Pastlife Regression as a method?

[Q]

We all know pastlife regression have been rather popular lately. If fact, it is so interesting of a topic that even I got a hold of a book on pastlife regression. The book I read titled "Many lives, many masters" by Dr Brian Weiss is such an excellent book, that even I as a Buddhist... a believer of reincarnations, found it most interesting.

Many parts of the book explained about the pastlives of a lady when she was under the therapy, and every life ends, she would have a black out time frame which is very similar to the Bardo. In fact, as I read the book, it felt like I'm reading a Dharma book... reincarnation, bardo, imprints... if I wasn't Buddhist already, I'd start questioning myself "Is there more than this (our current situation) in life?"

So the question comes... In today's age, talking about the Dharma with others is really difficult... many times people just turn a deaf ear even if it's something that will help improve their lives tremendously. If we use this examples from pastlife regressions to show them that future lives do exists, how imprints will affect us... do you think it can be used as a method of teaching the Dharma in a very subtle way? What do you think?

[sonamdhargey]

Interesting topic. Maybe in a way, past life regression may interest people out of curiosity, but in some cases people need more than just knowing who they were in the past to actually embark in a spiritual journey to improve their lives as people wants intant results, instants gratification. However i think it is a good idea which can be related back to imprints, reincarnations and future life. I'm not sure if it's a good practice, but in this degenerate era, maybe this can help.

[Poonlarp]

Interesting topic. Maybe in a way, past life regression may interest people out of curiosity, but in some cases people need more than just knowing who they were in the past to actually embark in a spiritual journey to improve their lives as people wants intant results, instants gratification. However i think it is a good idea which can be related back to imprints, reincarnations and future life. I'm not sure if it's a good practice, but in this degenerate era, maybe this can help.

Agree with sonamdhargey. Compare between past life regression and Buddhism, most people will go for past life regression, as personal experience can relate to them more than knowledge.

I think it depends on the "healer" who does the past life regression, if his/her intention is to reveal past life to people with the intention of making them a better person, the session will make the person realize more about reincarnation. If the "healer" just want to make money and want to make the "customer" keep coming, then the "healer" just review their past life and that's it, no education element, and these will no be a good idea as people will get addicted of doing this again and again, for the sake of curiosity. 

The past life regression should always remind people that, yes this was you, and what have happened to you, and then you have your future life too, what will happen to your future life is what you are doing now.

[shugdentruth]

Very interesting topic. But please elaborate on how knowing your past life can help a person be better. I do not understand how by knowing your past life, you could be better? Does it mean that having a good past life would mean you have the potential to be good in the present life?

[hope rainbow]

Very interesting topic. But please elaborate on how knowing your past life can help a person be better. I do not understand how by knowing your past life, you could be better? Does it mean that having a good past life would mean you have the potential to be good in the present life?

I think it can help for the same reason that believeing in guardian angels, spirits or ghosts can help.
All of these means that there are other forms of existence than this body I have now.

If someone can become a ghost, then I can become a ghost.
If I can become a ghost, what causes are there for me to become a ghost.
If I don't become a ghost, then what else do I become?
Dharma has ALL the answers to that.

If I do a past life regression, then it must be that past lives are possible.
If they are possible, then future lives are possible.
If future lives are possible, then  what dictates how my future life will be?
Dharma has ALL the answers to that.

So, I don't think that past lives regression is interesting in itself, but the logical consequences it may have on how we see existence and furthermore engage our minds in thinking about karma and rebirth can PROPEL us on the spiritual path.

[kris]

It seems like science is proving more and more beliefs of Buddhism

I totally agree with what Q said. In this age, many people do not like to be labeled as a religious people. For whatever reason, they think that it is much more cool without a religion.

Given this scenario, if we can teach people about imprints, thoughts, mind stream, karma without associating to religion, I felt it can benefit even more people.

Imagine we can teach people about treating others well because there are many lives, that if we did bad things and the bad things didn't come back to us in this live time, it can come back in future lives...

