If a mosquito landed on your arm.

Hanna Björk wrote: Of course. I do the same.

...and I'm sure the first person in North America to get infected with West Nile virus did this as well.

I would assist that particular soul to find re-birth in a more enlightened form.

Peter Rehse wrote: I would assist that particular soul to find re-birth in a more enlightened form.

This is something that has always stumped me about the theory of reincarnation:

How do animals get reborn in a "higher" form? They don't have free will, so they can't make a decision to do something "moral" or "good". Is it just luck?

This is a serious question. Can anybody with some knowledge of buddhism/hinduism explain this?

Well I figure mossie is rock bottom in the grand scheme of things so there is no way but up.

On the serious side it is a great question.

Oisin Bourke wrote: This is something that has always stumped me about the theory of reincarnation: How do animals get reborn in a "higher" form? They don't have free will, so they can't make a decision to do something "moral" or "good". Is it just luck? This is a serious question. Can anybody with some knowledge of buddhism/hinduism explain this?

This sounds like a "there are no bad dogs" argument ;-)

I don't get mad at mosquitos. They're just doing what they do.

I do, however, kill them whenever I can.

That doesn't make me bad for taking the lives of mosquitos.

The world is made up of predators, prey, and prey animals (us) defending ourselves from predators (mosquitos).

Deer (and other animals) try to run away from coyotes, humans (and other red-blooded species) try to kill mosquitos.

Neither succeed all the time, or coyotes (and other predators) and mosquitos would go extinct...

W

Oisin Bourke wrote: This is something that has always stumped me about the theory of reincarnation: How do animals get reborn in a "higher" form? They don't have free will, so they can't make a decision to do something "moral" or "good". Is it just luck? This is a serious question. Can anybody with some knowledge of buddhism/hinduism explain this?

They do have free will, just not much of it. A downward spiral of less and less free will. Strayed from the path.

Have you read Jonathon Livingstone Seagull? Or even The Reluctant Messiah?

Peace.G.

Graham Christian wrote: They do have free will, just not much of it. A downward spiral of less and less free will. Strayed from the path. Have you read Jonathon Livingstone Seagull? Or even The Reluctant Messiah? Peace.G.

Read Jonathan Livingstone Seagull a long, long time ago. Nice story. Sort of a mix between Plato's Allegory of the cave and the Buddhist idea of a Boddhisatva.

I would not be too sure about humans having a free will - humanity does not seem to act like it.

I would say animals have a free will or at least more so then we as humans tend to think so, but just as humans they are limited by their surroundings and circumstances.

Tom

Tom Verhoeven wrote: Read Jonathan Livingstone Seagull a long, long time ago. Nice story. Sort of a mix between Plato's Allegory of the cave and the Buddhist idea of a Boddhisatva. I would not be too sure about humans having a free will - humanity does not seem to act like it. I would say animals have a free will or at least more so then we as humans tend to think so, but just as humans they are limited by their surroundings and circumstances. Tom

Ha, ha. Humanity definitely does not act like it, true.

Too busy fighting the illusion.

Peace.G.

Tom Verhoeven wrote: I would not be too sure about humans having a free will - humanity does not seem to act like it. Tom

no free will. to setup a will takes money for lawyer and so on. no freebie.

Phi Truong wrote: no free will. to setup a will takes money for lawyer and so on. no freebie.

"Where there's a will, there's a relative."

Walter Martindale wrote: "Where there's a will, there's a relative."

Aha, nicely back to topic. Where there's a will there's bloodsuckers.

Oisin Bourke wrote: This is something that has always stumped me about the theory of reincarnation: How do animals get reborn in a "higher" form? They don't have free will, so they can't make a decision to do something "moral" or "good". Is it just luck? This is a serious question. Can anybody with some knowledge of buddhism/hinduism explain this?

No, it's not luck. Only sentient things have karma. The Buddhist would define animals as sentient though - just less intelligent than you.

Biiiiiiiig Irimi Tenkan and a direct shomen uchi from behind.

What is the sound of one hand smacking?

I blow him off once or twice with a warning intention then I smoosh him...

E

Mary Malmros wrote: ...and I'm sure the first person in North America to get infected with West Nile virus did this as well.

Certainly. That doesn't mean you, and others who insist on talking deadly viruses when I tell you I don't have to fear them because they don't yet exist where I live, have a point.

It's not like I know what's gonna be the next deadly stuff here. If it's the mosquitos I should avoid, or perhaps the neighbour's cat that probably carry zillions of bugs. Unprotected sex didn't use to be deadly. Now it can be, so what's next... kissing? God knows.

