Understanding Buddha's Teachings on Life and Reincarnation

Buddha teaches that the essence of a person exists eternally, transcending birth and death.

### Exploring the Teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha: Life, Existence, and Reincarnation
* 🧘 Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings emphasize that he was just a human being with a profound purpose: to **share love, peace, and a way to overcome suffering**, similar to the role of **Jesus Christ**.
* 📖 Traditional beliefs state that a soul begins at conception, but Buddha challenged this notion, asserting that the soul is **eternal and has always existed**, stating, "**You were never born, you never die.**"
* 📜 The Bible supports Buddha's teachings, notably in Jeremiah 1:5, which suggests that individuals have an **identity before birth**, indicating that **life does not start at conception**.
* 🔍 In John 9:1-2, the possibility of **sin before birth** is presented, further implying that **existence and personality precede physical birth**, aligning with Buddha's view of **eternal life**.
* 🌊 Buddha described life as an ongoing process of **learning and growth**, where individuals can experience different roles in various lifetimes, akin to an **actor playing multiple parts** in a play.
* 🔄 The concept of karma is central to understanding personal experiences, as **past actions influence current and future lives**, teaching lessons necessary for **spiritual growth**.
* 🌱 Ultimately, Buddha's philosophy encourages individuals to **rise above suffering and desires**, promoting a journey of **self-discovery and enlightenment** through understanding the **nature of existence**.
* 💫 The teachings advocate for a life of **compassion and connection**, suggesting that our true essence remains **unchanged** despite the physical and situational transformations we undergo.

we're going to do a study with Shakyamuni Buddha today. We've been doing these over a long period of time, and his wisdom is extremely profound to me. One of the shames is that we become so caught up in our traditional concepts that we never really reach out to touch a person and say, Who is this person, Buddha? Just a human being. He receives that title as Jesus received the title of the Christ. These are human beings who had one purpose in life, and that was to share love and share peace and share a way to overcome difficulties. It's a sign of how wrong we have gone when people who gave their lives to help us come above suffering are considered in some way evil. Something's wrong, you know. Our Christian heritage basically is that a soul comes into being at the time of conception, when there's the sexual intercourse. The physical realm was conceived, and according to religion as we know it, once that conception takes place, that's a human being, and that person becomes identified, you know, with that particular

body when that person dies. The soul continues to exist, but in some realm, in heaven, hell, or purgatory, as the case may be. And that's basically the belief. When conception takes place, the soul enters the body, and that person becomes a human being. Shocking immunity. Buddha taught that's wrong, said that's not true. He said that the soul has never ceased to exist, that you're not born at the time of conception. You were never born, you never die, that your personality is and has been alive forever. And Shakyamuni Buddha said that if there is such a thing as eternal life, it has to be, it can't start somewhere. The Bible supports Buddha, and let's look and see where it does. Let's go to page 623 and look at the Book of Jeremiah to start off with. In Jeremiah chapter one, page 623. Were you alive before you were born? Muda says yes, and that is eternal life. Even Jesus talked to me, eternal life. And if eternal life is eternal, it has to be eternal, it can't start somewhere. The KNN

you can't start has to be eternal all eternity because you can't have eternity doesn't mean just what lies in the future. Eternity means what lies in the future, what is lied in the past, everything that has ever happened is eternity. In Jeremiah chapter one, page 623, verse five, the Prophet says, The word of the Lord came saying, 'Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.' So then, if you were known according to the Bible prior to the conception in the womb, you had a life, you had a personality, you had an identity before birth. So indeed, your life did not start at conception. The Bible says so. Is there another? Let's take one other scripture that I think is interesting. Go to page 874, and for the rest of you, go to the book of John. You know what amazes me is that when I go into these studies, like as David says, It's strange.

for people to say, Well, you know, here are the teachings of Buddha. But what amazes me is when I go into these studies of Buddha, I find out that the Bible agrees with him and disagrees with the traditional teachings. But let's take one other look about life before birth, and here we just saw where quote/unquote God says, Hey, I knew you before you were born. Therefore, your personality, your identity existed before conception. Let's take a look at something out of Peg's 870 for the book of John, John chapter 9, 874 John chapter 9, and John chapter 9, and verse 2, well verse 1. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from birth. Here's a man who had been born blind, and his disciples asked, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? What the Bible is saying there was a possibility of somebody committing sin before they were born. There was a possibility of someone committing sin before they were.

