does it make me less of a buddhist if i can't grasp what is supposed to happen to me after death. even while i was raised as a presbatyrian, the idea of heaven and hell didn't phase me. i just have no reason to belive what is supposed to happen to me, spiritually, when i die. i haven't met anyone who i thought i knew in a past life, and i have no memory of any past life or lives. as far as i know, when i die, i'll become a worm feast. and i guess i'll figure the rest out when the time comes. the only religion/philosophy i identify with is buddhism. i like to figure things out for myself, rather than belive what everyone tells me. i like to test things. i find i learn more that way. so does it make me less of a buddhist? i don't think it does, but i could use an opinion or two.
well, i'm not really concerned. a friend of mine brought this subject up. she started questioning me and why i became a buddhist and what i believe. she has this idea about buddhism but i don't think she understands that nothing is really written in stone.
buddhist teaching is not concerned with what is after life as it is not concerned with what is before life... it concerns itself with having a total awakened experience of all that is which can be attained through living a compassionate life as teaches the dalai llama in thought, word and deed... different schools of buddhist thought have entertained ideas on the afterlife but as a central thrust of buddhist thought, mental phantasmagoria can cloud the mind to actual experience
This rings true, but Buddhists don't limit themselves to nondiscursive states of mind but also do rigorous practices which have specific outcomes. Especially in the tantras. Often some practices are done to free deceased beings from potential bardo paralysis, that is, free them to Pure lands, or heavens. But the gist of what you said Mollythehippie is true, present awareness is seen as being more important than any relative viewpoint created through concatenation or proliferation of the mind. Ie., most Buddhist practices, even those which do have specific outcomes like generating merit or wisdom, or liberating others, etc... are still done in the state of most nondiscursive mind which one could say is the most silent and stable strata of ones personality. So in that way one can become liberated from small matters so as to discover the pure lands, heavens, or best yet, the clear light nature of the unconditioned mind at death through practice during life. It's said that in the afterlife the mental impression are stronger so one with intense desires and emotions can be really blown around even more than in life so for this specific reason it's good to train the mind in contentment with the shunyata of ones essence. Then no things can overpower one in the Bardo and one has a great chance of attaining the Trikaya or Three Bodies of the Buddha.
