Its never a good advice to use the heaven and hell , carrot and chilly , gifts . A person is bound to go wrong sooner or later when bound or freed by such notions , its but a matter of time .tiltbillings wrote:That is assuming that such realms really exist and that the hell realms business is not the typical scare the begeesus out people tactic to ensure good behavior.robertk wrote:The pain experience d in the human realm is mild compared to that in lower realms
And few after death will be reborn as human according to the pali
The Buddhas teaching went beyond; during the time of the Buddha , there were others contemporary to the Buddha who strictly adhered to moral conduct and jhannas. Here , heaven and hell were always considered to be outside . The Buddha exhorted us to delve deeper ,and understand for ourselves , that heaven , hell and the interim are within us and completely mind made . They exist because such and such thoughts and actions give rise to such and such states ; if we keep on being with the truth of change , moment to moment , skillfully avoiding any clinging , it becomes that much more clearer that these are just mirages of our own making , just as we ourselves are the same .
When studying in college and before coming in touch with the profound teachings of the Buddhas , i used to write at the back of my note pads " do what you feel , but feel what you do " . The more we let go , that much more happier we become in life . Letting go superficially is so easy , the letting go from the heart is that what makes all the difference.It is a very long journey , where the traveller comes to learn that the traveller is the journey, and the journey , the traveller itself . There are no full stops.
Its nice to learn bit by bit , i am so grateful .
sanjay