The Future

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Aryjna
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Re: The Future

Post by Aryjna »

WeiHan wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2018 9:19 am People have been saying whether one becomes a buddhist has something to do with the person's merit and karmic connection.

So..I am wondering.... Buddhists and great masters have been liberating animals in huge number. Before being liberated, holy prayers, mantras and powerful aspirations have been recited into the mind stream of these animals. Shouldn't we expect at least a fraction of these liberated animals to head back into the buddhist community since they should have a strong connection with these masters and community which saved their lives and positive imprints have been said into their mindstream?

if this is not the case, then what is the explanation?
A positive imprint doesn't mean that a grasshopper will be reborn as a human with great interest in the Dharma in its next life. It creates a cause, maybe it will be many lives before it can become a practitioner.

Also, as others have said, there are countless worlds. Thinking that there is a finite number of beings living only on Earth, and so expecting to have progressively more humans and less animals, more Buddhists etc., does not make much sense.
WeiHan
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Re: The Future

Post by WeiHan »

Aryjna wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2018 3:10 pm
WeiHan wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2018 9:19 am People have been saying whether one becomes a buddhist has something to do with the person's merit and karmic connection.

So..I am wondering.... Buddhists and great masters have been liberating animals in huge number. Before being liberated, holy prayers, mantras and powerful aspirations have been recited into the mind stream of these animals. Shouldn't we expect at least a fraction of these liberated animals to head back into the buddhist community since they should have a strong connection with these masters and community which saved their lives and positive imprints have been said into their mindstream?

if this is not the case, then what is the explanation?
A positive imprint doesn't mean that a grasshopper will be reborn as a human with great interest in the Dharma in its next life. It creates a cause, maybe it will be many lives before it can become a practitioner.

Also, as others have said, there are countless worlds. Thinking that there is a finite number of beings living only on Earth, and so expecting to have progressively more humans and less animals, more Buddhists etc., does not make much sense.
Inside me I am not quite satisfied with the answer that they are all taking rebirth in countless other worlds and that is why we don't get to meet them so soon. Why so? As many anecdotal stories accounted, karmic debtors do find us pretty quickly when we did a great unjust to them so why couldn't a great benefit such a saving lives of billions of beings end up with a small fraction of them coming back to us pretty quickly?
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Josef
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Re: The Future

Post by Josef »

WeiHan wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2018 7:45 pm
Aryjna wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2018 3:10 pm
WeiHan wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2018 9:19 am People have been saying whether one becomes a buddhist has something to do with the person's merit and karmic connection.

So..I am wondering.... Buddhists and great masters have been liberating animals in huge number. Before being liberated, holy prayers, mantras and powerful aspirations have been recited into the mind stream of these animals. Shouldn't we expect at least a fraction of these liberated animals to head back into the buddhist community since they should have a strong connection with these masters and community which saved their lives and positive imprints have been said into their mindstream?

if this is not the case, then what is the explanation?
A positive imprint doesn't mean that a grasshopper will be reborn as a human with great interest in the Dharma in its next life. It creates a cause, maybe it will be many lives before it can become a practitioner.

Also, as others have said, there are countless worlds. Thinking that there is a finite number of beings living only on Earth, and so expecting to have progressively more humans and less animals, more Buddhists etc., does not make much sense.
Inside me I am not quite satisfied with the answer that they are all taking rebirth in countless other worlds and that is why we don't get to meet them so soon. Why so? As many anecdotal stories accounted, karmic debtors do find us pretty quickly when we did a great unjust to them so why couldn't a great benefit such a saving lives of billions of beings end up with a small fraction of them coming back to us pretty quickly?
Some do move through more quickly.
We also have to consider the previous karma that caused them to be reborn in the lower realms in the first place. Perhaps they are working up from the hell realms etc.
We can observe the dispositions of different species and at least form hypotheses about their karmic history and trajectory.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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cyril
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Re: The Future

Post by cyril »

WeiHan wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2018 9:19 am People have been saying whether one becomes a buddhist has something to do with the person's merit and karmic connection.

