One Life, Many Lives | by Ajahn Brahm | 13-01-2012

[@TheGreeny38]

many thanks. love the part about the microscopic crack in the glass and being mortal and thanking death for making us realise this. I am nearly 40 and i now realise even from a child i have always believed in reincarnation. Peace and loving kindness to you all.

[@shanthawelgamage]

I like ajahan brahs talks, I am listening from SriLanka. now One time I was very fortunate to see him in his monastry..May he live long, and be healthy so that we can listen to more dhamma talks.

[@DEREKinNYC]

Thank you for your insight. The one questioner who thought she was off topic, actually gave you the opportunity to give the most meaningful (for me, anyway) answer about not allowing someone to repeatedly hurt you by remembering the incident over and over. And it is hard to not allow one's personal happiness be dictated by other people, especially thoughtless and cruel ones. Thank you for the lessons.

[@didjesbydan]

Love Buddhism and Ajahn Brahm, but this is where we part ways. Not for fear, but fot lack of credible evidence and a coherent theory. Everything presented as evidence of ghosts or multiple lives can more humbly be explained by more mundane causes--and it is ironic that that same Buddhism which sees through the illusion of selfhood would explain synchronistic phenomena by pointing to more selves.

[@rollinglight1]

No matter what the subject matter,,,Life ...Death...and all that happens in between, there is something soothing that takes place within while listening to Ajahn Brahm. Thank you.

[@Niceonelady99]

Na-mas-sa-karn kha Ajahm Brahm ...I am from Thailand . I know Death is inevitable but I still feared of it. I am trying not to be feared. Thank you so much. This week is Visakha Buja Celebrations ..Observed on the full-moon day of the sixth lunar month, Visakha Bucha marks the birth, enlightenment and passing of Buddha. The day falls on May 24 this year.

[@tys6739]

i was high on some suff and went through some deep mind meditation, seeing all memories from young to now. i can say i changed tremendously, stages by stages by stages. Each stages had their own memories and experiences and emotions and reasoning. And each stages are totally different worlds, from harsh to pleasent, and different sets of beliefs and mindsets.

[@nickpuckett9140]

Thank you for your teaching, it gives me hope.

[@staceywashere9]

Thank you Ajahn Brahm 💛

[@stormseager2991]

this talk is so close to my heart. thank you, sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.

[@123chandimal]

Exactly correct Ajan Brahm.I feel so alive,Honestly u r talking s are so powerful,wise .A wise son of genius father. ohh yet I'm student but If I have a job I will give my entire salary

[@jolandabp9559]

such comforting words

[@ptuli500]

Hello from Texas.....

[@brianallan1483]

I also remember being Albert Waldron who was a famous Aussie Rules player for Norwood back in the 1800s, you see i remember the words, come on mate, come on mate, from voices in my head, and those voices were from the crowd yelling out, come on mate score this goal and score more than just one and then we will muck with you down the club, and as i start to relax, i hear this voice saying you are not like us, you will never be like us, and that is a combination of many things

[@brianallan1483]

I try and use all my previous lives as a way to make a great person out of myself, and try to learn basic buddhist discipline

[@jason6360]

I really like Ajahn Brahm. If I lived on his continent I would probably ask to join his sangha. However I don't fully understand how Buddhists believe in reincarnation but don't believe in a soul.

[@georgiegirlize]

Budidism is great, but it cannot explain the soul, the atma... and this is why hard to answer 'where conciousness comes from... it comes from the Supreme Consciousness..

[@LilyFerGal]

Thank you!

[@SomePeon]

please do *N O T* shorten speech limit to fit 45 minute tv schedule. people join to watch and listen, they do not just zap by. thanks

[@binauraldeandean7028]

Thank you

[@orlando098]

Why do we - with rare exceptions - forget everything when we are born into a new body?

[@AprilMelodyVlogs]

In the picture he's like.. put yo hands in the air!!

[@cobrajitsudojo]

If there is no word for it, does it exist?

[@fuzzyfurball]

@anzwertree I see. Thank you for taking the time to explain.

[@fuzzyfurball]

@anzwertree Sorry, I think I misread your reply. Are you saying that there is two levels of awareness? One that is created by the brain/mind that form an identity, and there other is some kind of awareness that is like an observer of the brain/mind. And it is the latter that is carried between lives?

[@fuzzyfurball]

I guess the idea of reincarnation is something to be taken on faith. It is the kind of question that you can keep asking for thousands of years and still never find a satisfactory answer. My knowledge of Buddhism is shallow, but from what I can gather, Buddhism tends to deal with here and now, rather than the 'illusion' of past and future. Though it would be great if there exists some definite answers, to boost my sense of certainty and security in this world and strengthen my convictions.

[@oiGibbo]

im not agenst this but if things come back then what happen to the do do bird they no longer exsist so if we come back then plase tell me that i could go on the mameth save a tooth tiger all that what happend ?

[@philomath369]

Humans are made of energy, I think this quote is reasonable...The law of conservation of energy, first formulated in the nineteenth century, is a law of physics.. For an isolated system, this law means energy is localized and can change its location within the system, and it can change form within the system, for instance, chemical energy can become kinetic energy but it can be neither created nor destroyed.