[hope rainbow]

It seems like science is proving more and more beliefs of Buddhism

I totally agree with what Q said. In this age, many people do not like to be labeled as a religious people. For whatever reason, they think that it is much more cool without a religion.

Given this scenario, if we can teach people about imprints, thoughts, mind stream, karma without associating to religion, I felt it can benefit even more people.

Imagine we can teach people about treating others well because there are many lives, that if we did bad things and the bad things didn't come back to us in this live time, it can come back in future lives...

I know....
Isn't it weird really that, in this modern society, the same people who believe in ghosts, who have seen ghosts and have no doubt upon them do not think further???
Weird and actually scary that they do not (yet) think further and apply that observation to themselves.

I have met people who do believe in dead people turning into ghosts, who believe in little spirits "stealing" things, and yet prefer to tink that all religions just got it wrong and prefer to "figure things out" by themselves, watching some NEW AGE program on the TV or reading amateurish books on the subject.

What are the chances for a new-age self-educated ghost specialist to be more acccurate and experienced than 2500 years of steady, consistant, proven teachings? proven by logic, proven by experience for hundreds of thousands of practitionners have achieved results following the teachings...

But no, so many of us, prefer to stay away from teachings that would engage them into changing something in their "lifestyles", they keep a distance, THEY DON'T WANT TO CHANGE. Guess what, change is inevitable, so it is a choice between having some kind of control over it or hiding in a comfortable place and awaiting the inevitable with a mind of oblivion about it.

How many times have I had this conversation:
Me- so you have seen ghosts?
X- yes, real sights you know...
Me- So, you mean they were dead people turned into ghosts?
X- yes, they were, I saw, I heard, I felt, it was real.
Me- So you believe in rebirth then?
X- I don't know about that.
Me- But to recognize that someone can become a ghost is believing in rebirth, isn't it?
X- Maybe it is just some energy remaining you know, not real..
Me- But you felt it real?
X- yes that's true...
Me- So you recognize the possibility for a "rebirth" as a ghost?
X- yes i guess, though these people died in very particular ways or they were very unhappy I think.
Me- So you imply this won't happen to you... Is it?
X- Yeah, I hope this won't happen to me.
Me- But it could, right?
X- I think it is very rare, you know, I probably won't have to experience that, I am a good person generally and have no such dramatic problems...
Me- But then, if there is a kind of consciousness that can continue to live with a "ghost body", then there must be such "kind of consciousness", right?
X- I don't know... maybe there isn't.
Me- But if there isn't, then there cannot be ghosts, right?
X- I don't know, maybe they are not real in the sense we think you know.
etc...

We live in a society where educated people have learned to come up with their own conclusions, make their minds up! And that's great, because that is actually what the Buddha thought.
The difference is here: one must make his mind up relying on valid teachings and contemplating over them, not simply thinking things up without proper foundations and within one's mind with mitigated, mixed-up incomplete informations and WITHOUT a proper logical thinking FREE OF -CLOSEDMINDEDNESS -FORGETFULLNESS and -PRE-SELF-CONCEIVED-CONCEPTS.
This can turn people clinically insane actually like a broken record kind of thing.

I have also heard this:
Me- so you believe there could be rebirth and even such states of existence as a state of TOTAL sufering of pain like hell?
X- yes, I recognize that possibility
Me- How does that afffect your life then?
X- It does not afffect it at all, I don't care, I might as well burn in hell for eternity it won't stop me from enjoying my life.
Me- But then if you don't care for yourself, what about your loved ones? Are you not worried about them?
X- I take good care of my family, I provide for them and all, the rest is beyond my control...
Me- What if there is a way to assist them further than this life?
X- Yeah... But I don not believe in organized religions, all they want is money and power. I don't trust organized religion.
Me- Then what do you trust?
X- Me.
etc...

What kind of logic is in place in such a person's mind?
If anything, it is not logic, that's all I know.
It is full of bias thinking. Full.

