When we're doing the Compassion/Lovingkindness meditation, are we one of all the living beings? It's important that we are, that we're one of all the living beings. What are you wishing for the other living beings? That they can end their Dukkha, that they can find deep happiness. They're going to need techniques and tools. We're wishing that for every other living being. Why don't we wish it for the person we're going to be tomorrow? Or the person we're going to be in the next life? This is why we don't want that person to be reborn stupid, they're another living being!
Now, again, rebirth is a theory which Buddhism says it's true and some other people say it, also. So there's an insurance policy here, too. Do we want to ensure that our next life is okay? For some of you, when you were born, your families were not perfectly stable. For others of you they were stable. Some of you had a really happy, wealthy childhood, and some of you did not, you had rough times. OK, doesn't matter does it, because here you are all together, in the same room, listening to the same Dhamma, practicing the same techniques. You've all got very good fortune to be here, no matter how you grew up. It doesn't always matter, because you've got this.
Buddhism teaches that you have this present opportunity because of what you did in a past life. You had a mix of good and bad Kamma, you had a mix because all of you have had some Dukkha in your life. Some of your past life Kamma fruited in some Dukkha, but a lot of it has fruited in the opposite of Dukkha called Sukkha, and this happiness of being in the Dhamma is what you've earned in a past life. So when we think of who we're going to be in the future, we don't want that person to be stupid, we don't want that person to have pain, we don't want that person to be poor, and so on. So when you think of that, how can we help the person we're going to be in the future not be poor? That's written in the scriptures. How can we not be lonely? That's written in the scriptures, too. Have compassion for and take care of that person you will be in the future.