Alex123 wrote:If there is only one life, then at death arahants and worldlings are all equal at 6 feet under. Not much point in trying to become a stream enterer or higher....
Death would be automatic parinibbana.
We are danger of getting into the same old argument here
At the end of the day I do not know if there is rebirth, heaven, hell, Ra, oblivion or the Force.
However I will say that that line of thinking is irrelevant to me.
All I will say is that when I engage with Dhamma, I am more happy etc and I would practice regardless, as even if there is no future state etc it still improves my life in the here and now
My practice would not change if rebirth was proved, or if Christianity was proved or it oblivion was proved.
The reason why is that whenever I think about what happens after death, its always because of the "ego" wanting to know what happens to "me", which of course is a wrong place to come from (as well as admitting that I do not know and might never know)
However thats just my approach to the Dhamma, others will of course find merit in rebirth view and that works for them
The person who does that is just as much a follower of Buddha as I am, to me whats more important is how we use these concepts to free ourselves from dukkha
peace out x