If I am reborn it is not me. So why I care about the rebirth?

[pegembara]

Why do we need to look at before death and after death I wonder, we can just look between just two "breaths"!.
The one who breaths the next breath, is not the one who took the previous one!.
Curious? for if it were the same, we would never have grown old!
There are countless breaths we've taken, they come and go, just like we cannot see beyond death, we cannot see the next breath!
Just like I cannot remember the last life, I cannot remember my last breath too, for that matter, any of my previous breaths!
A stream of fuzzy memories of "my" past "actions (or reactions)" of current life remains, but where was the "I" ?

Sankharas (breath) arising and sankharas (breath) ceasing. No one is doing the breathing which is/are a process or processes.

I'm holding my breath right now and therefore its not just a process that takes place without a will.

Does "your" breathing stop when you fall asleep? What happens when "you" forget to breathe?

[pegembara]

Good point. How can belief in rebirth end dukkha?

Because rebirth is ultimately the very definition of dukkha (as the Dhammapada quote below will show) and is what you're supposed to be trying to end. If you merely live once and then die, then dukkha just ends with death and you don't need to do anything to end it but wait for death to end it. Therefore, by not believing in rebirth, one remains subject to it because they don't have the wherewithall to end the clinging that causes it. And in some of the suttas around the 100s in Mahjima Nikkaya Buddha explicitly says that denying rebirth is wrong view. And I think he explains why also.

From the Daw Mya Tin translation of the Dhammapada:

VERSE 153: I, who have been seeking the builder of this house (body), failing to attain Enlightenment (Bodhi nana or Sabbannuta nana) which would enable me to find him, have wandered through innumerable births in samsara. To be born again and again is, indeed, dukkha!

VERSE 154: Oh house-builder! You are seen, you shall build no house (for me) again. All your rafters are broken, your roof-tree is destroyed. My mind has reached the unconditioned (i.e., Nibbana); the end of craving (Arahatta Phala) has been attained.

Nobody is denying rebirth. Just that believing in it cannot end dukkha. Perhaps one will have more sense of urgency and samvega to get out. Buddhist aren't the only one with such beliefs.

Just to set the record straight, I am a believer.

[davidbrainerd]

Sankharas (breath) arising and sankharas (breath) ceasing. No one is doing the breathing which is/are a process or processes.

I'm holding my breath right now and therefore its not just a process that takes place without a will.

Does "your" breathing stop when you fall asleep? What happens when "you" forget to breathe?

When you're not purposefully stopping it, you've got it on autopilot, like when you're driving a car and thinking about something else not really paying attention to the road, yet you don't hit anything.

[pegembara]

I'm holding my breath right now and therefore its not just a process that takes place without a will.

Does "your" breathing stop when you fall asleep? What happens when "you" forget to breathe?

When you're not purposefully stopping it, you've got it on autopilot, like when you're driving a car and thinking about something else not really paying attention to the road, yet you don't hit anything.

Yes you do hit something when you don't pay attention even for a few seconds.

[Dinsdale]

Many can't face the fact of rebirth.

Many can't face the fact of no rebirth.

[auto]

A guess

If you are thinking about something, then you are not here. I can take your things and you won't notice even if looking at what i am doing.
To notice me, is you need get a reminder, consciousness will arise and you can plug in to it and shout at me.

Also same type of consciousness what arises or manifests can be a gateway to your own body(what is important for cultivation).

If you die you will appear in that consciousness and are following karmic force, there you can't cultivate or put a stop to your destiny.

[cappuccino]

Many can't face the fact of no rebirth.

Rebirth is a difficult, not easy teaching.

[SarathW]

This thread is not about the re-birth.
The question is is it necessary to believe in Kamma and re-birth to attain enlightenment.
How do you practice if there is no Kamma and re-birth?

[Sam Vara]

This thread is not about the re-birth.
The question is is it necessary to believe in Kamma and re-birth to attain enlightenment.
How do you practice if there is no Kamma and re-birth?

The Buddha's awakening involved the arising of the "three knowledges", and the first two certainly certainly involved an understanding of his own rebirth, and of the workings of kamma. The first one goes like this:

When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of recollecting my past lives. I recollected my manifold past lives, i.e., one birth, two... five, ten... fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand, many eons of cosmic contraction, many eons of cosmic expansion, many eons of cosmic contraction & expansion: 'There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose there. There too I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.' Thus I remembered my manifold past lives in their modes & details.

"This was the first knowledge I attained in the first watch of the night. Ignorance was destroyed; knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed; light arose — as happens in one who is heedful, ardent, & resolute.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .than.html

That's not of course to say that those following the Buddha must undergo the same process. A lot of modern secular Buddhism is predicated on the premise that it is possible to attain the third knowledge without the first two. So it is perfectly possible to practice if one believes there is no kamma or rebirth. But I'm struck by how, above, the Buddha explicitly directs his mind to the knowledge of recollecting his past lives. It didn't just happen as a result of being very mindful and having lived a pure life; he had the intention to achieve that knowledge before it was achieved. So on that reading, the belief seems necessary.

[SarathW]

Agree.
What I am saying is, isn't that enough to know how the Kamma ripening and the Dependent Origination in this life itself.

[Sam Vara]

Agree.
What I am saying is, isn't that enough to know how the Kamma ripening and the Dependent Origination in this life itself.

It didn't seem to be enough for the Buddha, otherwise he would not have bothered with the first knowledge.

[davidbrainerd]

This thread is not about the re-birth.

The title is literally "If I am reborn it is not me. So why I care about the rebirth?"

The question is is it necessary to believe in Kamma and re-birth to attain enlightenment.
How do you practice if there is no Kamma and re-birth?

If there's no kamma and rebirth there is no point, because enlightenment means exiting the cycle of rebirth. Without kamma and rebirth, just be one of those asshole atheists who goes around saying "I'm enlightened because I don't believe in anything" and viola, you're "enlightened" but not in the sense that Buddha uses the term.

[thepea]

This thread is not about the re-birth.
The question is is it necessary to believe in Kamma and re-birth to attain enlightenment.
How do you practice if there is no Kamma and re-birth?

It is definitely not necessary to believe in kamma and rebirth to attain enlightenment.

[davidbrainerd]

This thread is not about the re-birth.
The question is is it necessary to believe in Kamma and re-birth to attain enlightenment.
How do you practice if there is no Kamma and re-birth?

It is definitely not necessary to believe in kamma and rebirth to attain enlightenment.

Somewhere in the 100s of the MN, there are several suttas that say that saying there is no birth, there is no death, there are no parents, there is no kamma, there is no offering, there is no reward, etc. is wrong view.

Not to mention that arahants always say in the canon, What needed to be done has been done, this is my LAST BIRTH, LAST DEATH....

You people are just kidding yourself. You're just atheists who meditate for stress relief, not Buddhists.

[thepea]

Somewhere in the 100s of the MN, there are several suttas that say that saying there is no birth, there is no death, there are no parents, there is no kamma, there is no offering, there is no reward, etc. is wrong view.

Not to mention that arahants always say in the canon, What needed to be done has been done, this is my LAST BIRTH, LAST DEATH....

You people are just kidding yourself. You're just atheists who meditate for stress relief, not Buddhists.

My point is, what good is “believing” in kamma and rebirth, this is not going to liberate you.
Experiencing kamma and rebirth first hand is the path.

The atheist comment is a bit harsh, ouch.