conceived in the womb. See, so then you're not born at conception. Excuse me, you're not. You're not. You're not become the personality. You're not clearly conceived at that point. You existed long before you were born, and that's what the Bible says. And here we just pick two scriptures. Before you were in the womb, I knew you. And here's the disciples saying to Jesus, This guy commits a sin before he was born. Is that's why he was born blind? Saying Buddha taught that the life of the individual has existed since time without beginning. And he says that that essence that is you, there is a particular essence that is you. Here we have sitting here female-male, but there is Dave, there is Don, there is Curry, there is Joan, there is each one of you as an individual personality. And the amazing truth is that it has always been that individual unique personality. Never began. It always has been. It's a part of what we call God. In other words, in this particular life experience in which you are learning new things and

understanding new things. You are male. You are female. You have a particular label on you in the past, in thousands of different Furion says. You might have been female or a male or whatever. It was different names, different experiences, constantly learning, constantly growing, constantly developing yourself into something special. And what happens then is that the physical time of death, this personality disappears, only to appear again when the conditions are right. This is like a wave on the ocean. You know, the wave manifests itself, it appears, and then it disappears and moves itself to the bottom of the ocean where it reappears again when the conditions are right. Yes, ma'am, you have to stand up now because we have to show these things. Just a question, would that be like Buddha and Krishna and Christ help hungry just like, okay, say I was carrying before this, I was Patty or me for this, so, oh, before this, you might have been done, yeah, well, whatever, but I'm speaking like, you know, was, would that be like Krishna was and then Buddha, then Christ.

okay. Krishna explains this beautifully. It says Krishna appeared four times. Once he was black, once he was yellow, once he was red, once he was white. Yes, I don't like to necessarily bring... I like Edgar Cayce, but Edgar Cayce once said that we're all like cells of a body of God, and the cells of the body never die. So, that's that. Yeah, okay. In the same way where Jesus said, Before Abraham was, I am. But before Abraham was carrying this, before Abraham was Abraham, because these are just titles. Somebody, you come out of your mother's womb, somebody takes a look at you, says, I think I'll call her Curie. That's her time around. The next time you come, I think I'll call him Sam. But it's still you in that center. Is that deep personality which is you? It never was born, it never done, and it's you. And of the exciting part about it is you. People say, Gee, you know, I don't think I'll remember, you know, this life and the next life. But she will still be here and

you'll be the same vital person in a different situation. Your personality will be exactly the same. You'll have to follow me all because we have Lorraine here. Lorraine is the one that made history. Psalm 139, when you said about our spirits, it says, This is too glorious to believe. I can never be lost in your spirit, and I can never get away from my God. And the whole Psalm is based on knowing you before you entered your mother's womb, where there was an existence prior to becoming flesh. Okay, yes ma'am. Okay, so emotional. I had to do with past life, and I was very, very upset. And Jones sent me to a therapist, and before I went to him, I meditated. And I've been acute anxiety very bad. And in my meditation, all the things Ida came about 32 years ago when I gave birth to my son in England. And it was in a military hospital, and I wasn't treated very nicely. The only one that treated me very nicely was a young doctor. I had never seen him before, and I was writing

writing this down. Writing this down. All came out was life and death, life and death, life and death, like half a page. Life and dead, life and death. I recognized him, and I'm carrying around from a previous death. He had killed me. It was something to do with the Quakers or people dressed in black, and I saw myself there going on a scaffold. Was a whole bunch of us being put to death, and I saw the number seven. And anyways, he could, this therapist confirmed that. And he said that this man came back to help me give birth. And then that was off my chest. Came home the next day. I started meditating again, and my roads are always very bumpy. And over the hill came these black cars, like 1910. And then I turn around, and then there was those Amish people. They have like those black carriages, and inside the carriages was like four or five girls about eighteen years old. And one of them, I remembered being that young girl I put to death. And she

she said she was very angry because she was put to death. And she said to me that she was angry because she couldn't be living God's Way. And that meant taking care of your body and being where you are. And that was the message that I got. And the therapist had told me that I have to forgive this man. Because anger was right there. And see today this relates to that. I had to say that thank you life is. There's much more to life than oh yes We the People. I just want to add to what Lillian was saying. When Lillian called me up and said that you know she had these anxieties and the birth of her son etc. And I said it could be related to a previous life's existence. And we are fortunate that in our area there is a doctor who worked with Dr. Weiss from Miami on past life regressions. And he's just he's local. And that's why I said to Lily and I would really give it a try.