So indeed, I think past lives regression is good.
logical thinking about ghosts is good.
About rebirth is goood.
About karma is good.
With the proper company and circumstances it will eventually open one up to the reality of KARMA and REBIRTH, and the only consequence of that is to propel one to practice spirituality, be it Buddhisme, or Christianity, or any other established spiritual practice.

This won't always work immediately, but it is already one wrong view less to believe in past lives than to not, I say.
And for western societies that I have lost the recognition of rebirth it would help future generation to keep an open mind on that subject. That open mind can be nurtured into karma, etc...

However, past life regression just in itself leads nowhere...

[brian]

We all know pastlife regression have been rather popular lately. If fact, it is so interesting of a topic that even I got a hold of a book on pastlife regression. The book I read titled "Many lives, many masters" by Dr Brian Weiss is such an excellent book, that even I as a Buddhist... a believer of reincarnations, found it most interesting.

Many parts of the book explained about the pastlives of a lady when she was under the therapy, and every life ends, she would have a black out time frame which is very similar to the Bardo. In fact, as I read the book, it felt like I'm reading a Dharma book... reincarnation, bardo, imprints... if I wasn't Buddhist already, I'd start questioning myself "Is there more than this (our current situation) in life?"

So the question comes... In today's age, talking about the Dharma with others is really difficult... many times people just turn a deaf ear even if it's something that will help improve their lives tremendously. If we use this examples from pastlife regressions to show them that future lives do exists, how imprints will affect us... do you think it can be used as a method of teaching the Dharma in a very subtle way? What do you think?

Thanks mate for introducing us this interesting book. If we are Buddhist, we would definitely believe in past and future lives. There are just too much evidence to show me that there are indeed the existence of future lives and past lives let alone other sentient beings, both form and formless and other realms or other space.

Let's just put it this way, if we have yesterday, definitely we have today and tomorrow. We live what we are and we will be what we are doing now or future. My view on this is definitely firm. We are in control of what we will be in future. Its just like sailing in the sea, or driving a car. Our destination is where we are going. I am not saying we have the power to control our rebirth, without appropriate practice we definitely don't have the power to control rebirth. What I am trying to say is we determine what we will be in our future lives.

And this is best used for Dharma practitioners to reflect on what we aspire to be. If we are aspired to be liberated from samsara, then we have to do what can lead us through the goal of being liberated daily, which is to practice bodhichitta helping others and never harm others. Hopefully from here we collect the huge amount of merits we need to get out of samsara and become liberated such as Dorje Shugden.

[Positive Change]

I have not come face to face with a direct account of past life regression from any of my friends of peers. However I have come across a multitude of such sharings on youtube. Some believable, some not quite so and some downright ridiculous.

It is all true? Well the very foundation of our Buddhist philosophy is based on karma and reincarnation. If there is no reincarnation how can there be karma. Karma exist whether we believe it or not hence on that very same token. reincarnation does exist and we certainly do have past lives.

The one God theory does not hold much water for me (I mean no disrespect and am purely voicing my own opinion on this and not putting anyone down) as if God created us all equal and in his image, why is there so much disparity in the world? Why create being that would fail or set them up to fail? Why create something bad and claim everything bad will go to hell or be banished. Does not make sense! Even if it does, how does God choose who to make good and who to make bad?

Anywya, I feel having past life regression could be a method for a non-believer to come to terms with the existence of karma and hence a previous life/lives which explains why we are all different and on different paths. Perhaps I am biased but when faced with doubt I always tell myself, what if I am wrong and there are repercussions to my actions which in turns propels me into another existence (favourable or non favourable depending on my actions now and before), I would get out of that tailspin real quick because there is nothing to lose in that realisation of a continual existence!

[kurava]

I think the point here is what ever experiences we have, be it past life regression or even meeting a ghost face to face - what does it mean to us , how will it affect us? Will the experience move us to change, transform , seek something higher or be a less selfish person ?

If the experience does not produce any positive change in us then it will just be like having watched a scary movie. As soon as the lights turn on at the end of the movie, we are back to our old self and it never occur to us that in our immediate next life we WILL  be a ghost if we continue living the remaining of our life  the way we do !

