"Is there life after death?" Discussion related to reincarnation.

[onesp1ng]

I care. I mean if you have a way to keep from eating, for years, then please don't hold back. I will surely remind myself that ......you weren't the one recommending it. I'm kind of low on cash these days, ya know>?

g

[xing_jian108]

Well, The Buddha tried that starving thing for a while and found it didn't lead to liberation. It was an extreme, which we should avoid. If you tighten the string too tight it will snap, if you leave it too slack it won't play. So, even if it is possible to go so long without eating, it is an extreme nonetheless. I find it hard to believe you wouldn't have hunger pains now and again. It's an indication that you should feed yourself. But don't over indulge either. Just eat when you need it. Your body will let you know. I would find no interest in going without food for so long. Meditation takes a healthy body. Whether you feel hunger pains or not, not eating can't be good for the body. It would sure be good for the wallet though.

As for the life after death topic, www.bhodimonastery.net is a nice little site with links to Dharma talks by Bhikkhu Bhodi, an American Buddhist monk. There is a set of 10 talks by him which are very good for understanding basic, and the deeper, ideas of Buddhism. I suggest listening to the talk on Rebirth and Karma. This fully explains the Buddhist point of view on the subject and how it works. www.accesstoinsight.com is another great resource for Buddhist information. It is a Theravada tradition based website and contains almost any Sutra you could want with a search option. You can find many Sutras where the Buddha explains the topic from his personal direct experience.

As for my opinion on it, I can only share my understanding of the teachings from the Buddha. I have no direct experience with seeing past lives and so any comment would only be speculation. I must leave this topic to the Buddha or anyone else who has direct experience with this type of thing.

[blooming tianshi lotus]

And how long according to most accounts was that "for a while " meant to have been ??? If you want to get real about it, I think that moving about and comprimising the state of meditation you can achieve and the requirements your body needs likely has a contribution in the equation aswell. I guess that's why when you hear about ppl who've done this, they were normally reported as just sitting!
Oh , and if Zachsan can't find the reports, I guess the question must then be, did they really ever exist at all??????????????

Lotus

[zachsan]

alright, the term for the supposed ability to live without food is "inedia", and these days it's also called breatharianism, whatever the **** that means.

it's a cult, plain a simple. at least three people have died trying to do this, while the leaders of their respective cults live long, healthy lives and get rich off of their followers' money. the common theme is that none of these cult leaders have actually demonstrated their miraculous ability in a controlled environment, but they have no problem ripping off and putting in danger the poor bastards who believe them anyway. apparently the idea has been popularized in australia by someone named ellen greve, or, to suckers, Jasmuheen.

go to that first site i linked to, there's some scary stuff. if you have other "reports" BL, feel free to link to them. either david blaine, at 44 days, or chen jianmin, at 49 days (which is more widely disputed), holds the world record for fasting. that's about a month and a half.

[doc]

Rick A Ross.

Ross. Where have I heard that name before. Do I see a pattern?

[plumflower_pm]

http://www.purifymind.com/BuddhatFast.htm

[xing_jian108]

I saw on Ripley's Believe It Or Not or some show like that, there was an old guy on there who supposedly hadn't eaten a bite of food for 10 years. They watched him for a couple weeks or something to see that he didn't eat anything. But he was all skinny and unhealthy looking.

[zachsan]

you crazy kids and your ripley's.

[shaolinstylee]

You can get nutrition from liquids too, and thats not tech. "eating".

[master splinter]

lucid dreaming is fun, i used have a lot of lucid dreams, this was a period in my life when my self confidence and esteem shot through the roof, at times i would try to fly, but it would only work sometimes, i would jump in the air and kind of jump again and again, sort of like a bird flapping its wings, and other times i would just run and take of like an airplane or shoot straight up into the air, i must say it is the most wonderful awesome feeling to do that.

but nowadays when i try to lucid dream, i wake up very slowly with a dragged out mental, nooooooooooooo! and a fade to white. it sucks. lately though, my dreams have been horrifying and i am usually glad to wake up and say "it was just a dream"

i think all and any religious scripture would be beneficial to ones character and virtue.

fasting to me is a way to learn to deny ones "wants"

also, my dad told me some crazy stuff like while fasting, starving, sleep deprivation, you are closer to death so therefore you are nearer to the realm of spirits.

[LeiYunFat]

....okay...well as for horrifying lucid dreams, there is this legend of the paper doll. The paper doll is supposedly something that turns your dream to a nightmare while lucid dreaming. You can look it up on lucid dream sites. I think I came across the paper doll once, but I fought it or something. I don't know, my friend is really into this ish and I've only gone lucid when I really wanted to. I now tend to not care about controlling my dreams or remembering them at all.

And now that I think about it, my gong fu when I fight in my dreams is REALLY good. It just so happens that I usually never make a dent in whoever I'm fighting. But I look and feel good when I am doing it.

[master splinter]

lucid dreaming is pretty fun, especially if you master it,flying especially, though i never got to far with that. well... ive heard those who have mastered life can also master their dreams, and i believe it.

paper doll? that sounds freaky... but at the same time, not scary at all, but at the sane time, extremely horrifying, never encountered that, at least i dont think i have, and im glad.

i had a dream not too long ago of being at this party, and these guys were fighting for money. so i go up and give it a try, it turns out that i beat the snot out of all the contenders, and the manager sets me up for more fights with bigger prizes and harder challengers, but i remember not wanting to do it and feeling somewhat forced and threatened by this manager who was sort of like a big time gangster.

the funny thing was my technique, i would approach my opponent, and whatever attack he would throw i would block and attack at the same time by throwing both arms out at the same time, it was pretty cool now that i think of it, sort of a xing yi ba gua ish type of style, too many books for me.


also there are certain things that i cant do while dreaming, like playing music, but i can HEAR music just fine, but everytime i try to play music, my instrument breaks or something like that.

have you seen tha batman episode where the scarecrow attacks him in his dreams, and the only way he was able to escape was by trying to read the newspaper, which he said was impossible to do in dreams because dreaming is in the left brain and reading is in the right brain.

bla bla bla, i remember one of my coolest dreams was when i met bruce lee, and he was teaching me fighting principles on a mountaintop, a very beautiful dream, and when i woke up i felt all honered and stuff...

[liutangsanzang]

About reincarnation, i d like to tell you about one experiment. I was making a 37 days retreat at a tibetan buddhist kagyupa temple. The teaching that day was on the initiation of green Tara, the female energy of compassion for the suffering of all living beings. The girl that announced the teaching was a vietnamese named TamHau. She was using the Gong but i could hear drums. I wondered why. Zen at the teaching Lama Sherab Dorje explained Tara took her vows under the Buddha Sound of the Drum. And i had heard drums a while before!
It made me think reincarnation is true.

Namo Guan Yin Pusa

[onesp1ng]

It made me think reincarnation is true.

how so? and in what way are you referring to this... phenomenon, reincarnation?

[Fa Hui]

I think the idea of reincarnation and rebirth is often taken farther in Buddhism than was originally intended. I have always felt that it was symbolic for the cycle we go through in relation to craving and suffering and the like, not so much with actual rebirth.

I think what you experienced was an associated memory, at some point in your life far before this particular event you had experienced something similar, and now that your experience in the present time you think maybe in had been in another life.