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Tibetan Book Dead - Studies of Far East Religions - Posted: 7th Dec, 2007 - 1:07am
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Post Date: 7th Dec, 2007 - 1:07am / Post ID: #
Tibetan Book Of The Dead
Tibetan Book of the Dead
What are your thoughts about the Tibetan Book of the Dead? Do you feel it is really a guide to the afterlife so when one dies they can know what to expect?
| QUOTE (Sutra on Passing from One Existence to Another ) |
| The original Sanskrit texts of the Sutra on Passing from One Existence to Another and the Sutra on Death and the Transmigration of Souls are no longer extant and are known only through their Tibetan versions. Both Sutras deal principally with two topics, karma and its relation to rebirth. The popular and oft-quoted Sutra on Passing from One Existence to Another relates that during the Buddha's stay in Rajagriha, a certain king named Bimbisara questions him on the transitory nature of karma and how rebirth can be effected by thoughts and actions which are by their very nature momentary and fleeting. Characteristically, the Buddha responds with an illustration. In this context, an individual's past thoughts and actions (karma) appear before the mind at the time of death in the same way that the previous night's dreams are recalled while awake; neither the dreams nor past karma have any solid and substantial reality in themselves, but both can, and do, produce real effects. An individualâs past karma appears before the mind at the final moment of death and causes the first moment of rebirth. This new life is nothing more than a new sphere of consciousness in one of the six realms of rebirth (the worlds of the gods, demi-gods, humans, hungry ghosts, animals, and hell- beings) wherein the person experiences the fruits of his or her previous actions. From a Buddhist perspective, expressed for example in the Sutra on Death and the Transmigration of Souls, it is a mistake to refer to this specific cause and effect relationship as reincarnation since the Buddha explicitly denied the existence of a transmigrating soul that passes on from life to life. In reality, an entirely new consciousness arises at rebirth in dependence on the old. Continuity between lives is merely an illusion. |
Ref. https://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/dead/sutras.html
Read whole: https://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/dead/index2.html
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TOPIC: Tibetan Book Of The Dead