[@sovernsectwarren]

Reincarnation has always made sense to me and is a fact of life. If you can be born once why cant you be born again? Also, the universe and life itself has too much order to be a mere coincidence. Nature itself is god and life is infinite in itself according to the law of not being able to create or destroy matter, it just changes conditions.

[@fuzzyfurball]

@vukan1010 Thank you for your advice. I would like to clarify what you said. Are you saying that ideas of reincarnations and its underlying mechanisms has no value or rather there is no need to give any importance to them. But isn't Buddhism about bringing an end the reincarnation cycle, if such cycle doesn't exist, what is the basis of embracing Buddhism? I hope I am not being overly critical.

[@paulcats02]

great insightful talk as always, very engaging, humorous and relate-able! what exactly is that to the right of his side? it looks like either a cat, dog, someone's foot, box of tissues moving my the wind from the fan, or a mechanical mini-Ajahn Brahm (as it appears to be moving while he's speaking) of some sorts?

[@lyntonio2]

thank you ... I will

[@orlando098]

It would be good if he gave more information on the actual mechanism by which the stream of consciousness enters another body - when does it happen? And what happens if two people conceive a baby and no stream of consciousness comes along and enters it?

[@SandraLovesSun]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

[@123chandimal]

oh the question before last question is very old. Even arahants were arguing about this case.But they couldn't get a conclusion.

[@creationmakecreation]

He made the good thing.

[@georgiegirlize]

From a material point of view no... because in the temporary material creation the time element means that we only have experience of beginnings/endings, cause/effect...we cannot conceive of anything without a cause... but the supreme is causeless, because spiritual reality has no beginning and no end, it is the source of all that be. So your existence in this material world is endless, from body to body, because you are a part of that spiritual reality, so are eternal, without birth or death..

[@swarnasamy]

being hindhu i am very familiar with reincarnation and also as a srilankan have followed budhism too but my question is the process of leaving the body painful many sick old people to whom i help is worried about it

[@brianallan1483]

I remember being Blackbeard the pirate and as i stayed on that ship for a long time, i remember all the voices of that ship, going please send us on that ship, come on mate your rocking the boat and i also remember snatching this young kid and ripping his lungs out, but i got my just desserts as Blackbeard the pirate, as the crew cut my head off and hung it on the roof of the ship, and ,my head was dangling from up above, and i felt very scared

[@MJapan555]

He doesn't look 60. What can we do to encourage Buddhism more in the UK because im a UK buddhist.

[@ithesisko]

If there is life in universe and if this is isnt first universe does anyone remember past lives on other planets or as alien race?

[@umangaruhunage5663]

can i have proper, meaningful subtitles?!?!?!?

[@Jughead885]

@graycam On a different planet or different realm [animal,hell, heaven etc] .

[@utubepunk]

@orlando098 I've heard it called the veil of forgetfulness. Don't know why, but you would think lessons of truth, love, compassion, etc would be more easily learned without it.

[@georgiegirlize]

ps Would it not be wonderful too AB if we could remember the times we were animals!!...oh yes, but then no, the suffering and pain for most creatures is too much in this age..

[@Lovepeace1mindfull]

if it so, where the supreme consciousness that you state came from??, can you explain it??

[@anzwertree]

@fuzzyfurball The possibility of many lives cannot be demonstrated, similar to the likelihood of a multiverse. But if reincarnation was true, what is reincarnated? What makes us a unique observer in time? The brain. But what is the brain doing that makes up someone's consciousness? I'm not just my memory. Even as a kid, I was the same observer. Whatever that is, our brain simulates it, right? Making up what feels like consciousness. What makes you think this simulation will only happen once?

[@anzwertree]

@vukan1010 Yeah, it is pretty damn weird isn't it? Sometimes I just sit and think about the chances of even being able to ask these questions.

[@utubepunk]

@josh1492 I have no idea. But up until now, I didn't realize a wooden plank could type & post comments to KZbin!

[@user-gj4hn1hl2q]

That's because you're gay

[@mariamonica4674]

Please put subtitles in Spanish or English. Thanks.

[@maratemptress2142]

you can turn it on if you click on the cc button at the bottom right corner of the video

[@re98wlk55]

nicolas martinez but theyre crap and nonsense translation

[@n3st31]

Who was it that proved this? Do you have a book or something of that kind I could read on the topic?

[@user0987609876]

Some of the more reputable research on reincarnation, drawing on interviews with Ian Stevenson: Old Souls, by Shroder and Life Before Life, by Tucker. Stevenson's research synopses are dry; it is easier to read what others have written about his work (Shroder interviewed Stevenson and accompanied him on his research trips, and Tucker is Stevenson's successor at the University of Virginia).

