Meditation

Meditation for Beginners

Core Value#9: Spontaneously arising beings exist

 

It is not difficult to understand ‘spontaneous-arising’ if one understands the four modes of birth

 

This ninth form of core value is acceptance of the existence of spontaneously arising beings-beings which arise not because of their parents but as the result of karmic action they have committed themselves in the past. It is not difficult to understand ‘spontaneous-arising’ if one understands the four modes of birth:

 

1. Beings hatched from an egg [andaja]: such as birds and reptiles;

2.Ovariparous animals [jalabuja]: beings born in or from the womb, mostly mammals, such as humans and dogs;

3. Beings arising in moist areas, stagnant water, corpses, or rotting food [samsetaja] such as mosquitos or paramecia;

4. Spontaneously arising beings [opapatika]: such as angels [devata], brahmas, denizens of hell, hungry ghosts [peta], and monsters [asura].

 

karma they have done while in the human world.

 

The first three modes of arising are not difficult for the general public to understand because they are types of beings we see regularly with the naked eye in our everyday life. However the fourth mode of birth, is invisible to the naked eye. In the present day, there is still no scientific equipment able to detect this mode of beings. Even so, those who meditate until their mind is sufficiently bright, are able, through reasoning, based on understanding of the preceding elements of Ringht View to understand the existence of spontaneously-arising beings, if put under the guidance of a spiritual teacher who has already gained some sort of attainment for himself.

 

On a workaday level, spontaneous arising can even be experienced from from moment to moment based on the quality of one’s mind at any moment. For example, at the moment one takes pleasure in seeing the good in others, one can be ‘beside oneself’ with delight, as if one has a new spontaneously arising life, even though one is still alive on earth. Similarly. If one is bogged down in troublemaking thoughts, it is as if, for a moment, they have created their own personal hell on earth. This is not to say that heaven or hell don’t exist as places separate from the human realm, but a similar principle becomes the permanent state of existence of it coincides with one’s death.

 

if one extrapolates one’s knowledge of the Law of karma

 

Therefore, without ever having seen a spontaneously-arisen being, if one extrapolates one’s knowledge of the Law of karma, one’s knowledge of this world and the next, together with one’s knowledge of basic science, the knowledge of asexual reproduction of single-celled organisms, one can soon accept the existence of spontaneously arising beings, at least giving them the benefit of the doubt.

 

In any case, the most important issue concerning the foregoing nine types of Right View are the existence of karmic retribution, heaven and hell-and that heaven and hell are home to spontaneously-arising beings, beings that arise as a result of wholesome or unwholesome karma they have done while in the human world.

 

Anyone who understands this issue properly, can be said to have positive core values, bringing sufficient illumination of mind to understand the final type of positive core value…

 

Meditation - Related Articles

What is meditation?

7 Bases of mind 

How many kinds of meditation are there?

The Right Concentration

The False Concentration 

How to Meditate 

A Meditation Guide

Learning Meditation

Basic Meditation Method 

Meditation is not difficult 

Dhammakaya Temple 

Meditation Retreat 

 

http://goo.gl/i25mX