We are all ordinary beings, after death we must be reborn, there is no way to avoid it, not even the Buddha can stop it. If the Buddha could stop it, then we wouldn’t be in the cycle of rebirth today, as the Buddha would have already liberated us all.
However, the reality is not like that. As ordinary beings, none of us can choose where we will be reborn – we must be humans, or gods, or other beings. Why must we be reborn repeatedly and involuntarily?
This is definitely not our original intention. If it were voluntary, then no sentient being would willingly be reborn as an animal, let alone in the realms of hungry ghosts or hell, yet countless sentient beings exist in these places.
Why is this so? Because we have greed for the cycle of rebirth, which is a simple truth. For those who do not understand the Dharma well, how to tread the path of liberation is a very complicated question.
Where is liberation? How do we tread the path of liberation? Any place on Earth can be located using a globe or a map, but the path of liberation seems to be very difficult to find.
However, relying on the teachings of the Buddha is not very difficult. It is like everyone on a street is moving forward, but one person suddenly turns back. On the path of the cycle of rebirth, all sentient beings are moving forward.
Where are we going by moving forward? We can go to places like hell, the realm of hungry ghosts, and other realms, but practitioners choose to go back and return to nature. Nowadays, many people talk about returning to nature, but what they mean by “nature” is not the true nature. To truly return to nature, one must follow the path of liberation and give up the desire for reincarnation.
What we need now is a sense of detachment. From now on, we should not regard money as the meaning of life, nor should we see traditional values such as having children and a happy family as the purpose of life.
For an ordinary person, the cycle of reincarnation is very painful, although some people may not admit it as they have not experienced too much suffering. They may think that their current temporary happiness is the highest level of happiness in the world, and they do not need the blissful realm or liberation. However, they are mistaken. Their current happiness is not eternal, and this is because they do not fully understand the cycle of reincarnation. I will not go into the specific reasons here, but in the rare opportunity of being born as a human and the unpredictability of death.
Especially in the teachings about the suffering of the cycle of reincarnation, it is very clear that if we continue to move forward in this way, the future is very frightening, so we must turn back!
~ Khenchen Tsultrim Lodro Luminous Wisdom : Khenchen Tsultrim Lodro Rinpoche