Hinayana - Mahayana poem

If one by one, the thoughts it my head,
would slowly repeat, what they'd just said.
Allow me some time, to see what's real,
perhaps then yes, I'd know what I feel,
and simply be, content with me

And when you're in pain, or shed a tear,
I'll promise myself, to have no fear,
and always do, my best for you,
so that everyone, may realise,
we're already here, in paradise

Raising Bodhichitta,
All Yours, Jerry

How to reincarnate?

Last months I've been reading quite a lot of basic (hinayana) Buddhism as a preparation for attending Shambhala's sutrayana seminary coming Autumn in Dechen Chöling, our retreat centre in France. Of course the teachings on the five skandha's were discussed as well, explaining how we humans create a sense of "self" out of the following five components:

1. Form: (tangible) objects such as our World, food, home, work and our bodies;
2. Feeling: very fundamentally: we like something, dislike it or don't really care;
3. Discrimination: our ability to tell the difference between objects (and times);
4. Formation: continuous mental conceptualisation, comments, judgements etc.;
5. Consciousness: 5 sense perceptions, mind, ego and "the Eighth consciousness".

The Eighth consciousness is taught to possess the qualities of omniscience and luminosity. It is also referred to as 'the warehouse' where our karmic seeds are stored for future phenomena to become. I've heard about this earlier, and that time connected it with the idea of reincarnation: the Eight consciousness is where I store the results of my actions: if I'm a good practitioner, I'll have a fortunate reincarnation; if I misbehave, I'll be born a monkey, a donkey or even worse ;)

While reading the dharma, I have put more emphasis on the bottom line of Buddha's teachings: emptiness. The five skandha's themselves are to be seen as empty, and therefore there is no "me" that can be reincarnated in the first place. Not realising that is the root of samsara, and perpetuates the extremely convincing experience of being a "real person". This is by the way the sole "purpose" and result of the Seventh consciousness, the ego, which incessantly puts "me" and "I" labels on everything we come across in our experience. Although this believe in "me" may be a misunderstanding, we cannot simply ignore it. Rather, I believe it is wise to explore our experience very closely...

Doing so, this is how I see it now: the Eighth consciousness is not an individual thing; there is no such thing as "my" Eighth consciousness as opposed to "yours". It is rather a 'warehouse' of all karmic seeds in the universe together; or in other words: it is simply the truth: phenomena as they are. With our actions we are painting a picture for the future. If we paint compassion and wisdom, we establish the outlines for next generations having better opportunities to hear the dharma and attain buddhahood. If we blot confusion and neurosis, the canvas becomes blurred and tomorrows people might not believe the possibility of clairvoyance or enlightenment at all any more. This is how I believe that "reincarnation" and the Eighth consciousness make sense: on a hinayana level, we first learn to make our lives spotless and renounce from creating more suffering in the World. Then on a mahayana level, we pick up the brushes and start to paint in beautiful colours many inspirations and aspirations of building an enlightened society. This has been done in the past by people just like us; perhaps it WAS us; and it might still be done in the future by people who could be our "reincarnations"; but only if we are fearless warriors today!

Ki ki so so!