Karma and Rebirth in Buddhism by Brian Ruhe - Part 5

This section describes cases suggestive of rebirth investigated by Canadian Dr. Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia. They have the best evidence for previous lives. This case is about a Sri Lankan who could recall his previous life, when he stabbed his wife to death, resulting in a rebirth with a stunted right arm and fingers. For more info go to:

http://www.theravada.ca

Brian's new book, "A SHORT WALK ON AN ANCIENT PATH - A Buddhist Exploration of Meditation, Karma and Rebirth", is available on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&fiel...

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Dr.
• Ian
• Stevenson
• reincarnation
• rebirth
• Sri
• Lanka

[BrianRuhe]

Hi Isenyne,

My interpretation is that comapred to all the beings, very few are human, so comparatively the simile makes sense but once a human, it is likely a person has the evolved karma to come back soon as a human again. Cases of people who recall previous lives almost always recall having been a human before. Thanks.

[BrianRuhe]

You're right madraven07, I don't have proof here on You Tube. The evidence I am quoting from Dr. Ian Stevenson's book, "Where Biology and Reincarnation Intersect," is a brief review of his larger work of the same name that is about 2000 pages long. You can get this from the University of Virginia and check it to find the rest of the evidence.

[Kannon12]

@navychaplain7 How come the number of animals are decreasing as humanity expands its habitat to rainforests etc. ? The explanation is as simple as a pie: The animals got reborn as human beings.

[Willferox]

@kiranraj6 It might be difficult to demonstrate that microorganisms arn't conscious. They are technically alive, they move around with some degree of intention. They are able to percieve, so they have sentinent.

[kiranraj6]

@Willferox

No only beings that are sentient that have consciousness are reborn...so automatically plants ,trees, microrganisms are excluded but yes..it is a good question better answered by BrianRuhe :) ..nice one Brian :)

[Willferox]

Do the trillions and trillions of microorganisms have souls that can be reborn?

[Isenyne]

Thanks for the great videos. One question I have -- How rare/difficult is human birth to maintain according to Buddhist philosophy? Anecdotes like the ones in your videos seem to indicate that people who die as humans are reborn as humans fairly frequently, but there is a quote in the Chiggala Sutta calling human birth as rare as a blind turtle poking his head through a discarded yoke in an ocean. Is a human rebirth likely? How hard is it for a person to 'stay human' and not regress? Thanks.

[madraven07]

He wasn't 'hung'. He was 'hanged'. That's beside the point, because you haven't presented any proof that the Sri Lankan fellow's malformed hand resulted from past-life misdeeds (except his word).