[@brianallan1483]

I believe that we die and get reborn time and time again, you see when my nanna died in 1997, everyone in my family saw a dead old lady, but me, I heard my nanna say that she wants to join the younger ones, and at the time, i didn't know what the hell this meant, but recently i noticed a kid, who looks as if he is the reincarnation of my nanna, and i used to hear words like trying to be a young dude, be like us, and that was Steven Bradley

[@123chandimal]

upload a new video plz

[@fuzzyfurball]

@anzwertree Because I ceased to be when I sleep and there is nothing inbetween. Because I remember nothing from before I was born. These are the only conditions I access and review. Logically, after I die, I ceased to be. So as far as I can perceive this simulation only happens, can only happen once. Though I wish there to be more, but wishing is just wishing and not reality.

[@hairysuit]

Sorry, should have explained better. Whatever the Buddha 'claims', he always asks you to verify through direct observation rather than believing blindly. When it comes to rebirth, it is apparently possible to remember ones own past lives through very deep meditation, the method of which the Buddha lays out and invites one to try. There are people today who claim to have done this. If that were possible that would be evidence enough for the individual I think, but not obviously for anyone else!

[@anzwertree]

@fuzzyfurball Well, I'm not a Buddhist or an advocate of reincarnation. Many people assume if there isn't a God or gods, then it means we just die and that's it. I'm simply suggesting that might not be true. Look at my video called "Natural "Reincarnation" and do some research on quantum reincarnation. I say observer because I don't have another word to describe individual consciousness.

[@shsnuwan]

Read the book by Professor Ian Stevenson, Reincarnation and Biology

[@fuzzyfurball]

@vukan1010 So let's just celebrate our current existence? Hmm... Thank you :)

[@re98wlk55]

if everyone reincarnates why does population grow? when does person 1st come in? do people change to animals, plants etc and vice versa? and is this just same as fairy tale of heaven to calm people about death? ajahn brahm has said death is painful. said while meditating say "go back" you see self as infant or in womb or during death which is so painful other meditators told brahm they never want to do that again. brahm said as soon as you see you are seeing the death say "go further" and then you see your past life. all brahm says i like except for this. but since i like rest he says maybe this is true too.

[@hairysuit]

That is not quite true. Buddha claims that one can observe the truth of ones past lives through meditation. As to the second part of your question, one cannot really sever rebirth from the Buddha's Dharma as it is integral to concepts such as idea of karma and dependant origination. A single life, moment by moment interpretation of these concepts IS valid, but it is rather one sided. It is called 'Buddhist Modernism' and is not what Buddha taught. - I did my M.A dissertation on this subject!

[@georgiegirlize]

I once said to a Don at uni who questioned my understanding of reincarnation.... well if you are right and I am just a mass of chemicals, then when I die it won't matter, but if I am right... you are in for one hell of a shock! There is order in everything.., only karma can explain the inequalities of birth and situation in life....we make our own destinies.... then some try to blame it all on God.!

[@n3st31]

It is true you cant prove rebirth and it seem to be the One Buddhists assumption.

[@cobrajitsudojo]

@ithesisko Google Dolores Cannon

[@SandraLovesSun]

Love you Ajahn Brahm, but actually faith is taking things on trust. Theory is an analysis of a set of facts in relation to one another. Such as evolution. Evolution is a theory, but there is so much demonstrable evidence, that it would be pretty difficult not to except it as truth. So, I would have to argue that reincarnation is in fact a theory. I would also argue that there is no evidence as it cannot be demonstrated. I think there can be strong conclusions derived, but no actual evidence. There are coincidences, hallucinations and imagination involved with the mind. And skeptics are not saying no, it is not true, we cannot say it is true or not. And we are not making the claim. We merely do not accept your claim as valid. We don't have closed minds. We have open minds meaning we are waiting for evidence to support your claim. The burden of proof lies on the person making the claim. If and until real evidence comes into existence, one cannot say one way or another that it is true. Please do not make the claim that we are closed minded. We are just logical. For instance, near death experience is very well your brain dying and lacking oxygen, and science knows that at that point, hallucinations occur. That is a fact. Hallucinations happen, we can see things we want to see, the mind can connect things that are not there. This has all been proven. Demonstrable. Maybe it is possible, maybe it isn't. Either way, who cares. But the one asserting the claim, who has the burden of proof, who has not been able to demonstrate their claim as true, if they claim that the person not accepting it is close minded, well, then I will have to say you are arrogant to say you know. No, you don't know. You believe. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Until that happens, I will continue to be a skeptic. I will, however, follow Buddhist principles and philosophy, because there is demonstrable evidence that it works.

[@didjesbydan]

Sandra Well said!

[@subbtopp]

yeah ' if all those str8 remembered when they were gay...'

[@zoros3112]

sadhusadhusadhu

[@susanxjx]

Why this monk always talk so long? it makes me feel tired.

[@weewilly2007]

HAL 9000 at work or what?

[@philomath369]

its been proven many times.

[@philomath369]

how about you type it in Google and research for yourself? Use your brain a little bit.

[@graycam]

If reincarnation is real, how do you explain fluxes in populations? 1,000 yrs ago, there weren't even 1 billion people on earth. Now there are 7 billion. Where were these 6 billion souls over the past 1000 yrs?

[@lyntonio2]

pseudo science..... were is the evidence

[@lyntonio2]

pseudo science