Heaven, Hell and Karma -- Part 2

Notion of Rebirth Spanning Multiple Life Times

Another important aspect of the cosmological notion of karma and rebirth is the idea that our current life is simply the culmination of a long succession of past lives, and we (unless we reach enlightenment) will continue to go through a series of future lives.

This central idea has the effect of expanding an individual’s notion of personal time beyond their current life to potentially an infinite number of future lives. If such a tenet is believed, it can be inferred that the psychological effect on a person will be a general lack of alacrity and a greater inclination to be more accepting of one’s current circumstances and do little to change it.

This is because people who find themselves in impoverished social, economic or spiritual circumstances are more likely to accept their common lot and put their spiritual concerns aside in the hope that a future life will provide them with a better situation more conducive for liberating pursuits. Any spiritual actions they do perform will be more likely geared towards gaining a favorable rebirth into a rich or powerful family where only then may a spiritual quest be more realistic.

Even if a poor individual does get reborn into more favorable circumstances, what is that individual’s motivation to seek enlightenment in this current life? If the cosmological perspective is taken seriously, and they realize that enlightenment is difficult to achieve, why would a person not take an easier path towards an even more favorable rebirth instead, in a deva world, for example, rather than pursue the rather esoteric goal of nirvana?

What more, the notion of multiple successions of lives results in the devaluation or immediate importance of one’s current life. When one sees one life in relation to a whole series of future lives, the single current life that is directly being experienced now does not seem as important.

One possible outcome of this realization is that one is more inclined to place oneself in risky situations, engage in dangerous sexual behavior or other such life-threatening activities because if something goes wrong, the person will always have another life to recover from the mistake or try risking again.

And here we encounter the “do over” attitude; where no matter what one does in this life, they will always have a chance to repeat the situation again and hopefully this time around get it “right.” While such an attitude may be forgiving, it does not foster a concerned, careful, live-life-to-the-fullest approach which the Buddha advocated in many suttas.

For the Buddha, he emphasized that all that could become nuns and monks should strive diligently to achieve liberation now and not some future life.
The Buddha went so far in the Sabbasava Sutta as to suggest that even pondering such questions a future life, let alone desiring them, are hindrances on the path (translation by Bhikku Bodhi):

By attending to things unfit for attention and by not attending to things fit for attention, both unarisen taints arise in him [the meditator] and arisen taints increase.
This is how he attends unwisely: 'Was I in the past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future?

Conclusion

The Buddha was chiefly concerned with over-worldly concerns that led to liberation from the mundane world. He encouraged his disciples to strive diligently to find their salvation and not waste time to be free from suffering.

The belief in rebirth over multiple lives can encourage an attitude that is in direct contrast to what the Buddha emphasized. Instead of instilling a sense of immediacy for the supramudane, the belief in beings having multiple lives can promote worldly, selfish ends with no sense of emergency for the unborn.