We have discussed in the past that this is the cycle of Samsara. We are born into a certain realm, once our time is up, here comes the death, and then we rinse and repeat. During our karma discussions seems like eons ago, we talked about how the type of karma that ripens at the time of death dictates what life we may come back into. This could be in a number of realms including another human life if we are lucky, or an animal realm, hell realm, and so on. Animal realm, hell realms, and others are what are known as lower rebirths. Meaning, we are taking a step down from our human life.
Why are these other realms known as lower rebirths? There are a number of reasons. The first and foremost is that in these other realms one does not have consciousness. Meaning you are reactive all the time. Take an animal life for example. An animal reacts to its environment and is constantly worried about survival. There is no consciousness in an animal. They are not able to make a decision based on what is right and wrong. Another and more important reason is that the human realm allows us to make progress towards our nirvana, mox, mukti, enlightenment. In another realm, we don’t have that ability. It is said that it is easier for a human being to attain enlightenment than for an animal being to attain a human life. If we understand this, we will hopefully take steps towards avoiding nonvirtuous actions.
Nonvirtuous actions or negative karma are the main reason we end up taking a lower rebirth. More nonvirtuous actions we have committed, the more the chance of them ripening at the time of death resulting in higher chances of lower rebirth. If our heavy negative karma ripens at the time of death, we end up as a hell being in the next life. If the middling negative karma ripens at the time of death, we come back as a ghost being and if the lower negative karma ripens, we end up as an animal.
Just knowing this is not enough. We need to develop a fear of taking a lower rebirth in the animal realm or hell realm and so forth. We have talked about how fear is not a good thing. So I know this is a contradiction but in this case, it is a productive fear if there is such a thing. The fear developed of being taking a lower rebirth allows us to take preventive actions today to avoid taking a lower rebirth. If we stop or say reduce our negative actions, our chances of lower birth reduce. There is no way to completely eliminate our chances of lower rebirth since we have already committed negative actions in the past but we can certainly increase our odds of higher rebirth such as a human being.
So the object of our meditation is this fear of lower rebirth. During our meditation, we will first settle down in our hearts. Once we have found that peace, we will begin to contemplate that when we die, we have no control over where we will end up. Depending upon the karma that ripens at death we will take lower rebirth. If our heavy negative karma ripens, we will end up as a hell being. If our middling negative karma ripens, we will end up as a ghost being and if our lower negative karma ripens, we will end up as animal beings. It is very easy to commit heavy negative karma. Just by squatting a mosquito out of anger, we can end up in hell. We have committed countless negative karma over the years. Any one of these karma has the potential to ripen at our death. Ask yourself, if we die today, where will we take the next rebirth.
Once you contemplate this, hopefully, you have developed a strong fear of lower rebirth. This fear is our object of meditation. We hold this fear single-pointedly as long as we can.