[jeremyg]

It is the sad nature of our time now. People only believe something that they think is cool, or will help them directly. So yes, what if we have to package dharma teachings in a samsaric nature to help more? We should surely do it. If using more subtle avenues to spread dharma will bring the most benefit people, then there is not argument against it. Slowly we will change their minds, then we can use more serious dharma teachings. Many masters, and teachers use these methods. It's quite simply changing the topic to suit the listener so that they listen. So many teachers of all kinds do it.

[triesa]

I think using pastlife regression as a method to introduce Buddhism is a very good idea and method.

For once, I was also very interested in reincarnation and stuff relating to the topic, and that was before I became a buddhist. People always like mystical accounts.

I have read the book, many lives, many masters....it is a true account of a psycologist< Dr Brian Weisse,  who is not a buddhist and who based everything on scientific prrofs, changed his own perspective on the possibility of past and future lives.

He actually felt the need to publish his accounts with his lady patient to the world, I guess he is convinced with reincarnatons.

Buddhism is based on karma and reincarnation......so a book lon past life regression would easily kick off the next topic to be discussed..........karma!

[hope rainbow]

Buddhism is based on karma and reincarnation......so a book lon past life regression would easily kick off the next topic to be discussed..........karma!

The recognition of karma is excellent indeed, but it is not enough.

The recognition of rebirth is excellent indeed, but it is not enough.

If we remain at that level, we remain within teachings limited to the 1st and 2nd Noble Truths, we won't get much into the teachings of the 3rd and 4th Noble Truths.

We also will remain within the beginner's scope of the lamrim.

So it is good, but it is not enough eventually.

The next level is the 3rd Noble Truth without which we will NEVER engage into the 4th Noble Truth.
And what is the 3rd noble Truth: simple, we recognize the reality of Buddhahood, or "Arhat-hood" and we recognize the possibility for our self to achieve it, we face our POTENTIAL.

Without at least an intellectual or emotional recognition of the reality of the 3rd Noble Truth, we won't develop enough respect, not to mention devotion, for the Buddha, for the Buddhas, and for... our Guru.
We are at risk.

In fact, we are all a bit at that level, most of us, for if we would be truly recognizing the 3rd Noble Truth we would be acting differently, we would really be putting priority to our spiritual life, priority to others, we would be 200% into our spiritual journey.... Who is 200% there?

Until we get there, let's do past life regression, hopefully it participates to creating conditions to get closer to the 3rd Noble truth a little 1% at the time...

[Tammy]

Q,

You got me interested in reading the book, perhaps my next google search would be to Amazon.com LOL!!

On a more serious note, the stories above past lives regressions, near-death experience, astro travel, out of body experience, etc... re all the SAME. There solid proof of REINCARNaTION, the existence of 'soul' or mindstreams which leaves the body at death and enters another new physical live.

It is based on this believe that the 'theory' of reincarnation is formed and proven time and again. If we do not have a soul/mindstream which is separate from our physical body, how else can these people (most are non Buddhists) report and relate their experience of traveling out of their own body?

I like this type of stories as they affirm my faith in reincarnation, hence karma..

[Q]

Hey all,

Thank you for replying in the tread. I really enjoy reading the diversity of opinions regarding this topic. It allowed me to view it in a wider perspective, which I couldn't achieve on my own.

When Hope Rainbow mentioned that pastlife regression on it's own is not enough, I had to nod in agreement. If even the Dharma can be learned solely scholasticly, what good will mere pastlife regression events and life stories do for us? Without any Dharmic elements to connect the dots in order to lead these people to spirituality, reading about postlife regression events or even experiencing one... would be just pure knowledge for the individual, nothing more.

At the same time, in the back of my mind, I can't help thinking that perhaps the knowledge on pastlife regression can lead some people into learning the Dharma. Be it a person new to Buddhism, or even long time Buddhist practitioners. If through reading about past life regression, a person gets interested in reincarnation, the first thing that appears when the word 'reincarnation' is googled relates to Buddhism.