334 – Six Useful Lessons from the Buddhist Teachings on Rebirth (1 of 2)

The Zen Studies Podcast - Domyo Burk

This episode explores six practical lessons from Buddhist teachings on rebirth, emphasizing their relevance regardless of belief in literal reincarnation. Domyo Burk discusses karma, the six realms as metaphors, and how

Key takeaways

• Rebirth teachings offer wisdom about karma's natural cause-and-effect patterns

Transcript preview

Welcome to the Zen Studies Podcast, I'm Domeo Burke. Thanks. I'm Domeo Burke. Thanks to new members. Greg, in Hillsborough, Oregon. You and my other supporting members make this podcast possible. So the name of this episode is six useful lessons from the Buddhist teachings on rebirth. The common worldview of the Buddhist time was that beings are reborn. The common worldview of the Buddhist time was that beings are reborn after death. A central question in religious practices of the time, including Buddhism, was, what could you do in this lifetime to ensure a favorable rebirth, or liberation from the whole cycle of rebirth? Now Zen practice is not dependent on rebirth being true or untrue. and I suspect most Darma teachers would say the same of their lineage traditions. As long as you practice, it doesn't matter whether you believe in rebirth or disbelieve or maintain an agnostic attitude. Nevertheless, the traditional narratives and imagery of rebirth teachings contain an agnostic attitude. Nevertheless, the traditional narratives and imagery of rebirth teachings contain some valuable lessons for us. So context and background and I'm going to be referring you to some of my past episodes about rebirth. So you might want to listen to one or more of them before this episode or after. So episodes five and six, way back at the beginning some eight years ago, I did one called A Rising of Buddhism, Historical and Religious. context. So in these episodes I described the rising of the doctrine of trans migration or rebirth during a time of social, economic, and political upheaval in India between the 700s and 500s B. C. E So this was before the time of the Buddha. And this teaching first appeared in the early opaneshad. and subsequently had a profound influence on almost all native Indian religious traditions. The doctrine of trans migration held that beings are reborn in the world after they die. Some soul or essence of individuality passes from a dying body into a new embryo of a human or other animal. is born into another life. This process of birth and death and rebirth was believed to extend into the past and future for incalculably long periods of time. Every time you're reborn, the doctrine goes, you forget everything about your previous life. of trans migration may have arisen, and how new religious traditions, including Buddhism, became preoccupied with the process of causation, affecting your fortune in this life and the next. And this process was called karma, which literally means action or deed. So negative karma contributed to an unfortunate rebirth. while positive karma helped ensure you would be reborn in circumstances conducive to happiness. So in those episodes, those history episodes, I also presented how according to Buddhist texts, Shakymini Buddha's pivotal awakening involved insight into the workings of karma in his past lives. And then he subsequently developed a path of practice. based on what he found out, based on the premise that the course of our karma is most profoundly impacted by our intentions and views when committing an action. Therefore, we can influence our karma by working on our minds. I addressed some listener questions including it is is it possible to be Buddhist and not believe in the concept of rebirth and the question you say belief in rebirth isn't really necessary to practice Buddhism so why do some people take it very literally and make such a big deal about it? I think it's unnecessary to believe in rebirth to practice Buddhism and discussed some pitfalls that can be associated with taking the rebirth teachings extremely literally. And then I also discussed the Zen approach to using rebirth and the related teachings of the six realms of existence as potent metaphors for the action of karma within this lifetime. you know that is over the course of days and months or years and then in episode 196 death and the emptiness of self what's the meaning of life if you've got no soul I explained why the whole question of what happens after our death is not the focus of most kinds of Buddhist practice occupation was part of a self-centered thicket of views that