reincarnation in an animal?

party animal!

 

That is not a Buddhist belief. You are, of course, free to believe whatever you want, but the question was asked specifically on a Buddhis forum. Beware of assuming that anything New-Age-y is Buddhist.

In Buddhism, you do cross speicies. Animals get reborn as humans, and humans get reborn as animals.

 

My apologies. You are right. I do know of the Buddhist beliefs regarding this. I didnt take notice of the subforum it was posted in.

and I wasnt "assuming" anything, FTR.

 

Rebirths offer life lesson, in my personal practices lessons we have to deal with one at a time.

I believe it depends on what your mission is at the time.
Animals hold secrets too.

 

Well said.

I'm still not convinced of this. Did the historical Buddha say this (and if so where/when)? Not that he is to be taken on his word alone. Which part of me is reborn? Other than the fruits or consequences of my actions, which shape and condition society for future generations to experience, what goes on after these cells which I call 'me' wither away?

From the reading I have done on this, there is a legend of the Buddha giving a depiction of an early bhavacakra to a king. The story can be found in a collection called the divyavadana. If it were an early story, and if it were true, and if the bhavacakra were the same as it is today, with the six realms of samsara and the twelve links of dependent origination, then it would seem that the Buddha did hold the notion that humans can be 'reborn' as animals and vice versa.

It would be nice to have an original early sutta where he explained his view on this, as he didn't seem to like answering questions like the OP asked. If anybody can help, it would be much appreciated.

 

i am not buddhist but i would love to came back as a mouse. i suppose if i concentrate enough, whilst repeating the literary of tibetan book of the dead, it might just happen, coz my conciousness will then be being watched and i can transfer it into a nest of mice and experience mouseyness. i love buddhism its so sweeet!!

 

I suspect you will change your mind when you are the mouse. You will be cute, but you are likely to experience being eaten by a cat.

It is not a good idea to romanticize the world of suffering.

 

Why would being reincarnated as an animal neccessarily be a result of bad Karma? It might be good to come back as an animal...It would certainly make a change from being human...Quick...Let me do some bad stuff I want to come back as an Eagle.

 

I hope the wood can be seen for the trees... The relevance hopefully becomes clear in the 2nd part of these videos.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4phzx2XOL0M"]Alan Watts: Mahayana Buddhism - Pt. 1 of 2 - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8jzEPXgc4Q"]Alan Watts: Mahayana Buddhism - Pt. 2 of 2 - YouTube

 

I don't think humans reincarnate into animals. If they did, how would we know? And if we don't remember past lives as humans or animals, what is the point of reincarnation? If reincarnation as a cockroach is our penalty for leading wicked lives, it would only be a deterrent if we were aware, as a cockroach, that we'd messed up. So you should maybe be directing your question to cockroaches.

 

The idea of a "point" (as in "what is the point of reincarnation?") is really strange. What is the point of gravity? It is just a description of the way things work. Having a "point" implies intention, which is more of a Judeo-Christian thing than Buddhist.

Similarly, "penalty" and "deterrent" are concepts from the Judeo-Christian tradition, not the Buddhist one.

Karma is not judgement. It is not there to punish you or reward you, not ro rehabilitate you nor to deter you. It is just the way our minds work. If you do good stuff, you attract good things. If you harm people, you attract bad things. It has nothing to do with reward or punishment.

 

who do we reincarnate into if our planet Earth is demolished and none is let alive.. do we reincarnate into other life forms in the galaxy?

 

This is the point where the Zen Master whacks you with a stick.

 

this universe, even the galaxy, is so huge, so many worlds, even if only a very small percentage of them harbor sapient life, the odds of being born twice to the same planet, seem to me incredibly minute. so i don't see, that the extinction of one sapient species on one world, would have any major effect on THAT.

rather it is a matter of being true to the responsibility, that comes with understanding, to avoid causing harm, because everything harmed, everyone including ourselves has to live with.

we can invoke kharma, but it isn't even that. every misfortune exists, because someone somewhere, usually a lot of someones somewhere, somehow thought, that some other thing, was more important, then to avoid contributing to it.

i don't agree that suffering is just there, nor that it is intrinsic to existence, most suffering anyway. the point is, the world you live in, like the house you live in, you don't have to trash the place, and if you do, you're hurting yourself, because, for the remainder of the life in which you do so, you are still living there.

i do not understand, how people can refuse to grasp this simple reality on a personal level.

even if there are infinite worlds, that doesn't mean we can just keep trashing them. there is kharma also, and that does fallow us from one life to another. it isn't the universe taking vengeance, or some god, its just statistics, but statistics are very real, and we experience negative ones, in the form of suffering.

and yes, even if we are individually innocent.

the incentive, the positive incentive, is that the fewer of us cause harm, the less suffering there will be to go around.