So..I am wondering.... Buddhists and great masters have been liberating animals in huge number. Before being liberated, holy prayers, mantras and powerful aspirations have been recited into the mind stream of these animals. Shouldn't we expect at least a fraction of these liberated animals to head back into the buddhist community since they should have a strong connection with these masters and community which saved their lives and positive imprints have been said into their mindstream?

if this is not the case, then what is the explanation?
Not sure if my understanding is correct but, if those animals make it somehow to the human realm, then, due to the power of those blessings, they will meet Dharma in one way or another. However, I don't think there is any guarantee that something will"click" inside on that occasion so that they will become devoted practitioners in that very life. I think that for most of the humans, the power of kleshas far exceeds the power of the Triple Jewels' blessings.

For instance nowadays, Dharma is incredibly easy to access. If you think about it, some 50-60 years ago, almost nobody in the West heard about such things as Dzogchen or Mahamudra; now, you can get transmission and instructions via webcast. There are hundreds of good books, treaties and commentaries covering all Buddhist traditions that you can read online or download for free. Still, how many people around you do you see becoming suddenly interested in Dharma even after running into these things once or twice?
"You have to make the good out of the bad because that is all you have got to make it out of."
- Robert Penn Warren -
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Quay
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Re: The Future

Post by Quay »

Somewhere in the Rabbit books, John Updike wrote something like "The world keeps on ending but apparently new people too dumb to know it keep showing up as if the fun's just started."
"Knowledge is as infinite as the stars in the sky;
There is no end to all the subjects one could study.
It is better to grasp straight away their very essence--
The unchanging fortress of the Dharmakaya."

– Longchenpa.
jet.urgyen
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Re: The Future

Post by jet.urgyen »

i'm 30 yo, received transmission at 16 or 17, and practiced very very seriously since then. Said that, i can see with a good grade of certainty that the main problems for the future can be found:

1) in the lama's attitudes towards western society
2) in the older students attitude towards new students

in general, lamas do like to fantasize that they still are in tibet. well maybe they don't know that i'm a westener and i'm not interested in tibetan manners... in fact i give exactly 0 f*cks on tibetan culture. If dharma comes in chinese then i learn chinese, i do care on dharma but i don't care much from where the lama comes, don't find anything special in tibetan culture. so the tibetan stuff can turn to be an over whelming obstacle for new buddhists (language, manners, traditions, etc.) when lamas do everything pretending that they are surrounded by tibetans. tibetan stuff is not the main point.

as i was younger i had to took a lot of shit in my intents for gaining access to the teachings, shit like old practitioners phantasies, old practitioners not helping new practitioners, not having to whom ask anything about experiences, old practitioners behaving like kids/adolescents, not having access to books, old practitioners arguing, discussing, etc., old practitioners not having boddhicitta, having no money to study (because yes, you need money to study tibetan buddhism or participate in sangha activities), old practitioners talking only between themselves, etc. Such thing of course that discourages young people and new practitioners.

this are my arguments haha, sorry

now there are issues, like what's more important ¿donation or boddhicitta? (is money what the lama really want?), the why there is infraestructure for each lama in each city (why don they share if they are enligthened?), spiritual ego (does tulku or rinpoche means something, why they travel in 1st class, why they dress in silk?), etc., such things makes think that this buddhism is just like profit oriented religion..

no need to mention the sexual -and other- scandals...
true dharma is inexpressible.

The bodhisattva nourishes from bodhicitta, through whatever method the Buddha has given him. Oh joy.
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Re: The Future

Post by weitsicht »

Does old wine need to be filled into new skins to meet contemporary taste just like Padmasambhava blended the old local gods into the to-be imported Buddhism?

Now that I understood about the Four Seals as the litmus test for Dharma's validity, and the impossibility to ever prove this validity properly in today's times, I wonder what you think about MindUp, a secular teaching for primary pupise as reflected here in the film "Innsaei"



Can Shamata and Vipassana without even calling them this way be sufficient?
Ho! All the possible appearances and existences of samsara and nirvana have the same source, yet two paths and two results arise as the magical display of awareness and unawareness.
HO NANG SRI KHOR DAE THAMCHE KUN ZHI CHIG LAM NYI DRAE BU NYI RIG DANG MA RIG CHOM THRUL TE
KristenM
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Re: The Future

Post by KristenM »

weitsicht wrote: Sun Feb 04, 2018 10:44 pm Does old wine need to be filled into new skins to meet contemporary taste just like Padmasambhava blended the old local gods into the to-be imported Buddhism?

