Defects of Samsara discussion presented by Khenpo Yeshi

While Drupon is in India, Khenpo Yeshi will continue to teach on the topic of Defects of Samsara. Virginia Blum will be translating at our center and online.
THE FAULTS OF SAMSARA:

1. The reality of past and future lives
2. The three types of suffering that characterize samsara 3) The specific sufferings of the six realms 1) THE REALITY OF PAST AND FUTURE LIVES Most all religions believe in life after death in some form or another. In Buddhism, life after death takes the form of reincarnation. While reincarnation is central to Buddhism, it also appears in various forms in Hinduism, Jainism, some Indigenous spiritual traditions, and certain streams of mystical thought within other major religions. These days there are quite a few people, both religious and non-religious who have come to embrace the idea of reincarnation and there are many convincing stories and even research that strongly supports it. Some major academic institutions have documented cases of verifiable past life remembrances, such as the University of Virginia who has conducted research over the course of 50 years and collected over 2,500 cases of reincarnation from all over the world. There are many stories of lamas and past masters throughout the history of Tibet, who have demonstrated the ability to predict their future incarnations and reveal precise details about where and when they would be born in their next life. Likewise, there have been countless great masters who were able to recognize sacred objects and cherished ritual items from their former incarnation as well as certain individuals they knew in their past life. There are also common occurrences of children in Tibet and India, who are not lamas but have specific memories about their former lives, many of whom were even able to recognize their parents for their past life. There was one such story recounted in the Indian news about a child who kept insisting to his current parents that they weren’t actually his parents. He told them he had different parents who owned a restaurant where they made momos. The Indian parents did not know what momos were. The child described the restaurant in great detail and when the parents where able to track it down, they took the child there. The child immediately recognized his former parents, who as it turned out had a child who had died before this child was born. In both Buddhist and Hindu cultures belief in reincarnation is considered to be very logical. It seems illogical to assume that the consciousness would just be snuffed out at death, like extinguishing a fire. Surely something must continue on and the logical continuation would be a rebirth determined by karmic causes and conditions. There are numerous accounts in the sutras where the Buddha recounts specific details from his past lives as a bodhisattva before his enlightenment. Similarly, he often explains the karmic causes from previous lives that led to particular circumstances in the lives of his disciples. The Buddha illuminates both negative karmic causes, as in the case of his malevolent cousin Devadatta, and positive karmic causes, such as those that enabled many of his followers to attain arhatship. The sutras also describe instances where arhats, including the Buddha's foremost disciple Moggallana, would journey to other realms and interact with the beings who had taken rebirth there. With past and future lives at the core of Buddhist thought, the understanding that this endless cycle of birth and death brings suffering gives this life a clear purpose: awakening and securing a favorable rebirth. If we don't achieve liberation in this lifetime or take rebirth in a pure buddhafield, our karma will determine our next rebirth within samsara. A favorable rebirth will allow us to continue our path toward awakening, eventually finding freedom from suffering and the cycle of rebirth altogether