Karma and rebirth: a metaphor

[dyanaprajna2011]

Alot of people, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist, have a hard time understanding the Buddhist concepts of karma and rebirth, and how they apply to each other. So I came up with a metaphor to try to help explain them.

Let's say you have a hill. There's a stone rolling down the hill. It hits another stone; the first stone stops, and the second one begins to roll. The energy is transferred from the first stone to the second.

The stones represent a being, and the energy represents karma. When a being dies/the stone stops rolling, the energy/karma is transferred to the second being/stone.

Hopefully this will help people understand the Buddhist concepts of karma and rebirth.

 

[Jainarayan]

I can't frubal you again.

 

[DanielR]

Alot of people, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist, have a hard time understanding the Buddhist concepts of karma and rebirth, and how they apply to each other. So I came up with a metaphor to try to help explain them.

Let's say you have a hill. There's a stone rolling down the hill. It hits another stone; the first stone stops, and the second one begins to roll. The energy is transferred from the first stone to the second.

The stones represent a being, and the energy represents karma. When a being dies/the stone stops rolling, the energy/karma is transferred to the second being/stone.

Hopefully this will help people understand the Buddhist concepts of karma and rebirth.

thanks for that, but the beings are all different right?? sorry if the answer is obvious already

 

[Straw Dog]

Sweet metaphor!

Does Buddhism support hard determinism or is there a different way of approaching the law of causality?

 

[dyanaprajna2011]

thanks for that, but the beings are all different right?? sorry if the answer is obvious already

Right.

Does Buddhism support hard determinism or is there a different way of approaching the law of causality?

I would say it's almost related more to Hume's compatibilism.

 

[Ablaze]

Speaking of transfer of energy, similarly, according to the first law of thermodynamics (on the conservation of energy) energy can be neither created nor destroyed - only transformed.

 

[DreadFish]

Speaking of transfer of energy, similarly, according to the first law of thermodynamics (on the conservation of energy) energy can be neither created nor destroyed - only transformed.

Ooh, that is an interesting idea to apply to cause and effect processes... Neither created or destroyed.


The OP is also a good way of explaining rebirth.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Ooh, that is an interesting idea to apply to cause and effect processes... Neither created or destroyed.


The OP is also a good way of explaining rebirth.

True. Not to mention everything disappears in the Big pond.