QUESTION: Where do we humans come from and where are we going?
ANSWER: There arc three possible answers to this question. Those who believe in a god or gods usually claims that before individuals arc created, they do not exist, then they come into being through the will of a god. They live their lives and then, according to what they believe or do during their life, they go either to eternal heaven or eternal hell. There arc others, humanists and scientists, who claims that the individual comes into being at conception due to natural causes, lives and then at death, cease to exist. Buddhism does nor accept either of these explanations. The first gives risc to many ethical problems. If a good god really creates each of us, it is difficult to explain why so many people are horn with the most dreadful deformities or why so many babies are miscarried just before birth or are still—born. Another problem with the theistic explanation is that it seems very unjust that a person should suffer eternal pain in hell for what they did in just 6o or 70 years on earth. Sixty or 70 years of non—beliefs or immoral living does not seem to deserve eternal torture. Likewise, 6o or 70 years of virtuous living seems a very small outlay for eternal bliss in heaven. The second explanation is better than the first and has more scientific evidence to support it but still leaves important questions unanswered. How can a phenomenon so amazingly complex as human consciousness develop from the simple meeting the sperm and the egg and in just nine months? And now that parapsychology is a recognized branch of science, phenomena like telepathy are increasingly difficult to fit into the materialistic model of the mind.
Buddhism offers the most satisfactory explanation of where humans come from and where they is going. ‘1hen we die, the mind with all the tendencies, preferences, abilities and characteristics that have been developed and conditioned in this life, re—establishes itself in a fertilized egg. Thus the individual grows, is reborn and develops a personality conditioned both by the mental characteristics that have been carried over from the last life and by the new environment. The personality will change and be modified by conscious effort and conditioning factors like education, parental influence and society and once again at death, re-establish itself in a new fertilized egg. This process of dying and being reborn will continue until the conditions that cause it, craving and ignorance, cease. ‘When they do, instead of being reborn, the mind attains a state called Nirvana and this is the ultimate goal of Buddhism and the purpose of life.
ANSWER: There arc three possible answers to this question. Those who believe in a god or gods usually claims that before individuals arc created, they do not exist, then they come into being through the will of a god. They live their lives and then, according to what they believe or do during their life, they go either to eternal heaven or eternal hell. There arc others, humanists and scientists, who claims that the individual comes into being at conception due to natural causes, lives and then at death, cease to exist. Buddhism does nor accept either of these explanations. The first gives risc to many ethical problems. If a good god really creates each of us, it is difficult to explain why so many people are horn with the most dreadful deformities or why so many babies are miscarried just before birth or are still—born. Another problem with the theistic explanation is that it seems very unjust that a person should suffer eternal pain in hell for what they did in just 6o or 70 years on earth. Sixty or 70 years of non—beliefs or immoral living does not seem to deserve eternal torture. Likewise, 6o or 70 years of virtuous living seems a very small outlay for eternal bliss in heaven. The second explanation is better than the first and has more scientific evidence to support it but still leaves important questions unanswered. How can a phenomenon so amazingly complex as human consciousness develop from the simple meeting the sperm and the egg and in just nine months? And now that parapsychology is a recognized branch of science, phenomena like telepathy are increasingly difficult to fit into the materialistic model of the mind.
Buddhism offers the most satisfactory explanation of where humans come from and where they is going. ‘1hen we die, the mind with all the tendencies, preferences, abilities and characteristics that have been developed and conditioned in this life, re—establishes itself in a fertilized egg. Thus the individual grows, is reborn and develops a personality conditioned both by the mental characteristics that have been carried over from the last life and by the new environment. The personality will change and be modified by conscious effort and conditioning factors like education, parental influence and society and once again at death, re-establish itself in a new fertilized egg. This process of dying and being reborn will continue until the conditions that cause it, craving and ignorance, cease. ‘When they do, instead of being reborn, the mind attains a state called Nirvana and this is the ultimate goal of Buddhism and the purpose of life.
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