If We Are Reborn, How Does Population Grow? – Dialectic Two Step

Question:

If, when we die, we are reborn and go into another body, how is it possible that the population is growing? Population numbers shouldn’t change.

Response:

I believe that this and similar questions are better than any answers that could possibly be given.

It points to the suffering that comes with fixed views on something as fuzzy as rebirth.

For me this question has bounded my expectations around karma and its effect on the future. I cannot fathom what it would be like to be reborn. I have no recollection and I have no experience of being reborn.

So, for me, the particulars of reincarnation feel unknowable and pursuing them feels unproductive.

Good Fences

In response to this dead end, I’ve chosen to pull back to what my experience has to say. I have a lifetime of evidence that there are consequences to my actions. They impact me and future generations, by planting the seeds – causes and conditions – for the future.

If I can be informed by this understanding of the world, then it seems conceivable I could to decrease my suffering.

Experiencing and comprehending life after death are beyond my meager abilities, and so they don’t inform my liberation.

If you enjoyed this post,  please like and share.

Dialectic Two-Step  is an ongoing series of my thoughts on questions that come my way.

Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. - Octavio

Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst

Subscribe to My NewsletterJoin me for a little peace through reflection, art, video, sound, and poetry

Leave this field empty if you're human:

The post If We Are Reborn, How Does Population Grow? – Dialectic Two Step written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.