Karma and Rebirth in Theravada Buddhism by Brian Ruhe - Part 1 of 8

This was recorded in class five of the Buddhist Philosophy and Meditation course in adult Ed. at the Vancouver School Board in BC, Canada in November, 2008.
I am Brian Ruhe, a Buddhist follower and lay teacher. I teach Buddhism and meditation in Vancouver, Canada in adult ed. at several school boards and community centres. I am also available to lead private and professional retreats, and to mentor on a one-to-one basis by Skype. You can call my Skype address at: BrianARuhe
For more information please do visit my website www.theravada.ca .

Brian Ruhe is a former Buddhist monk, author of the new book, "A SHORT WALK ON AN ANCIENT PATH - A Buddhist Exploration of Meditation, Karma and Rebirth", available on Amazon.com.

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

Brian has been teaching Buddhism for 16 years.

This topic is not being taught enough in a direct way by Buddhist monks and lay teachers in the West so Brian is posting this on You Tube to spread these teachings. For more info go to Brian's website at

http://www.theravada.ca

Category:

Education

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• Birken Forest Monastery
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• Steve Jobs
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• reducing suffering
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• meditation retreat
• karma
• rebirth
• Theravada

[BrianRuhe]

Thank you Bill. I totally agree. Because of this You Tube video I have been invited as a guest speaker to an interfaith conference on "Life after Death, Myth or Reality?" This will be on May 15-16, 2010 in Chilliwack and Abbotsford. I will give the karma and rebirth view on behalf of Buddhism. I have a poster if anyone want me to email it to you. You can come for free.

[BrianRuhe]

Hi Cap3, Yes, those that die young come back- everybody does. No, the 7 years old dies but does not reach nirvana. Death in no way helps someone reach nirvana. That's a completely different situation. They come back. Buddha taught us to understand karma and rebirth, but not try to figure situations out and ponder on them too much.

[ramaraksha01]

The diff between Moksha & Heaven is simple - you Earn your way to Moksha, whereas getting to heaven is cheap - all a Pedophile or a Terrorist has to do is to grovel & beg like a dog. Yeah, he gets to enjoy heaven while his living victims deal with the pain he caused. "god"'s mercy is for the dead pedophile, not for the innocent living. But with Karma & Rebirth, that will not happen, a pedophile will have to come back & make amends.

[BrianRuhe]

Thank you for your comment on my You Tube channel ramaraksha01. You're right. A Christian thinks he can repent and be forgiven, while his victims suffer. A Buddhist or Hindu must face their karma. Good point!

[acidcrashguy]

This guy is so wrong. Vedas speak of Karma since 2000 yrs before the Buddha. Buddha's teachers were from the Sankhya school of thought and so Buddha just filtered Hinduism and rejected the social structure of the caste system.

[BrianRuhe]

Hi acidcrashguy, what I meant about the Hindus is that to many of them karma meant ritual. If you want power, then pay the Brahmin priests to do a ritual and that will give you more power. I'm not saying that none of them had an understanding of cause and effect and the efficacy of moral actions. Thanks for watching and sharing. Happy New Year everyone!! Brian

[hairysuit]

The Buddha failed to answer many questions asked of him. Not because he did not know, but because such questions are actually irrelevant to the task of eradication of suffering. So in fact he DID answer the questions that matter, leaving aside those that don't.

On the subject of rebirth however, he had quite a lot to say about it actually. He could remember ninety three aeons of his own past lives and the concept of rebirth formed an integral part of the buddhas way.

[HillsdaleTom]

@BrianRuhe A Buddhist must only look within. Life, Death Karma, Rebirth, and Heaven, are only notions. Looking within enables you to see that being "Human" is only an illusion. You are not unique. You are one with all. If you look within you will see that you always were, and always will be. What "we" are is the "nothingness" which give rise to all existence. There is no this or that. Total non attachment. The goal is not an eternal flame, IT IS NO FLAME.

[KevinSolway]

@EverythingOtaku Yes, cause and effect is infinite, since there can't be anything without a cause.

[EverythingOtaku]

@KevinSolway well, life has to be formed by something. it has to be a result of something. unless u believe god created life or it just arose from no where. its a paradox really. Because when you ask yourself how something came to be, you probably say its a result of something. But how did that "something" come to be? from a result of something. You can ask this until u reach the beginning of our universe & beyond. Therefore karma in a way is infinite.

[bgupta2001]

every bad things happens because of me .

message for request .please request you to at the time ancient ,puranic times ,there may be mistake of one or two persons .mistakes would have been due to bad wisedom or bad fate .at that time itself mistakes would have rectified and proper steps would have taken for betterment each others that mistakes should not be repeate .there would have be every thing good.even now also bad ,poletics,consprancies are repeating.request to save to good & bad

[brad88922122]

Buddhism, is always going to be my life, i subscribed to you, i cannot stop watching each part. Thank you.

Namaste :)

[Haplo09]

any chance to upload any new videos?

[Haplo09]

wonderful video, is there any chance to see more?

[maverickasim]

@acidcrashguy you are correct in some way. fyi gautama buddha is not the 1st buddha, there were numerous buddhas before him and will be numerous buddhas after him. do you get my point? i dont mean hinduism came from previous buddhas but what i mean is the law of universe as seen by a normal person attaining enlightenment (buddha) shows people a path, and later people start dividing everything, thats the way it is and will always be.

[RanjanLekhy]

@acidcrashguy

Really?

[KevinSolway]

@Paradoxolog The "palace of Brahma" is simply a consciousness. Your consciousness is changing from one moment to the next, and may become the "palace of Brahma". Each moment whereby your mind gives rise to the false notion of "I" is a birth in samsara.

[Paradoxolog]

@KevinSolway In the Brahmajala Sutta, who is Brahma that the Buddha speaks of in the wrong view number 5 when you use the metaphorical rebirth interpretation? If you haven't read it then you can access it at tipitaka.wikia . com/wiki/Brahmajala_Sutta. Just search for "End Of First Recitation-Section" and read from there.