose of Dharma is liberation, not feeling better in this life. The purpose of Dharma is not the cultivation of mundane compassion, and so on.
The purpose of Dharma is to control afflictions, then overcome them, and finally, to attain a state of total omniscience and freedom.