--- In [email protected], "sparaig" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], Louis McKenzie <ltm457@> wrote: > > > > > > I have believed in reincarnation, but I must say I did > > > not understand what the word meant. I have always thought > > > of reincarnating as death and rebirth. But lets look at when you > > > said. Consciouness does not die. Consciousness therefore is not > > > reborn. I am not my body I am the indweller. I will maintian > > > this body for a time and then change it like old clothes, like > > > moving from one house to the other. <snip excellent story> > > > > Just FYI, one view of the rebirth process described > > in the Tibetan Book of the Dead is that it is not > > just describing what happens when you actually die. > > The same process applies to the continual death and > > rebirth of the self during a single incarnation. > > That is an interesting concept. What do you mean by > continual death and rebirth during a single incarnation?
Ok, this is probably going to take some "setting up." The basic concept is that we, as humans and as seekers, do not have a fixed self. We have millions of them. As Walt Whitman said, "I contain multitudes." Given this assumption, what many people see as the 'self' growing and learning from experience and changing over the years some Buddhists view more as one self dying and another becoming active. 'Self' itself is viewed as the decision to access and dwell in a particular state of attention. Move to another state of attention and that self dies and is replaced with another equally illusory self more appropriate to the new state of attention. What I'm suggesting is that another way to view the process of "growing up," one that doesn't depend on the notion of a fixed self, is to view self discovery as a continual series of deaths and rebirths. One self is left behind and the next becomes predominant, until it's time for that one to be left behind, too. *If* one looks at life that way, and thinks in those terms, the Tibetan Book of the Dead takes on whole new levels of meaning. The descriptions of the Bardo transits can be seen in terms of things that happen to us day by day in this lifetime, and not solely in terms of what happens to us during the actual transit from physical death to new physical life. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
