I thought some of you might be interested in this.

 

When the Siddartha Gotama became the Buddha he realised by direct knowledge that (1) That was not his first life...he had been born and had died countless times before. (2) There are many other realms of existence (besides humans and animals) where beings are born according to their karma.

 

Now its true that these days many people tend to be skeptical about such things. Thats rather unfortunate since there are many important benefits to be gained from believing in (and better...actually directly realising) rebirth and kamma. It gives us a long term and broader perspective on life and highlights the importance of all our intentional actions of body, speech and mind. "What we do...replicates" is a nice succinct description of the boomerang effects of karma.

 

Anyway...I wanted to share with you the attached photo of a group of US navy personnel holding a 'naga' or dragon. Its not a digitally produced photo as its been around for many decades now, displayed on the walls of many Temples in Thailand. The story I have heard about this photo is that during the Vietnam war a US naval vessel was patrolling the Mekong river which borders Laos and Thailand. They detected a long object on their sonar which was approaching their vessel very fast. They feared it may be an enemy submarine and so detonated depth charges below the water. Soon they were were surprised to find a huge snake-like fish floating dead near their ship. They hauled it on board and later took this photo. Some may believe that this is just some kind of eel, but the story doesn't end here. Soon after this photo was taken, each of the men in the photo died. Not one survived. Did the other dragons take revenge? I know that to surmise that this is a dragon is rather hypothetical...still, thought I may interest some of you...

 

According to Buddhism, Nagas are supernatural beings who are half animal and half 'deva' or divine beings. This is because of their karma which includes doing many acts of goodness but with a strong sense of arrogance and pride. So they are born in this peculiar state. They are nevertheless powerful beings and are known to have a temper. This may explain that dragons are shown as bellowing fire in many different cultures across the world!

 

So, now do you believe in nagas? And in hell realms, ghosts, devas, brahmas... ? Where do you want to be born next time? It all depends on your karma you know! So lets start by recalling the three essential duties for being human: (1) be kind (2) be kind and (3) be kind!

No wonder our realm is called 'mankind'!

 

May you all be happy...may you all be free from suffering.

 

Nyanasanti

 

The source of the naga picture is from the website:   http://members.tripod.com/arahan/index.html