The place where I have to cross the road to get to the grocery store is much more likely to get me killed than any possibility of catching viruses that, as of today, is unheard of within thousands of kilometers.

In a country that have plenty of mosquitos (you can google "Herräng dance camp" and mosquitos) but they don't carry any nasty stuff, being afraid of mosquito bites "in case you might catch something" is illogical reasoning. Unless, of course, you spend all your energi avoiding things that might eventually get dangerous. In which case this illogical fear in itself is going to ruin your life.

Hanna Björk wrote: The place where I have to cross the road to get to the grocery store is much more likely to get me killed than any possibility of catching viruses that, as of today, is unheard of within thousands of kilometers.

You could always start killing motorists .

Benjamin Green wrote: No, it's not luck. Only sentient things have karma. The Buddhist would define animals as sentient though - just less intelligent than you.

I'm not really au fait with buddhist terminology, but what is classed as karmic behaviour for a mosquito?

Robotic.

Oisin Bourke wrote: I'm not really au fait with buddhist terminology, but what is classed as karmic behaviour for a mosquito?

This is sort of like asking whether the Bible supports the priesthood of all believers. Religions, especially older religions, aren't structural philosophy – they're not held to the same sort of standards. So you can't point at them and just go 'And the answer is....'

Having hedged my answer sufficiently then:

Generally speaking:

All behaviour is karmic behaviour. Karma is a reflection of your inner life, not of your outward actions.

Karma means something like... 'actions that come from your intentions.' In Buddhism (in general) the nature of an act is determined by the nature of the intent driving that action. When someone says 'good' karma they may as well be saying 'good' action.

There are a lot of teachings around how good and bad karma are believed to affect people, but it's not clear that it's necessarily any more mystical than saying that one misstep leads to another, or that what goes around comes around. Early forms of Buddhism didn't even seem to believe that your karma affected your cycle of rebirth. Arguably, if you believe that what affects your cycle of rebirth is how enlightened you are, karma's effect on it is more a transitive than a direct relationship anyway.

One interpretation would be: It just so happens that doing things with ill intent tends to lead you to bearing more ill intent, and that tends to lead you away from enlightenment, which tends to affect how you'll be reborn....

But the pattern isn't taken to be perfectly deterministic. You can go up or you can go down.

The point of Buddhism isn't to follow a set of rules. It's to attain enlightenment - or at least to become more enlightened. In Buddhism you should do things because you've experienced them to be true, not because someone's told you to do them. If I just do something because some monk told me that I'd be rewarded at the end, I'm not likely to attain much enlightenment. I'd just be copying the outward behaviours, the superficial trappings of enlightenment.

As for how a mosquito becomes more enlightened, I honestly couldn't even venture a reasonable guess. With karma so bound up in how a creature thinks, and how a creature thinks being so bound up in how it perceives the world - I think that sort of question's getting way out into, 'How do bats see?' sort of territory .

Classic samurai story ... really, really condensed.

Committed to avenge the death of his master, the samurai finally meets up with the man he has sworn to kill. As he is about to make the killing strike, SPLAT, spit in the face. The samurai sheathes his sword and walks away. (The samurai would not kill in anger).

So, if a mosquito lands on your arm ...

Jim Redel wrote: Classic samurai story ... really, really condensed. Committed to avenge the death of his master, the samurai finally meets up with the man he has sworn to kill. As he is about to make the killing strike, SPLAT, spit in the face. The samurai sheathes his sword and walks away. (The samurai would not kill in anger). So, if a mosquito lands on your arm ...

FWIW ... any time you hear a zen koan or Buddhist saying, it's a safe bet it eventually points back to understanding the workings of the mind. When you hear a bird chirp ... where are you?

David Skaggs wrote: If a mosquito landed on your arm would you; A. Harmonize with it, allowing it to bite your arm and withdraw blood for substenance? B. "Do no harm" and compassionately remove and release it. C. Smack the disease ridden blood sucker dead. D. I don't do Aikido. dps

E. Thankfully, I do do Aikido (dew?). Therefore, just as it bites, I harmonize with it and compassionately, but convincingly perform the rarely seen "Mosquito Nage" technique, thereby bringing the encounter to a mutually amenable conclusion while also driving home the point to said offender that I'll not be his, or any other blood suckers human smorgasbord.

Jim Redel wrote: So, if a mosquito lands on your arm ...

spit on your arm? isn't that kinda unsanitary, sort of gross? what if you are chewing tobaco, that would have stained your arm and kinda messy too.