Whatever karmic habits, positive or negative,

We have planted in our mental stream in the past

Will cause us to take rebirths,

With happy or unhappy qualities accordingly.

Many people have a hard time believing that there will be any rebirth when the present life is over. How do we know that rebirth is possible?

Although modern science may not be able to produce definite proof to answer this question, we should not dismiss the testimony of traditional authorities in the field of spiritual practice and experience, who have investigated the truths of existence.

Rebirth or reincarnation is a major pillar of several Eastern belief systems, and some mystical Jewish schools also accept that rebirths occur in a continuous wheel of life.

Many great Buddhist masters have actually been able to remember and describe their past existences.

The Buddha himself told hundreds of stories of his own past lives, in a well-known collection called the Jataka Tales. He also identified the past lives of other people.

Even ordinary men and women – of different countries, ethnicities, and religions – have spontaneously remembered their identities in past lives, the families they came from, and the towns in which they lived.

Especially striking are the numerous instances of young children who have spoken in vivid detail of their past identity, even though in their present young lifetime they could never have visited their former birthplace or met anyone from there.

The most famous study of children’s past-life memories was made by Ian Stevenson, M.D., who documented thousands of cases in South Asia and the Middle East over forty years, in an effort to research the subject in a scientific manner.

In Tibet, there have been countless examples of dying persons predicting the names of their future parents and hometown, as well as children who remember details of their previous lifetime.

In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, there are thousands of senior monks or priests with the title of Tulku (Tib. tulku; Skt. nirmanakaya, manifested body).

It is believed that a tulku is either the manifestation of a fully enlightened buddha or the rebirth of a highly accomplished meditator.

At the time of death, lamas will sometimes instruct their disciples where his or her tulku rebirth will take place.

In some cases, the tulkus, when they start speaking as young children, will tell who they were in their past lives and what they wish or need to do.

However, the most commonly accepted formula for recognizing a tulku in Tibet, after checking many indications, is formal recognition by another highly respected lama.

Nevertheless, there are people who have wrongly been identified as tulkus by the influence of ambitious parents or other selfish interests, or just by sheer mistake.

A number of tulkus have remembered their past lives or exhibited qualities of their past incarnation.

For example, my teacher, the fourth Dodrupchen Rinpoche, at the ages of three and four, amazed many people by continually telling them the place where the third Dodrupchen had lived, reciting prayers that he had not been taught, reciting unknown verses from memory, and exhibiting miracles. He also gave the description of the Pure Land of Guru Padmasambhava as he had seen it.

Even in America there is increasing acceptance of reincarnation. A Gallup Poll conducted a few years ago reported that twenty-five percent of Americans said that they believe in “the rebirth of the soul in a new body after death.”

The mainstream, exoteric Western religions, however, reject the idea of reincarnation.

Despite this, they generally agree with Buddhism on two important points: if you have been selfless and served others with loving-kindness, a happier condition awaits you after death – and if you have committed hateful acts and harmed other beings, you will face unpleasant consequences.

No matter what we have done up until this present moment, most religions hold out the hope of improving our future situation.

Whatever name or description the various traditions use for this potential change – such as repentance, forgiveness, conversion, redemption, salvation, or liberation – it generally means that through our own intentions and efforts, combined with reliance on a sacred source of blessings, the way is open for us to uplift ourselves and others to a happier, more spiritually conscious life.

Liberation or Rebirth?

According to Buddhism, everyone inevitably takes rebirth after death, unless they transcend the cycle of birth and death by attaining enlightenment through meditation.

Once you have attained fully enlightened buddhahood, you will never again be reborn in any of the mundane worlds, since you will no longer be subject to the karmic cycle that causes rebirths.

You will remain in the everlasting union of buddha-wisdom and buddha pure land, the ultimate body (dharmakaya) and enjoyment body (sambhogakaya) of buddhahood. It is the utmost peaceful, supremely joyful, and omniscient state.

Thereafter, others will be able to see your manifested body (nirmanakaya), which will appear on earth in various forms, visible to those who are mentally and karmically open toward you.

This manifestation as a fully enlightened being is not due to any karmic causality, but rather arises from your compassionate aspirations to serve the beings in samsara.

Attaining enlightenment in this lifetime (or during one of the three other phases in the journey of our cyclical existence) is the accomplishment of advanced masters of meditation.

If you are an ordinary being – not a highly accomplished master, and not enlightened or fully enlightened – then after death you are bound to take rebirth according to your own karmic consequences.

Once again you will begin another passage of life.

In this section, we will look at why and how we take rebirth, whether in a pure land or in one of the six realms: the realms of gods, demigods, human beings, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell-beings.

Even if you are not a highly accomplished master and are under the control of karma, if you have accumulated the positive karma of virtuous or meritorious deeds, you will take rebirth in a pure land or in a human realm endowed with precious qualities.

In this way, you will be able to provide beneficial service to others. Gradually, the ultimate goal of enlightenment might also be reached.

If you take rebirth in a pure land, it will be a manifested pure land.

This is not the same as the ultimate pure land of buddhahood.

You take rebirth in a pure land because of your positive karmas.

You will still have a dualistic mind, enjoying positive emotions and joyful sensations.

But after taking rebirth in a pure land, you will never waver from your journey toward the goal of enlightenment.

The attainment of buddhahood will be certain.

If you take rebirth in one of the six realms, you will be trapped in a particular physical body (human or otherwise), environmental influence, and social culture.

Then, as long as you are alive in that body, you can still make karmic improvements in order to have a better present or future life.

However, it will be almost impossible to attain the ultimate state of everlasting oneness, which is the quality of buddha-bodies in absolute buddhahood.

For one who is ready, such a total transformation will be easier after death, when one is unencumbered by this gross physical body.

The Causes of Rebirth

Rebirth does not take place without cause.

The causes of birth in the six realms are the six afflicting emotions: arrogance, jealousy, desire, ignorance, greed, and hatred.

These afflicting emotions in turn are rooted in the dualistic concepts of the mind.

Dualistic concepts arise as soon as our mind grasps at the “self” of any mental object, perceiving mental objects as truly existing entities.

Having tightly grasped at the “self,” we form the habit of differentiating between this and that, instead of perceiving oneness.

This habit of discrimination arouses the afflicting emotions of liking and disliking, wanting and not wanting, attachment and hatred.

Then we put those emotions into vocal and physical expression.

Repeated patterns of positive mental and physical actions cause happiness and result in rebirth in high realms and in pure lands.

Negative mental and physical actions cause sufferings and result in rebirths in the lower realms.

I have mentioned that if you are a highly accomplished master, you may attain liberation from the cycle of rebirth by becoming enlightened.

When you perfect the realization of the wisdom of openness – basic emptiness that is our nature – your concept of grasping at “self” will be liberated, marking the end of suffering and karmic causation, which means that no more rebirths will occur.

With the attainment of this realization, you can become the source of effortless benefits for many others.

Source: Based on Thondup, Tulku. Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth: A Tibetan Buddhist Guidebook. Shambhala. Kindle Edition.

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