Taming the Mind

Hi friends,

I think these discourses point to literal rebirth, though literal rebirth is often poked at and doubted at buddhist forums. What do you think?

Taming the Mind-Discourses of the Buddha
edited by The Buddhist Publication Society

(The three knowledges, te-vijja)
(1. Recollection of former habitations)

"Then with the mind composed thus, quite purified, quite clarified,
without blemish, without defilement, grown pliant and workable, fixed,
immovable, he directs his mind to the knowledge and recollection of
former habitation: he remembers a variety of former habitations, thus:
one birth, two births, three... four... five... ten... twenty...
thirty... forty... fifty... a hundred... a thousand... a hundred
thousand births, and many an eon of integration and many an eon of
disintegration and many an eon of integration-disintegration: 'Such a
one was I by name, having such a clan, such and such a color, so was I
nourished, such and such pleasant and painful experiences were mine, so
did the span of life end. Passing from this, I came to be in another
state where such a one was I by name, having such and such a clan, such
and such a color, so was I nourished, such and such pleasant and
painful experiences were mine, so did the span of life end. Passing
from this, I arose here.' Thus he remembers divers former habitations
in all their modes and details.

(2. The Divine Eye)


"Then with the mind composed, quite purified, quite clarified,
without blemish, without defilement, grown pliant and workable, fixed,
immovable, he directs his mind to the knowledge of the passing hence
and the arising of beings. With the purified deva-vision
surpassing that of men, he sees beings as they pass hence or come to
be; he comprehends that beings are mean, excellent, comely, ugly,
well-going, ill-going, according to the consequence of their deeds, the
he thinks: Indeed these worthy beings who were possessed of wrong
conduct in body, who were possessed of wrong conduct in speech, who
were possessed of wrong conduct of thought, scoffers at the ariyans,
holding a wrong view, incurring deeds consequent on a wrong view —
these, at the breaking up of the body after dying, have arisen in a
sorrowful state, a bad bourn, the abyss, Niraya hell. But these worthy
beings who were possessed of good conduct in body, who were possessed
of good conduct in speech, who were possessed of good conduct in
thought, who did not scoff at the ariyans, holding a right view,
incurring deeds consequent on a right view — these, at the breaking up
of the body, after dying, have arisen in a good bourn, a heaven world.