because anxieties and phobias usually are hooked up into past lives. And isn't that basically what the disciples were saying, that Jesus, who sinned, was before that this man was born blind? There was something that happened. You know, janitor comes here with a two little boy. She has since her kids were born, kind of postpartum everything. And we relate to each other. We just recognized each other. And I think she might have been in this bunch of people with me. And the other thing is, you know how I got to a forked river, like you know, like I told used to come in the middle of the night, see what the hell was here for me. And there's a bunch of famous people down there, you know, so I have there's something else for me that I have to recognize, you know. But I think we're all reincarnated together. I think that's what I'm trying to say. You may be right. It's a very interesting thing, and it is totally

consumed in the biblical scriptures of what life is like. Life is much more than what we've ever allowed it to be. Buddha does not teach soul, okay? Buddha teaches ku, okay? And he calls this the non-substantiality of a person. Non-substantial, it means that part of you which exists but cannot be seen. That part of you which is extremely vital but does not fest itself physically. See, in other words, you appear as a body but you're very different than a body. Can you think of something that... Let's try to come up with something that we can explain. You appear as a body but the whole gist when you appear as a body but you're very different than a body. Let me give you an example. Let me give you an example of two things that can appear but one do you hydrogen, oxygen, okay? But when you put them together, they don't appear as hydrogen and oxygen. They appear as water. Do you see what I'm saying to you? In other words, the appearance is something different than

the origin than the center, and that's what Buddha is trying to make clear to us. You are appearing as a body; in other words, you're appearing as water, but your makeup is something totally different. That center of you is something totally different. See that? Basically, what he's trying to say is that as each one of you is, all of us get older, changes happen within us, changes occur. And when he talks about the physical realm as opposed to kou, because it ki, KI is the physical realm, cool is that non-substantial. But what happens is ki changes. You physically change. Who changes? Your personality changes, and that happens dependent on the situations that you live. You can become a completely different person. You've seen it happen, for instance, you've seen people in our contemporary culture. You can have a very kind person, a very loving person, a very compassionate person, a very healthy, joyful person. Suddenly, something happens in that person's life. Let's say the person gets into a drug-addicted state. That person can change. The physical appearance can alter.

so radically you can hardly recognize the person, and that kindness can change to a bitterness, a suspicion, a violent behavior. But yet, deep in the center is that same personality. The physical has changed because of the circumstances that the person has experienced, but there is no change in that Center. See, even in such a radical change, that person still remains John Doe, Jane Doe, whomever it may be. Though there is this difference, she, the center of his self, is the same. The physical has changed, the personality has changed, but Buddha said that there is something in the center which never changes, and he calls that truth. That's you, that's something nobody can change. Say you, you, you, you, you, you, you. If you live, for instance, if you lived in India right now, you'd be a much different person than you are on the outside. If you lived in Japan, if you lived in Germany, if you lived in the Orient, you'd be a much different person. But still, you'd be the same person inside. You'd be that Center.

In other words, you are susceptible to being changed by your environment. If you lived with some other family than you live now, you'd be a much different person on the outside, but still the same would be inside the nature of your life. Basically, what he's saying, what Buddha is saying, is the nature of your life can belong to nobody but you. The nature of your life can belong to nobody but you. Past, present, future, that's your true self. That's what Buddha called true. Nobody can change it, nobody can have it, nobody can control it. It goes on and on and on in life, and that's your true center. And that center lets you know that you're the same person now that was riding a bicycle down the street maybe 20, 30 years ago. You're still the same person. You've made some physical changes, you've changed your personality. Who these are physical things, but you're the same person, exactly the same. Buddha put it this way, and I think it's a good way to put it. An apple tree is always an

apple tree. Whether the apples it produces are sometimes sweet, sometimes sour, sometimes diseased, sometimes perfect, it's still the same tree. And he said, In each one of us, we can apply that. We are who we are, though sometimes we're sweet, sometimes we're sour, sometimes we're diseased, sometimes we're perfect. Still, the center is the same. And that tree will never produce pears or onions or whatever. It's an apple tree. So, if you can accept this, you can begin to understand a description that within a single lifetime, this ki and qu are constantly changing. Say yet you maintain constantly your personality, your nature. That never changed. That Center never changes in this lifetime. It never changed it in the next thousand lifetimes. It'll ever change in the thousand lifetimes that you existed in before this. This will never change. But as soon as you're born, see, as soon as Chu comes out of the womb, somebody puts a label on it. Now, what are you? You're either a Jew or an Italian or a Puerto

