If You’re Interested….
Bhikkhu Analayo has just come out with a fascinating new book: Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current Research, which I HIGHLY recommend if you’re at all interested in the topic…which I totally am, ever since I heard Joseph Goldstein play a recording made in the 1970s of ancient Pali chants recited spontaneously by a little 2-year-old boy (now grown up), who Joseph knows personally (as do many of the other dharma teachers I’ve sat with).
I was kind of neutral on the subject until I heard that sweet little voice!
(Links to the recordings can be found here under the boy’s name: Dhammaruwan.)
Dhammaruwan (now Bhikkhu Samadhikusala) and those tapes feature prominently in Bhikkhu Analayo’s new book:
“…it occurred to me to take a closer looks at recordings of Pali chants recited spontaneously and from memory by a small Sri Lankan child, whom I knew from the time I lived in Sri Lanka myself in the 1990s, by which time he had already become an adult. This brought to light support for his recollection of having learned these chants in the long-distant past, making it clear that they deserved a study more detailed than is possible within he confines of an article.
“In order to contextualize my findings, I also started to read up on various areas of research related to rebirth. This in turn made me realize that I had entered a minefield of at times firmly entrenched opinions regarding rebirth, leading me to investigate historical antecedents for the current debates on this topic. These four trajectories inform the four chapters of the book.”
Check it out!