Do you want to live another life again?
Imagine after this life of yours, your God gives you a choice: whether to live another life or simply vanish. What would be your choice? Ten people out of ten whom I asked this hypothetical question chose to live another life, almost immediate in response.
But what if before you answer, God shows you on a big wide screen in front of you all the unpalatable human vices imaginable, or even those hardly ever imaginable by you, in the most vivid and vulgar forms of manifestation, but also reminds you that there are always chances that your next life will be inflicted by those sufferings in one way or another: you could be a beggar, a crippled, or suffering from painfully incurable sickness; you could be ravaged by war, famine or other natural causes of disasters; you could be a thug yourself, perpetually killing each other against other ruffians; or you could be a prisoner; or you could simply be revoltingly ugly. Would you still take your chance and choose to live another life?
People undoubtedly want to live again for the good things in life - all matters and materials which grant us the gratifying sense of satisfaction - but at the ignorance of all things undesirable. A golfer, for example, no matter how frustrated he is with his game of poor shots, would always come back for another round to relive just a good one - and conveniently choose to forget the bad ones.
Of course, one should be hopeful in - and for - life. After all, don't we always say that life is wonderful? Sure, to live is to love life and treasure all precious moments. But no one seriously wishes for an imaginable next life, or hopes to continue unfinished business from the current life in a next one possible. Even the practitioners of Buddhism who believe what one sows in the current life is to be harvested, for good or bad, only in the next life, the ultimate goal of cultivation is to break free from the vicious circle of reincarnation - though by way of so-called "enlightenment" instead of vanishing.
If, however, reincarnation is real, all things - happiness and suffering - will simply just pass again, and again, either to infinity or until vanishment ends it all. Perhaps the idea of vanishing is too obscure to grasp and that of reincarnation too presumptuous of our sense of ego. Until one really has the chance to face this fatalistic choice between the two equally elusive options, one should live life to its full, with no reason to search for any lost time, and no sense of regret left for the final breath.
But what if before you answer, God shows you on a big wide screen in front of you all the unpalatable human vices imaginable, or even those hardly ever imaginable by you, in the most vivid and vulgar forms of manifestation, but also reminds you that there are always chances that your next life will be inflicted by those sufferings in one way or another: you could be a beggar, a crippled, or suffering from painfully incurable sickness; you could be ravaged by war, famine or other natural causes of disasters; you could be a thug yourself, perpetually killing each other against other ruffians; or you could be a prisoner; or you could simply be revoltingly ugly. Would you still take your chance and choose to live another life?
People undoubtedly want to live again for the good things in life - all matters and materials which grant us the gratifying sense of satisfaction - but at the ignorance of all things undesirable. A golfer, for example, no matter how frustrated he is with his game of poor shots, would always come back for another round to relive just a good one - and conveniently choose to forget the bad ones.
Of course, one should be hopeful in - and for - life. After all, don't we always say that life is wonderful? Sure, to live is to love life and treasure all precious moments. But no one seriously wishes for an imaginable next life, or hopes to continue unfinished business from the current life in a next one possible. Even the practitioners of Buddhism who believe what one sows in the current life is to be harvested, for good or bad, only in the next life, the ultimate goal of cultivation is to break free from the vicious circle of reincarnation - though by way of so-called "enlightenment" instead of vanishing.
If, however, reincarnation is real, all things - happiness and suffering - will simply just pass again, and again, either to infinity or until vanishment ends it all. Perhaps the idea of vanishing is too obscure to grasp and that of reincarnation too presumptuous of our sense of ego. Until one really has the chance to face this fatalistic choice between the two equally elusive options, one should live life to its full, with no reason to search for any lost time, and no sense of regret left for the final breath.
Comments
I'm dreading it.