General rule for rebirth

[Tad]

I found a digital book about a Thai forest monk who lived with the famous Ajahn Mun. It has an interesting paragraph about rebirth. I think it is a pretty good summary and makes sense considering many NDE stories.


"Ajaan Mun’s fine-tuned powers of extrasensory perception contacted
a diverse range of celestial beings whose existence was as much
a part of his daily experience as that of the wild animals in the forest
and the monks he trained in the monastery. He fully understood the
causes of birth in these realms of existence. He explained that the reason
a being is reborn into a particular realm is that in a previous life
that being had made the kind of kamma that predisposed it to rebirth
in that realm. As a general rule, the quality of future births depends
on the moral quality of one’s actions and the levels of concentration
and wisdom achieved in one’s meditation practice. Thus, someone
who makes sufficiently good merit in this lifetime may be worthy of
rebirth in a heavenly realm. Additionally, the enduring strength of
those meritorious deeds will make it more likely that, in a subsequent
human birth, such a person will have the good fortune to meet an accomplished
meditation monk."

[Jhanananda]

Thank you, Tad, for posting your interesting inquiry. While I do not disagree with the quote; nonetheless, our discussion here goes way beyond that statement. It is understood that we all are following the Noble Eightfold path, the beginning of which is all about ethics, or merit, but here have gone beyond that to following the whole of the Noble Eightfold Path, not just the first 5 folds. We here are all about the last 2 folds, which is engaging in a daily meditation practice with the specific goal of attaining the 8th fold which is all about meditating deeply, which requires relinquishing craving and covetousness for the material world.

[Tad]

Thank you, Tad, for posting your interesting inquiry. While I do not disagree with the quote; nonetheless, our discussion here goes way beyond that statement. It is understood that we all are following the Noble Eightfold path, the beginning of which is all about ethics, or merit, but here have gone beyond that to following the whole of the Noble Eightfold Path, not just the first 5 folds. We here are all about the last 2 folds, which is engaging in a daily meditation practice with the specific goal of attaining the 8th fold which is all about meditating deeply, which requires relinquishing craving and covetousness for the material world.

Jhananada, I think you always make a good point when reminder to work on samadhi.

[Jhanananda]

Jhananada, I think you always make a good point when reminder to work on samadhi.

Thank you, Tad, this is what the Noble Eightfold Path is all about, it leads to samma-samadhi, without which we cannot end our suffering.