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I feel pulled to the belief i was a monk before. My first life. And other things are happening to me. Is there anyone who will listen rather than attack? Try to understand rather than condemn?


In other words, could such view make sense (or be accepted) in the Buddhist context?

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  • Is it your belief that you were a monk, or your knowledge? Do you have verifiable data? Like remembering some event and a year, which after looking it up in the history books seems to have happened, but you didn't knew this from any other source than your self. How do you know it was your first life? You don't know what you don't know. Maybe there was a life before. There probably is someone who will listen, rather than attack, it is just chance in my opinion. The same with someone who will try to understand instead of condemn. But maybe you should try a forum as this question does fit here. Jul 19, 2017 at 7:50
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    This is structured as, this is meant to be, a question-and-answer site. People shouldn't attack you if they try to answer your question. What's normal though is for you to ask some question (about Buddhism), and people will try to answer it. At the moment though it isn't clear what your question is, what you're asking.
    – ChrisW
    Jul 19, 2017 at 14:51

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Yes, you were a monk, but not in one previous life, but in very many previous lives. Through good deeds you did in those and other your previous lives, now you have a good fortune and met Buddha's Teachings.

Now you can practise those teachings and find the true will of your heart this moment. Finding true will of your heart this moment is the highest realization, on which you have worked during many lifetimes, but still you have not mastered it completely in your previous lives. However, there are good chances that you could do that in this present life.

Also, your first life was not as a monk. Before becoming a monk, you lived many lives, doing many deeds, both good and evil. However, when you became a monk, you changed, and an immense amount of your previous bad karma was destroyed through your practice.

Every life you changed, and every moment you continue to change. Don't bother with previous lives: they passed and exist no more. Think of this moment: what is the wish of your heart now?

There was a time I dedicated my life to that cleaning: like a nugget of gold, covered with dirt, was my mind and my behavior. Every moment I tried to be in accordance with the original longing of my heart, keeping efforts to act as gold, not as dirt. With the help of other beings, including you in your previous lives, I was able to realize what the heart wants, and I try to not lose that realization since.

When I remain in that presence of the will of the heart, it gives rise to feelings of easiness and freedom, kindness and purpose.

I wish you the same!

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  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – ChrisW
    Jul 20, 2017 at 9:26
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In other words, could such view make sense (or be accepted) in the Buddhist context?

In early Buddhism, which taught all things are not-self (anatta), this view is unacceptablea, as explained in SN 22.79, which states it is wrong view to regard memories of the past as "I", "mine" & "myself", as follows:

At Savatthi. “Bhikkhus, those ascetics and brahmins who recollect their manifold past abodes all recollect the five aggregates subject to clinging or a certain one among them. What five?

When recollecting thus, bhikkhus: ‘I had such form in the past,’ it is just form that one recollects. When recollecting: ‘I had such a feeling in the past,’ it is just feeling that one recollects. When recollecting: ‘I had such a perception in the past,’ it is just perception that one recollects. When recollecting: ‘I had such formations in the past,’ it is just formations that one recollects. When recollecting: ‘I had such consciousness in the past,’ it is just consciousness that one recollects.

Therefore, bhikkhus, any kind of form whatsoever … Any kind of feeling whatsoever … Any kind of perception whatsoever … Any kind of formations whatsoever … Any kind of consciousness whatsoever, whether past, future, or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near, all consciousness should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’

This is called, bhikkhus, a noble disciple who dismantles and does not build up; who abandons and does not cling; who scatters and does not amass; who extinguishes and does not kindle.

However, in later Buddhism, contrary ridiculous ideas were entered in the scriptures, as follows:

Now, monks, the thought may occur to you that the chariot maker on that occasion was someone else, but it shouldn't be seen in that way. I myself was the chariot maker on that occasion. I was skilled in dealing with the crookedness, the faults, the flaws of wood. Now I am a worthy one, rightly self-awakened, skilled in dealing with the crookedness, faults & flaws of bodily action; skilled in dealing with the crookedness, faults & flaws of verbal action; skilled in dealing with the crookedness, faults, & flaws of mental action.

AN 3.15

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  • I guess that the purpose of that passage in AN 3.15 is as a message which uses the benefit of conceit, the possibility (as explained in AN 4.159) of using conceit as an instrument on the path (conceit being abandoned only at the final stage of Arahant): e.g. the conceit that "the Buddha was the chariot-maker, and made a wheel which doesn't wobble and fall down ... if I now practice as the Buddha did, I too can make a wheel such as that".
    – ChrisW
    Aug 10, 2017 at 12:26

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