I have a somewhat related question. It seems that in the western esoteric traditions, the view is that once you reach the human level, you pretty much stay there and don't regress. Buddhism takes a different view, as shown by the famous picture of the wheel held in the demon's teeth, saying that beings have been wandering in samsara since beginningless time. As this website explains, a person who reaches human level might stay there for ten or even a hundred lifetimes, but if they don't aspire towards liberation, eventually their karma is going to catch up and they'll take rebirth in one of the other six realms, possibly animal or otherwise. What's your view on this and why the discrepancy?
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branchandroot
Wheel of Rebirth
Date: 2023-02-13 09:34 pm (UTC)I have a somewhat related question. It seems that in the western esoteric traditions, the view is that once you reach the human level, you pretty much stay there and don't regress. Buddhism takes a different view, as shown by the famous picture of the wheel held in the demon's teeth, saying that beings have been wandering in samsara since beginningless time. As this website explains, a person who reaches human level might stay there for ten or even a hundred lifetimes, but if they don't aspire towards liberation, eventually their karma is going to catch up and they'll take rebirth in one of the other six realms, possibly animal or otherwise. What's your view on this and why the discrepancy?
https://puredhamma.net/working-towards-good-rebirths/how-buddha-described-chance-of-human-rebirth-in-suttas/?highlight=rebirth