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Rebirth Shakyamuni Buddha said, If the end is attainable by human effort, I will not rest or relax until it is attained. Let only my skin and sinews and bones remain. Let my flesh and blood dry up. I will not stop the course of my effort until I win that which may be won by human ability, human effort, human exertion. Before Buddha attained complete enlightenment Now knowledge and insight have arisen in me so that I know. Sure is my heart's release. This is my last birth. There are no more becoming for me. "The First Sermon", excerpt Because they are stupid and callous, such people do not accept the teachings of the Buddha; they lack forethought, and only wish to satisfy their own desires. They are deluded by their passionate attachments, unaware of the Way, misguided and trapped by anger and enmity, and intent on gaining wealth and gratifying their carnal desires like wolves. And so, unable to follow the Way, they are again subject to suffering in evil realms in an endless cycle of birth-and-death. How miserable and pitiable this is!
- end of quotes from Shakyamuni Buddha. - Eternity has no end, therefore no beginning; consequently eternity is a circle. Anana We are born and reborn countless number of times, and it is possible that each being has been our parent at one time or another. Therefor, it is likely that all beings in this universe have familial connections. His Holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lama Science has found that nothing can disappear without a trace. Nature does not know extinction. All it knows is transformation. Wernherr von Braun, scientist It is hard to obtain a human body. What is the reason? If you don't uphold the five precepts, then the road of devas and humans is cut off. You get to be a human only if you uphold the Five Precepts. The Treatise to Resolve Doubts Just look around at how many people die in this city in a day and a night.... Those among them who credit themselves with cultivating Buddhist practice accomplish nothing more than to avoid losing their human bodies in the next rebirth. Master Chu-hung Life is not an end in itself. Your goal is not conformed to this material world in which your body is living. Your goal goes beyond this world of appearances. Your goal is the attainment of Divine Perfection, which is the nature of absolute peace and joy. Chidananda It is said that if you want to know what you were doing in the past, look at your body now; if you want to know what will happen to you in the future, look at what your mind is doing now. His Holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lama How painful it is when low grade ordinary people are attached to sensory afflictions an do not seek to leave them behind, and willingly flow on in birth and death! The Essential Gate for Contemplating the Pure Land I
would rather be among the lowest in the Pure Land, Ancient saying The acts of this life are the destiny of the next. Hindu saying It is nature's kindness that we do not remember past births. Mahatma Gandhi Mothers and children, husbands and wives. A person's family and dependents are all there due to the nexus of causal factors from past lives. Temporarily they join together, but in the end they must be parted. This in itself is not sad or painful. What is sad and painful is to pass a lifetime in vain, without being mindful of Buddha, without practicing Buddha-remembrance. Master Chu-hung Do animals,
like humans, also create karma? We can see clearly that animals are
conscious, with feelings, awareness, responses, reactions. For that
reason, beings in the animal realm create karma as well. Joseph Goldstein, Buddhist teacher Ignorance is the fundamental cause of the painful round and round of cyclic existence. His Holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lama |