Rican, whatever you've got a label on it, and as soon as they put a label on you, your personality will change. Now you suddenly have pride. I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud to be an Italian. Your personality now will defend this, which you had nothing to do with, and your personality will defend you from plow to be black. I'm proud to be whatever it is. You start to attach to these things that happen on the outside that you have no control over, in the same way that what Joan we were talking about a moment ago. Things happen to you, and these things happen, stay with you. They become part of your nature, but there's still that personality. When this Chu then is born into a new life, you'll go into completely different experiences. You may be born in this life, and karma has a way. You may be born in this life and be so proud to be white, but you'll join the Ku Klux Klan. You can almost guarantee that when Chu is born in the next life, it'll be black.

because karma has got to teach you. You've got to learn. You might just be so proud to be Irish. You'll march down the St. Patrick's Day parade and you'll have your green. You'll have your shell alley and you're saying I'm the same old Lord Allah and you can almost guarantee that the next birth true will be born in Israel. Well, this is a nice kid, not so bad because that's what happened because we have to learn and we can never stop being proud. Here we are, you know, especially those are marching with the Marines, you know, marching down Broadway with the Marines that are all happy because they won the war in Iraq. What's the chances? Good chance next time true will be born in Baghdad because that's the way we have to learn. We grow with a fear, these people. We grow with a hate with these people. We don't like these people simply because we've been cultured not to like them. So karma, let's place us where in the place exactly where we will learn not to hate.

We will have to live, and that's part of our life experience. See ya. Many of us say, You know, if you were black, you would know. You don't know. Well, if you take those out, you will be, and that's the only way you'll ever learn to embrace life and all of its various possibilities and potentialities through that strange thing called Karma. Actually, it's a teacher, and it will bring you back to learn, to experience, to understand through as many lifetimes as it takes to bring you through all the stuff that we've gone through. So, it doesn't take a great deal of understanding then to look at the situation as Buddha put it: how you once were, how you are now, and how you will. It's before birth, it's life, it's a continuing process. It is the exact same process. The only difference is from lifetime to lifetime. The change is much more radical than simply from young to old. You can have, you could, you could have beautiful young ladies here, you know, you can see some of

them. They may be modeling in those magazines, you know, they're all thin, and they walk down the aisle. I got something sprung over there, and that's gorgeous people, but maybe next to maybe, you know, the beard of big muscles, a truck driver, but it's the same person. But that person has to learn, that person has to go through experiences to learn. You can't learn in 50, 60, 70, 80 years, whatever you're given in this way. When you live in this particular lifetime, it's like going through a year of college or sometimes grammar school, high school, whatever it is. Then you've got it, you've got to alert, and you've got to go on to the next level, and that's what happens in your life. Your life will continue on, and you learn how you once were. We had a testimony this morning, us, and we said they have some idea how they once were. Yes, past life regression is very possible, not only very possible, it's very true, because these things remain in the subconscious, and it carries with you.

lifetime after lifetime after lifetime. The Bible just said, Before you were in the womb, I knew you. I know what you did, say life knew what you were doing, running around, whatever you were into it then. Before you were in your mother's womb, you had a record of what you were doing for all of these different lifetimes. Now you're born into a new one, and you're adding to it. You're learning from it. You're experiencing things from it. But you're in that new experience. You're completely different. If you see, you know, I want to be able to remember what I did in the past, like you can't even remember the dreams you had last night, but you had them. You were there. Florida compares the life cycle to that of a play, and Shakespeare. Do you ever hear of the play that William Shakespeare wrote called As You Like It? Let me quote you a line from Shakespeare's As You Like It: All the world's a stage, and all the men and women are merely players. They have their exits and their

entrances and one person in his time plays many parts. That is great mystical philosophy from Shakespeare: All the world's a stage, and everybody plays many parts. Shakespeare noticed what we've been discussing this morning: an individual's identity is not fixed, say, but changes according to the part that you were given to play. And you're given a part to play so that you may learn from this part in your life experience. A person who has lived, for instance, in a different situation, for a person who is black in one particular lifetime, will never come into another lifetime and join the Ku Klux Klan. That person is white because the person has deep within themselves this understanding, this beauty, this love of this culture. It's part of it. So, that's karma. That's the beauty of karma. That's the beauty of God, see. So, there was the play. What we're talking about here, the drama goes on. We'll watch the play, and many of you go to Broadway or whatever, you watch a play, and what happens? The actor leaves the stage and

the character no longer exists. The character no longer exists. The part that he's playing no longer exists. But what does he do? He goes, gets a contract with his agent, comes back onto the stage, a different character, same person. Ah, say he's gonna play the part, and when he's done playing the part, that character is gone. But he'll come back now, and he'll play a new part. Here he was playing the part of a doctor on Days of Our Lives or General Hospital or whatever the heck it is. You know, the next time he comes, he may be playing an RAF pilot or, you know, an astronaut or whatever it is. It's a different part, but it's the same person. He didn't cease to exist. He just left the stage and then came back in a different part. And that's an interesting saying, see, because if you believe that when the play ended and the character ceased to be, that the actor died too, then you're like religion. You don't understand the nature of the drama. You don't understand the nature of life.

