Comments on: Steve Hagen | Buddhism | On Reincarnation http://rioguzman.com/2009/06/30/steve-hagen-buddhism-on-reincarnation/ This is just another Rio Guzman's blog Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:32:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: rioguzman http://rioguzman.com/2009/06/30/steve-hagen-buddhism-on-reincarnation/#comment-443 Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:42:20 +0000 http://rioguzman.com/?p=1312#comment-443 Hi Hugh!
Thanks for your comment. Please note that this post refers mainly to the concept of reincarnation; it is an excerpt from an interview to Steve Hagen.
But being “awake” basically means that you are “present”. Your mind is here. Practicing presence (mindfulness) will get you to full awakening. But then again full awakening could be right “now”. We just have to drop the “I” and its “explanations”. The goal and the path are both here, now.

This quote goes to the point:

“The more I doubted, the more I meditated, the more I practiced. Whenever doubt arose I practiced right at that point. Wisdom arose. Things began to change. It’s hard to describe the change that took place. The mind changed until there was no more doubt. I don’t know how it changed. If I were to try telling someone, they probably wouldn’t understand.”

Ajahn Chah, Food for the Heart

]]> By: hugh curran http://rioguzman.com/2009/06/30/steve-hagen-buddhism-on-reincarnation/#comment-442 Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:34:10 +0000 http://rioguzman.com/?p=1312#comment-442 It might be helpful for you to make a distinction between relative and absolute wisdom in your discussion re: Buddhism & reincarnation. To be “awakened” is to speak from the Absolute level of understanding but that is an intellectual understanding only. The “self” is made up of the “Skandhas” which include: form, feeling, perception, volition & consciousness. If people believe they have really transcended the self because they can articulate it then they are at a very unawakened level of understanding. If one believes they have “gone beyond” greed, desire, acquisitiveness as well as anger & hatred then there is a good deal of delusive thought involved. Rebirth is taking place every moment of every day in our thoughts & feelings & emotions. This is impermanence in an impermanent body & an impermanent world. But awakening to impermanence means we experience the flow and flux and dynamic quality of life in a state of pellucid clarity (Sunyata). Few people live at this level. Fewer still that I know of after having spent decades in Buddhist communities.

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