Subject: Re: Tues class 12 March 2019 outline short Notes
Book Reference: The Buddha and His Teachings – MODES OF BIRTH & DEATH (Chapter 26, Page 432 – 434)
1. Bro Teoh introduced a Mahayana teaching called Sutra on repayment of Kindness (Ullambana Sutra). This sutra relates to Maha Moggallana’s falial piety to rescue her mother who was born in the hunger ghost realm.
According to the Buddha there are 4 types of Kindness which are difficult to repay, viz. kindness by Father, Mother, the Buddha & Dhamma Teachers.
2. Sis Chwee enquired how authentic is this sutra since it is not recorded in the Theravada text. Bro Teoh explained that not all Buddha’s teachings were propagated under the Theravada texts. The Mahayana teachings were mainly from some great beings and Bodhisattvas who received them from other source. One of it is from Tusita heaven when Sakyamuni Buddha was preaching the dhamma to his mother using his transformation body. Fortunately, some teaching were also brought into China by people like the 1st Patriarch of China (Master Bodhidharma) and Kumarajiva and other teachers.
3. Sis Tammy covered this lesson on the modes of death, via:
Reproductive Kamma having exhausted
Expiration of Life Term
Both of the above causes occurring simultaneously
Destructive kamma that causes Sudden Death.
4. Modes of birth are either via egg, womb, water or spontaneous rebirth
(Above prepared by Sister Hooi Yoon Chun)
With metta