Recently, someone at one of the Wednesday sessions asked why Western dharma teachers often ignore Buddhist teachings about karma, rebirth, and the realms of existence. In other words, why do we set aside aspects of the teachings that are not easy to prove or explain. Is it right to cherry pick in this way?
From my experience, Insight Meditation teachers usually stress the psychological or therapeutic value of the teachings in this life. Some reference neuroscience. When karma, rebirth, and the realms of existence are mentioned, it is usually done in the context of the here and now, of existence in this life, not future or past lives. I’ve heard this called “small b” Buddhism.
It’s possible that “small b” Buddhism has evolved as a consequence of the fact that many in the West carry around baggage about institutional religion. Many are suspicious of any system that promulgates what they view as superstitious beliefs.
Our culture values and trusts science and technology. This is where it’s acceptable to put our faith. And yet, as we are gradually rediscovering, this kind of faith has its limits. We forget that there are other ways of knowing, such as the power of intuition. Often we can access this through our connection with the natural world, which so many of us have become estranged from.
Many Indigenous communities have been reconnecting with their spiritual traditions through sweat lodges, sun dances, vision quests, and shamanic journeys. These traditions seem to evoke natural forces and spirit beings outside of conventional reality while being a pathway to healing and connection with the earth. Old Europe had similar practices and beliefs in such beings as elves and fairies.
Our contemporary cultural bias is to deny the existence of anything not detectable through our senses. But what if our senses are blocked?
Here’s something to consider: What if our highly materialistic and mechanistic way of life has made us coarse and insensitive to realities that other cultures took for granted? What if we don’t see/hear/sense things because our powers of perception have been lost? Are we too quick to dismiss experiences that are outside of the norm?
Take the experience of synchronicity. This is when seemingly unrelated events are linked for no apparent reason: You think about a person for the first time in months and in the next moment you receive a test message from them.
Carl Jung believed synchronicities mirror deep psychological processes, carrying messages the way dreams do. He thought they take on meaning and provide guidance to the degree they correspond to emotional states and inner experiences.
Anthropologist Michael Harner says that among shamanic cultures, synchronicities are considered “a kind of homing beacon analogous to a radio directional signal indicating that the right procedures and methods are being employed.”
If synchronicities are real, but unexplainable, maybe other unexplained things have a reality too.
Buddhist scriptures contain many references to celestial beings receiving instruction from the Buddha. Mara, a type of demon, was also a frequent visitor. We read of adepts being able to travel long distances very quickly. The Buddha could reportedly read people’s minds, see their past lives, and their future destinations. He was clear that karma results in rebirth following the breakup of the body after death.
Traditional Buddhist communities often stress the teachings of karma and rebirth, which many Westerners find difficult to accept.
Fortunately, there are many doors that open to the dharma, such as devotion, compassion, and service. In the West, many people enter through the door of mindfulness. They start with a secular approach and gradually move to something deeper — or not. Many Western Insight teachers, particularly in the lay community, draw the line at any mention of post-death existence.
Possibly this is because Insight teachers are encouraged to teach only from their own experience. Usually this does not include realization of things like rebirth. Steven Batchelor, author of Buddhism Without Beliefs, said he found Buddhism very hard to accept until he was able to set aside the beliefs around karma and rebirth.
On the other end of the spectrum you have Bikkhu Bodhi, an American-born Theravada monk, scholar and translator. He points out there is considerable evidence to support rebirth. Two researchers — Jim Tucker and Ian Stevenson — have documented hundreds cases of children who recalled past lives.
For instance, there is the case of a Sri Lankan monk named Dhammaruwan. Born into a poor family, at the age of three he began chanting whole suttas in Pali. His chants were recorded over several years, until he lost that ability around age 11.
The astonishing part was that he was reciting long and obscure suttas that are rarely chanted today. And his intonation was very different from the contemporary Sri Lankan style of chanting: It came from another era. According to Dhammaruwan’s memories, he had been a student of the eminent monk Buddhaghosa at Nālandā, India, over 1,500 years ago.
Bikkhu Bodhi cautions against reducing the dharma to the practice of relieving suffering through enhanced self-awareness. He says the dharma is much more profound than that. Most of us enter the path because we want to relieve our suffering, our sense of dissatisfaction with life. This is fine to start with but, Bodhi says, if we are going to follow the dharma through to its end and tap its full potential for conferring peace and higher wisdom, it is necessary for the motivation of our practice to mature beyond that which originally induced us to enter the path.
Bodhi says: “The advice I give people when they come to me and say they feel attracted to the Dhamma (dharma)… but they have doubts and problems with kamma (karma) and rebirth, I tell them, ‘If you have trouble with that, just put it in brackets for now, and just continue to accept whatever agrees with your understanding, and practice whatever you feel is beneficial to you.’
“Then I say for that reason don’t reject the teaching of kamma and rebirth. Just recognize that this was taught by the Buddha, and there are reasons why the Buddha taught that. But if you have trouble with it, don’t reject the whole package just because you can’t get over that particular hurdle.”
Personally, I have found that embracing the teachings on karma and rebirth greatly motivate me to conduct myself ethically and to work to purify the heart-mind. It’s quite freeing to not have to know how it all works. I don’t understand quantum physics either but I have trust in those who do. My own experience is that when I can hold the dharma with integrity, the things that matter fall into place and the things that don’t matter fall away.
—Nelle Oosterom