because then you cannot explain life before birth. You cannot explain life after birth. And it's just as sensible to think that when you see an actor in the movie die, that he died, the character died in the play, and your justices, the actor died too. How many times was Jimmy Cagney or whatever shot, you know, and he's in the show, you know, I'll write you, you know, whatever they say, No, that was the Edward J Robinson. All right, you dirty guys. No, no, was Jimmy Cagney, you dirty guys. You're gonna get it, you watch. Oh, that's what he would say. And then machine guns at God, and he know he'd die, and he goes that, and then he'd fall down dead. But you know what? He died. He's laying there. It's all over for the cops to come in. It's all over. All right, and he said, Give my love to mom, and he died a nice guy. He's dead. That's the end of him. But what happened the next time I look up? That's the same

guy, I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy. Oh yeah, he was that. No, he wasn't. The character died. He's alive. He's playing a different part. That's what you are. You're on a stage. You're playing a part. And when this part winds itself out and the drama ends, you'll be back up on the stage and you'll be playing a new part. Even the criminals like Jimmy Cagney, who shot dead in the streets by the cops, next time he's playing a new part. He's got a new role. He's a Yankee Doodle Dandy because God would not that anyone would perish but learn from all of the mistakes, learn from all of the problem, and come back in a new life and score, rise up above all of those things until finally you work your way up to the heavenly places. It's a beautiful thing. Yes, like an Einstein and a Jonas salt and all these people that are like really, really achieved that. They've done this in previous lifetimes and they just keep

raising higher, yes, you know that's true. Okay, yeah, you're leading me into something that you know is a fact. That's like, but she says something like that. She's telling me something. She's not asking something. Hey, little Wolfgang Mozart, kids five years old, goes in, sits down at the piano, don't know writing concerts, can share those symphonies at the age of six or seven years old. How is this, you know, so indeed we're. How can somebody, you know, in industry, Einstein was kicked out of school, and he flunked that June order. Einstein was such a kebab Nick. He flunked mathematics. In fact, he couldn't get it because he couldn't listen to somebody teach him because he knew. He knew something far beyond what anybody could teach him, so he couldn't. He would flunk. What did he float? He didn't flunk mathematics. He thought what he was taught because he knew more about what really was than what you could teach him. That's what's happened here. Many of you have been taught by people.

was. I've said all you know is what you've been taught by people who don't know, and you have been taught many, many things, and you flunked, so you come. Why? Because she knows something deep within your heart that is so filled with newness and understanding. See what happens then. Let's go back to the actor for just a minute. Let's say the actor we were talking about, like what happens to the actor if he's out of work. What does a Buddha say? He's in what ku? You don't see him. He doesn't cease to exist. Joan and I saw a good point. John and I saw a play many years ago on Broadway, and we really thought that the star, and it was tremendous, the name of the play was How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and the star was Robert Morse. He's great, you know. Now that was it. After that play, never saw the guy, never heard about him. We were sitting down yesterday, turned the TV on, and there's the movie version, and there he

is how does Succeed in Business robbed all of a sudden. Robert Morris came from ku Tookie. He manifested himself again. It wasn't that he died and said he lived somewhere. I don't know where, but as far as we're concerned of his relationship with us, he was in ku. And as soon as he manifested himself, what happened? Not only did we remember the play that we had seen, but we remember the day we went there. We remember going up to New York. Everything came out of ku and came back into ki because it was stimulated by sending him again. So when he comes back in front of the audience, he appears in that role. But don't forget, when you come back, just like the actor, you don't necessarily come back in the same role that you played the last time. It can come back in a new role. Eventually, the run of the play ends, the actor dies, and then he returns to the state of KU until he comes into a new play, and then he comes back in the state of K. So Buddha says life is like an

