乾县铁佛寺移动版

QUESTION: What decides where a person will be reborn?

ANSWER: The most important factor, but not the only one, influencing where we will be reborn and what sort of life we shall have, is kamma. The word kamma    means 'action' and refers to our intentional mental, verbal and bodily actions. In other words, what we are is conditioned very much by how we have thought and acted in the past. Likewise, how we think and act now will influence how we will be in the future. The gentle, loving type of person tends to be reborn in a heaven realm or as a human being who has a predominance of pleasant experiences. The anxious, worried or extremely cruel type of person tends to be reborn in a hell realm or as a human being  who   has  a  predominance  of  unpleasant  experiences.  The  person  who develops obsessive craving, fierce longings and burning ambitions that can never be satisfied tends to be reborn as a hungry   spirit or as a human being frustrated by longing and wanting. Whatever mental habits are strongly developed in this life will simply continue in the next life. Most people, however, are reborn as a human being.

QUESTION:  You mentioned hell beings. Don't tell me you Buddhists actually believe in hell!

ANSWER: If by hell you mean a place where a judgmental god throws all those who did not believe in him so he can punish them for eternity, then no. A Buddhist would say that such an idea could only be the product of a sick and vengeful mind. Niraya and apaya, the Buddhist terms usually translated as hell, actually mean 'decline' and 'loss'. Exceptionally cruel or selfish people create for themselves a mental state, and thus an experience, which is predominantly negative. The Buddha said; "The fool says that  hell  is  under the sea.  But  I  say that  hell  is  a  name for  painful feeling' (S.IV,206). I will give you an example. A paranoid person sees danger, plots and betrayal everywhere, even though there are none. It is his mindset that makes him continually suspicious, fearful and anxious.  No one has judged and then condemned him to a negative existence. He created it for himself. Further, such people always have the possibility of raising themselves out of their negative mindset and thus, according to Buddhism, hell is not eternal.  We always have another chance.

QUESTION: So we are not determined by our kamma, we can change it.

ANSWER: Of course we can. That's the whole purpose of Buddhism! That is why one of the steps on the Noble Eightfold Path is Perfect Effort.  It depends on our sincerity, how much energy we exert and how strong the habit is. But it is true that some people simply go through life under the influence of their past habits, without making an effort to change them and falling victim to their unpleasant results. Such people will continue to suffer unless they change their negative habits. The longer the  negative  habits  remain,  the  more  difficult  they  are  to  change.  The  Buddhist understands this and takes advantage of each and every opportunity to break mental habits that have unpleasant results and to develop ones that have pleasant results. Meditation is one of the techniques used to modify the habit patterns of the mind, as are  speaking  or  refraining  from  speaking  and  acting  or  refraining  from  acting  in certain ways. The whole of the Buddhist life is a training to purify and free the mind. For example, if being patient and kind were a pronounced part of your character in your  last  life,  such  tendencies  would  re-emerge  in  the  present  life.  If they  are encouraged  and  further  developed  in  the  present  life  they  will  re-emerge  even

stronger and more pronounced in the future life. This is based upon the simple and observable fact that long established habits tend to be difficult to break. Now, when you are patient and kind, it tends to happen that you are not easily ruffled by others, you  don't  hold  grudges,  people  like  you  and  thus  your  experience   tends  to  be happier. (责任编辑：admin)