Now that I understood about the Four Seals as the litmus test for Dharma's validity, and the impossibility to ever prove this validity properly in today's times, I wonder what you think about MindUp, a secular teaching for primary pupise as reflected here in the film "Innsaei"



Can Shamata and Vipassana without even calling them this way be sufficient?
I'm on the liberal side of thinking it's a good thing. This week I'm starting a training to facilitate a mindfulness program for our clients where I work. Most of them have no education or background in Buddhism or mindfulness/meditation, but I feel they can benefit from learning about it in a secular way.

I get how people don't like watering down Buddhism into mindfulness, but giving up on teaching mindfulness to non-Buddhists because it's not Buddhism seems to me very short sighted.
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Re: The Future

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

TharpaChodron wrote: Sun Feb 04, 2018 11:25 pm
weitsicht wrote: Sun Feb 04, 2018 10:44 pm Does old wine need to be filled into new skins to meet contemporary taste just like Padmasambhava blended the old local gods into the to-be imported Buddhism?

Now that I understood about the Four Seals as the litmus test for Dharma's validity, and the impossibility to ever prove this validity properly in today's times, I wonder what you think about MindUp, a secular teaching for primary pupise as reflected here in the film "Innsaei"



Can Shamata and Vipassana without even calling them this way be sufficient?
I'm on the liberal side of thinking it's a good thing. This week I'm starting a training to facilitate a mindfulness program for our clients where I work. Most of them have no education or background in Buddhism or mindfulness/meditation, but I feel they can benefit from learning about it in a secular way.

I get how people don't like watering down Buddhism into mindfulness, but giving up on teaching mindfulness to non-Buddhists because it's not Buddhism seems to me very short sighted.

I agree, therapeutically "mindfulness", MBSR, MBRP etc. (though man, I am sick of seeing the word everywhere now) are really promising, it just needs to be stressed that they are not Buddhism.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

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weitsicht
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Re: The Future

Post by weitsicht »

The end of this section moved me quite. it's unfortunately not on this clip.

The boy tells how his father was so impatient and enervated about his two sons and how the father admitted to him that the changes of his son and hence this MindUp made him as-well reflect more before letting emotions arise. A domino-effect. So beautiful!

I am confident that the Dharma, the essence, can be preserved. But maybe it'll be called differently.
Ho! All the possible appearances and existences of samsara and nirvana have the same source, yet two paths and two results arise as the magical display of awareness and unawareness.
HO NANG SRI KHOR DAE THAMCHE KUN ZHI CHIG LAM NYI DRAE BU NYI RIG DANG MA RIG CHOM THRUL TE
Yeti
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Re: The Future

Post by Yeti »

IMHO Dharma practice is hard work, and facing a lot of things that aren't really that attractive. But that's just me. When it comes to really working on yourself... it doesn't surprise me few people are interested... I have enough aversion to practices as it is. :soapbox:

There's more and more reason to follow the path of the hidden yogis and yoginis.
"People are fond of saying all sorts of things about others behind their backs, mentioning their names again and again. Instead of slandering others in this way, “slander” the yidam: utter his name repeatedly by reciting his mantra all the time." - Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche - Zurchungpa’s Testament - Shambhala Publications
KristenM
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Re: The Future

Post by KristenM »

Johnny Dangerous wrote: Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:59 am
TharpaChodron wrote: Sun Feb 04, 2018 11:25 pm
weitsicht wrote: Sun Feb 04, 2018 10:44 pm Does old wine need to be filled into new skins to meet contemporary taste just like Padmasambhava blended the old local gods into the to-be imported Buddhism?

