"individuated dependent origination processes"??Lazy_eye wrote: After all, Buddhism does teach that beings (or mindstreams or individuated dependent origination processes or whatever term we prefer) re-arise in the various realms.
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Just thinking back on the stuff that confused me when I first encountered it, perhaps it would be helpful to clarify as follows:
-- Beings re-arise, life after life, among the different planes of existence.
As far as I know and I can verify, realms are mental states very well experienced in the present life. Explaining realms to a beginner as planes of existence that you are reborn after death is no better than what he is already suggesting IMO. Wouldn't it be more productive to tell them to observe the mental states moment to moment and observe how their minds experience these "realms" moment to moment? I'm just saying you know...
Lazy_eye wrote:
beings can move up and down through the realms in accordance with their kamma (moral decisions). One could attain the heavens, only to fall back into lower realms in a subsequent life after one's celestial kamma is all used up.