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Expert: - 8/30/2008


Question
I am a believer of reincarnation, rebirth. Someone has posed me a question that if reincarnation, rebirth has any truth, why human population in the world keep increasing? By right, if every everyone of us is subject to this cycle of life, total population in this world supposed to be a constant.

Of course, you may argue that other living beings like animal and insect can be reborn into a human and vice-versa, where the % of insect / animal reborn into human is greater than human reborn into insect / animal due to good karma that these living being accumulated from their past life. Still, I am still blur on this.

Answer
Hi "A True Malaysian",

Surprise, surprise!!  You have visited my blog, now you are in my room!!  Very good.

You have partly answered the question yourself.  Other life forms can be reborn as humans.  There are another two areas.  The first one is that you must realize that the universe is so huge, beyond human reckoning.  There are life forms in other world systems as well.  In the context of space travel, time and distance are non-events, meaning, they cease to exist.  The other sphere where lives exist are in a different dimension.  The Buddha revealed that there are 31 planes of existence, Humans and animals are two of the 31 planes.  There are heaven and hell planes in different dimensions which we can't see.

Having answered that, you may like to pose a counter question to your friend, "What then do you think would be the answer?"

Hope this helps.

(You are welcome to ask as many questions as you like and as often as you want.  I am here specifically for this purpose...answering questions on Buddhism.)

Take care.

Justin Choo :-)

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Justin Choo

Expertise

When in doubt seek it out. All your questions will be answered, and you may not have to agree with the answers. Such is the beauty of Buddhism. You are free to decide. I follow the Theravada tradition, and have been studying Buddhism for more than 40 years. Please view my profile for more details. I have answered more than 1500 questions since joining this category. You may like to give me the honor to answer your question.

Experience

I was brought up in the 50's as a Buddhist. For the past 40 years I have read numerous books on Buddhism and listened to numerous talks on Buddhism by well-respected and learned monks and lay teachers. I conduct Buddhist classes for parents of Sunday School children in a Theravada Buddhist Temple. My teacher was the late Chief Reverend, The Ven. K Sri Dhammananda of The Brickfields Buddhist Mahavihara, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. You can view the relevent website in memory of my revered late teacher @ http://www.ksridhammananda.com

Organizations
I am a life member of the Buddhist Missionary Society Malaysia.

Publications
YOU ARE INVITED TO VISIT MY BLOG @ http://lifeislikethat999.blogspot.com/ Published a book called "The Rainbow And The Treasure". It is a compilation of extracts from various sources to introduce Buddhism to beginners. (Currently out of print)

Education/Credentials
Bachelor of Commerce And Administration, Victoria University Of Wellington, NZ.(1974)

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