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Buddhists/reincarnation

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Expert: - 7/1/2011


Question
Is it true that having good or bad karma determines what social caste you will be reborn into? If it is true, do animals have a hierarchy(e.g. someone with good karma becoming a lion and someone with bad karma becoming a worm)?

Answer
It is generally taught that the situation is much more complicated than that, although, to be sure, good deeds can be expected *sooner or later* to have pleasant results, and vice versa.

Generally being an animal is not in most cases an easy life, and it offers little opportunity to do anything positive with your life. I'm not sure that good karma would lead you to be a lion. Why do you think that? They have quite a difficult life.

Buddhism suggests that those who rise to pleasant births fall again, and those who fall eventually rise again. The great advantage of a human birth (or at least of *some* human births) is that you can practice the teachings and get out of this cycle.

I hope that helps a bit.

AW

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Alex Wilding

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I have practiced and studied Tibetan Buddhism in the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions since the early 1970s, and have a good knowledge of theory, history and of the struggles of trying to practice the teachings, including meditation, while leading a normal, modern life. I am also available to provide background information for journalists.

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I have been a practitioner since the early 1970s; have run a small Buddhist centre in the English Midlands and was vice-president of Kagyu Benchen Ling e.V. in Germany, for whom I managed three large Buddhist summer-camps. More importantly, I maintain a habit of personal practice. I am the "owner" of the Kagyu list at Yahoo.

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My first degree was an M.A. from Oxford. I later obtained a Master of Philosophy degree for a research thesis in "Initiation in Tibetan Buddhism" from Leicester University. I also have engineering and educational qualifications.

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