endless series of plays in which we are cast in different roles again and again and again. And so what does Jesus say? You must be born again. And what does Buddha say? Yes, it's true. You must be born again and again and again. We then have the opportunity to take direction. We then have the opportunity to understand. We have the opportunity either to become a star, and we have the opportunity to fail. Spence, you're created to be a star. You're created to be famous, but you may fail, and you have to study, and you have to learn, you have to learn your lines, and you have to portray yourself, allowing that which is within you to motivate itself, to manifest itself within you. And basically, that's what life is. That's what he's trying to tell us. This is what the teaching then is, okay, not to simply understand or think that this is your only shot at life. It's not. It never ends. You've done before, and basically what Buddha says, what you are now is a

picture of what you were before what you're going to be. Okay, it's based on what you are now. And are you willing to change that? Are you willing to put new courses into this consciousness in order to make new effects? Many of us have problems, and Buddha would say, and basically, this is where it all started. One of the most famous things that Buddha is credited for originating is the law of cause and effect. Say whatever is happening to you now is the effect. What happened is the result of a cause. Who put the cause in you? If you're miserable, if you have a problem, if you have these fears, something happened, and the cause could have been put into you by your parents. The cause could have been put into you by the system, the government, religion. But nonetheless, it will have its effect. And if it doesn't have its effect in this lifetime, it'll have its effect in the next lifetime. And that not only goes for that which is consciousness, it goes for that which is physical. A person could have had syphilis back 400 years.

ago in your family line somewhere, and then through the intercourse that goes on, maybe a hundred years, two hundred years down the road, somebody is born, and at the age of twenty, they explode in some kind of brain problem, some kind of insanity, and it comes from that which is placed, the seed which was placed in hundreds of years ago, running through the genetics, running through the family line, and it says in the Bible, it will strike down generation after generation after generation. Well, not only that happens physically, it also happens in the realms of consciousness. You have things put into your head when you're a child, and they have an effect of making you what you are today. You can be filled with fear, you can be filled with all kinds of guilt, you can be filled with all kinds of hate, and you can trace it back, and one of those doctors could take it right back to that point and show you what's the cause. There is nothing that happens in your life that has not been the result of a cause in the same way.

Many of our illnesses you can trace back many of your illnesses. The effect is I have this. What's the cause? And I remember I'll never forget the night when I stood back there with that high blood pressure saying, and the words of Buddha rang through. You have it. That's the effect. What's the cause? And you can look through myriads of things, and some of them were genetic in my case. Some of them were genetic. They go back through a family lifestyle. So I didn't pay any attention to her, just went ahead and acted as if none of that existed. But the effect was something had been put into my pattern, and this is what happened. And so this is the same way with many other things that cause you sorrow, many other things that cause you hurt. You put causes into the heads of children, and I'll tell you something. When religion teaches about devils, when religion teaches about hell, when religious pizza's about punishing God, they are putting causes into the minds of little children, and these causes are going to have effects and all.

we have to do is read the newspaper to see what the effects are. It is the most horrible thing in the world to put into the minds of children that there is some God somewhere that's sending people to hell. They're gonna burn, physically burn in a fire forever, and all of this trash, which is all nothing but mythology and metaphysical types of allegorical thesis, is to give you an understanding. And we put this into the head, say these are really going to happen, and children wind up being scared to death. And then what happens after that? You tell them, Well, the same God is coming down with an Armageddon. He's preparing a nuclear war to wipe out half of the people on the earth. And this is the loving God they want you to follow and say, Praise the Lord. I say, Praise the Lord nothing, your affic octa. I don't want anything to do with you. If this is what you do, who wants to be around you? You're not a nice guy. I'm not hanging out with you no more because

I don't want to know about you if you got devils, and I want to know from something from this guy. What is this that I have a fair shot at? You're just this year. You put a devil, an invisible devil, running around, and I'm supposed to fight with this guy. What am I supposed to do? And then, and you know, here I am. I'm standing here. I did nothing. What did I do? I don't know from this. I got this mind. Who put this mind in here that tells me these crazy things? Who put this mind in all of us to tell you these sexy things? I don't know. You're not supposed to think those things. Then why does it think these things if you're not supposed to? I didn't ask for that when I checked in. I'm going down here, please. I'm gonna live on earth this time. I'd like to have a sexy mind, please. I just came one day. I was there. Here I am, and they start all on this stuff, and I'm

