Rebirth and the Western Buddhist - Khamkoo

Details of Rebirth 65
does not mean we can afford to be complacent. Firstly,
the commonness of human rebirth at the present is
altogether exceptional. Human beings have only been
present on Earth at all for a tiny fraction of the history of
life here, and the unprecedentedly high population of the
moment cannot be expected to continue. In a few years,
human existence could be much rarer and more difficult
to obtain. Secondly, our data are very crude and limited
and it could well be that on a slightly longer timescale
there is a large chance of degenerating to an animal state
without hope of quick recovery. Thirdly, the standards of
behaviour required of one are not absolute but depend
on what one is capable of: an action which would be
negligeable in an ordinary person can indeed mean hell
for an advanced Dharma practitioner, as Haich's example
shows.
We could probably learn more about the nature and
commonness of our non-human existences by hypnotic
regression experiments designed specifically to investigate
them. There seems to be no reason why Buddhists
themselves should not undertake such research.
3· Beginningless mind
Losang Gyatso (p. 109) argues:
Just establishing that a previous homogeneous
continuum must precede establishes that rebirths
are beginningless. For what is not a
sentient being cannot be made into a sentient
being, and non-mind cannot be made into
mind. As, for example, before that hen came an
egg; and before that egg came another hen; so
there is no initial limit one can reach.
The example illustrates perfectly both the strength and
the limitations of the argument. We know 116 that if one