guilty. What did I do? Say now, hey, I want to blame anybody. Don't blame me, pal. You'll put it in. That's your problem, and that's true, very true. And so, once you have to then learn and understand is the challenge of life, the Karma of life, the law of cause and effect is given unto all of us to say, Hey, I want to find a better way. I want to rise above religion. I want to rise above governments, above family relations, above all of these things, and go into a holy place where I can open myself to the clouds and understand life as it should be. That's what Buddha gave his whole experience to do, to try to understand the cause of suffering, to rise above birth, old age, sickness, and death. Those were the four poisons. And as he walked down streets where he lived in India, and he looked at these people, he said, My God, what is this? They didn't say My God 'cause he wouldn't even believe. He said, What is wise? Why? Why? Why is this happening? Why do people get sick? Why do little babies

why are little babies born hideous, Singh? Why do old people lay in the gutter? Why do all of these things happen - it has to be an answer, and he found the answer, and he said that the answer is desire, and it lies within each one of us. And what we do is we infect other people. The most horrible thing you can do 99% of the times is pray. Prayer is a wicked thing. Why? Because you're always trying to get something for yourself at somebody else's expense. Oh God, you know, give me the job. You're not saying give me the job, you're saying don't give him the job. I mean, after all, I need something to do. My wife's got a good job, and I need something to do. And so, what do you do? You come into the church. There's another guy who's competing for you, with you for that job. See, his wife is dying, he's got six kids, they don't know where their next loaf of bread is gonna come from. So, what do you do? You come into the

church you come to the pastor. You say, I need this job, and I'd like to put this up in prayer. Everybody stands up. All we're claiming this job for Joe, for Joe. Let Joe have this job, God. Alleluia, hallelujah. In Jesus' name, we are claiming this job. All you're saying is, Don't give it to the guy who needs it. Give it to our boy. That's evil. That's evil. That is evil. All you have to say is, Give me this day our daily bread. In other words, Give me wisdom. Give me understanding. So once you start praying and you start asking for stuff, you're not saying, Okay, you know, here we are. There's a hurricane coming towards us. God turned. I saw Pat Robertson do it on television. 'Oh Lord, this hurricane is coming towards Virginia Beach, but we are claiming in the name of Jesus that it will change. Lord, hallelujah.' And they all stood up. Hallelujah, praise Jesus and His heavenly name. This hurricane will change.

it did. It veered off and smashed into somebody else and wiped them out. And he, hallelujah, we glorify God. Our tower is standing T. Our television. What did he do? If that's the case, you're not praying that the hurricane doesn't hurt anybody. You just wanted to miss you. Guess that's going back to what Buddha said about the three poisons being greed, anger, and stupidity. Exactly. Greed, anger, and stupidity. And so, what do we then have to do? We have to say, let us be a part of life. Let us be a part of what is good. Let us be a part in a oneness with all things and just allow spirit to lift itself as a dove from each of us and fly where it will and pray and bring down light and love on all and open ourselves without throwing open ourselves without word and enter within but not claiming things for ourselves that nine times hey you can't pray. You can't pray to win the war. You can't say, Oh God, bring our boys home safely because what you're saying

is God. Don't bring their boys home safely. Make sure that the mother doesn't see her son again. Make sure that the blue child doesn't see their father again. But bring ours home safely because the only way in a war you can do that is by killing the others. Yes, ma'am. What about in my case then? Is it wrong for me to pray to God to heal me? Oh, give me out. Give us our day, our daily bread. Absolutely not. That's fine. Or is there another way that it should be done? I would. I don't think that there's any way that's wrong. There is no other way that it should be done for a personal healing. Words are wonderful because words are speaking to where God is. Where is God? God is in here. And when you're speaking to God, you're actually speaking to the consciousness within you, which starts the healing process flowing. I am saying these things. They don't exist anymore. I am saying the body completely cured, completely healed, completely free. And you're speaking to

that which is within you that to make the healing process happen. That's nothing you can also take no. So there's a, you know, there's many ways. There's nothing that you can do wrong as far as praying for a healing. I think what we're getting into is if you took a situation where maybe there was a doctor who may say, let's say it was an emergency type of thing and you don't know really what's going on. If the doctor might have to call and say, well, I can't get over to your house because I've got to go see somebody else. And we try to intervene to get the doctor to see us and let that wretch die because I gotta get him over here. It's a question of most of our prayer. It's centered around getting jobs, getting money, getting things from the outside. Yeah, but when you motivate and you manifest healing from within yourself, that is the, that's really the essence of what prayer is. Okay, so don't misunderstand that what I'm talking

about prayer. I'm talking about asking for things that basically will come to you at somebody else's expense. Yes, about what you're talking about a moment ago, about greed, anger, and stupidity. They can all be rolled into one. Actually, stupidity is the inability to learn or to be enlightened. It's an inability, ignorant. And the other hand is you can be enlightened, something where you can learn something. But greed and anger is something as selfishness, and so is ignorance. It's something somebody doesn't want to see. Just like you talked about many religions, they want to remain in ignorance. They don't want to be enlightened. So to me, that is all rolled into one, is selfishness of Chu. Okay, all right, very good. So that's basically that. I think what we basically have to learn is to just bring ourselves to a point of purging away all the desires to have from the outside. I think what Becky was saying is indeed all prayer that manifests. Tina, let me give you an example how Jr. doing not doing.

too good today, okay, but anyhow. Kathy's cat has a heart condition, and we went, and we prayed, we laid hands, we're praying for the cat to get better, praying for the cat to be workers, you know, you just automatically do these things, whether it be for life of any kind, you pray for it to be well, but not, we didn't pray for at the expense of somebody else, you know, and basically this is what I'm saying, it's so much where I see so much prayer, I don't know how many times I've stood in church and I said, you know, raise your $10 bill and raise it up and claim that God's gonna give you 10%. Well, where is that going to come from, you know, it's basically to turn ourselves away from wanting to take and instead allowing ourselves to be, but indeed, by all means, allow healing prayers to flow, not only for yourself but for others, and that's good. Who does that? Buddha was a most magnificent personality, and as you can

see by just what you saw today. As soon as he spoke, he opened up from people a desire to understand, learn more, to be touched by what are you saying, what do you mean, how could this be. And then when you look in your Bible and you see yes indeed the Bible supports what this man said. So it's a beautiful voice to listen to. You'll never hear a word of violence, you'll never hear a word of fear, you'll never hear about devils or hells, you'll only hear that there is within you the possibilities to overcome everything that comes against you. It's basically what David was talking about this morning. Say well you know yeah we see that in the Bible okay that's fine but also understand that that's exactly what this man Buddha taught. Within you is the capacity to overcome whatever it is that comes against you. Thank you very much for [Music].

123C Buddha What About You By Bill Donahue

Dhamma Nikethanaya Buddhist Academy

The Teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha and Their Alignment with the Bible

Shakyamuni Buddha challenged the traditional belief that life begins at conception, asserting that the soul has always existed.

The Bible supports this notion, with passages indicating a person's identity and personality exist before birth.

Buddha's teachings emphasize the eternal nature of life, suggesting that individual personalities have always been unique and will continue to exist beyond physical death.

The Concept of Reincarnation and Spiritual Connection

Krishna is said to have appeared in four different colors, symbolizing the same eternal essence.

The idea of a deep, unchanging personality is emphasized, suggesting that we carry our core self through different lifetimes.

The speaker shares personal experiences of past life connections and the importance of forgiveness, highlighting the belief that we are all interconnected and reincarnated together.

Buddha teaches that while our physical appearance and personality change due to life circumstances, there is an unchanging center within us that remains the same.

This true self is not affected by external factors or labels, and it persists through different lifetimes.

Karma plays a role in our experiences, often placing us in situations that challenge our beliefs and teach us to grow and learn.

Life is a continuous process of learning and experiencing through multiple lifetimes, with karma acting as a teacher.

Each lifetime brings different roles and experiences, allowing individuals to grow and understand their past.

The concept of past life regression is real, as subconscious memories carry over from one lifetime to the next, shaping a person's identity and experiences.

Life before and after birth is often a mystery, much like an actor's death in a play.

The idea is that when one role ends, the individual returns to a state of rest before taking on a new role in life.

This cycle of rebirth allows individuals to learn from their past experiences and gradually work their way up to greater achievements.

The Cycle of Life and the Law of Cause and Effect

Life is an endless series of roles, with the opportunity to learn, succeed, or fail.

Both Jesus and Buddha emphasize the importance of being born again, highlighting the continuous nature of life and its lessons.

The law of cause and effect plays a crucial role, with our current circumstances being the result of past actions, and the effects potentially carrying over to future generations.

The speaker expresses frustration with the mind's conflicting thoughts and the challenges of life.

They reflect on Buddha's teachings about the cause of suffering and the desire within each person.

The speaker critiques the nature of prayer, arguing that it often seeks personal gain at the expense of others, and emphasizes the importance of collective well-being and understanding.

Prayer for personal healing is not wrong and can be a powerful way to connect with one's inner consciousness.

The essence of prayer lies in manifesting healing from within, rather than seeking external solutions at others' expense.

Greed, anger, and ignorance are interconnected, and true enlightenment comes from letting go of selfish desires and allowing healing to flow for oneself and others.