Now that I understood about the Four Seals as the litmus test for Dharma's validity, and the impossibility to ever prove this validity properly in today's times, I wonder what you think about MindUp, a secular teaching for primary pupise as reflected here in the film "Innsaei"



Can Shamata and Vipassana without even calling them this way be sufficient?
I'm on the liberal side of thinking it's a good thing. This week I'm starting a training to facilitate a mindfulness program for our clients where I work. Most of them have no education or background in Buddhism or mindfulness/meditation, but I feel they can benefit from learning about it in a secular way.

I get how people don't like watering down Buddhism into mindfulness, but giving up on teaching mindfulness to non-Buddhists because it's not Buddhism seems to me very short sighted.

I agree, therapeutically "mindfulness", MBSR, MBRP etc. (though man, I am sick of seeing the word everywhere now) are really promising, it just needs to be stressed that they are not Buddhism.
What does MBRP stand for? I tried to figure it out and have no clue atm. Went to the first class today. Painfully basic, but I was impressed they got our group of regular folk to actually engage unknowingly in some Shamatha practice. As you know, we have a culture that loves to talk about being "woke" as far as cultural issues, it would be groovy if wokefullness started being about awareness of samsara as a whole.
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Re: The Future

Post by dzogchungpa »

TharpaChodron wrote: Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:53 amWhat does MBRP stand for?

Probably "Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention".
There is not only nothingness because there is always, and always can manifest. - Thinley Norbu Rinpoche
KristenM
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Re: The Future

Post by KristenM »

dzogchungpa wrote: Wed Feb 07, 2018 5:10 am
TharpaChodron wrote: Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:53 amWhat does MBRP stand for?

Probably "Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention".
Alas, I am not up to date on my relapse prevention lingo. Still in the "pre-contemplation" stage of recovery. ;)
WeiHan
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Re: The Future

Post by WeiHan »

How can there ever be many people practising Dharma? Its aim denies a self while human instinct has always been working for the survival of self or at least its own kind. Moreover, it is a fact that the entire basis of Dharma has little or no evidence. It is just a belief system that people has the freedom of choice to take or not take up. Although it won't solve all the "problem", I think buddhist institutions should consider more deeply the required effort to convince more people the truth of some of its beliefs, at least. at least you get more believers to start with.
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Re: The Future

Post by sillyrabbit »

I'm going to have to defend my fellow millenials here. You can want to "get drunk and laid" and still recognize that there's something missing. Being on the inside, I have had the exact opposite perception of a lot of what is expressed about us in this thread. Sure it's all of our "bad behavior" and then some, but even that doesn't erase our longing for truth. The reason fake social media accounts that post random "deep" quotes are some of the most popular is because of this.

The previous posters are right, though: we're not like the flower children and beat poets of the 60s and 70s, and we don't consider Tibetan (or any other Asian language we don't know) as more precious than coming to an understanding of truth. I actually like learning different languages and recognizing some of the characters, but I will, for example, recite praises in English followed by the language of the text. Since, to me, the teachings themselves take precedence over packaging.

Keep in mind that I write everything here with love of our precious practice. I remember tentatively visiting a dharma center where the lama kindly requested some of the recitations be in English...and I could tell how weirded out they were. Meanwhile, I'm thinking to myself what amazing things were taking place. I couldn't relate to their alienation at all! It really could be that they knew enough to get by, I don't know.

And don't get me wrong, I took refuge there and consider it a merit field, but I do wonder how much it exists to support the culture of Tibet as opposed to the dharma culture transmitted from Tibet. There's a difference!

Edit: To add another thought about "get drunk and laid": A lot of us millenials think we can have it all, and it's true! In the methods of non-discrimination of samsara and nirvana, at least. If anything, we are ripe for esoteric Buddhism. We're just not interested in being anthropologists... Also, no youth groups, please. That's lame.
Namo Amitabha Buddha
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weitsicht
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Re: The Future

Post by weitsicht »

@sillyrabbit I think the same. And I feel confirmed with what I hear in DJKR's speeches (you may find him controversial or not, but as it comes to cultural affliction he expresses self-reflectedness what is to be seen rarely with Tibetan lamas)

In Mexico a lecture participant had an issue with "too much bliss" or something and DJKR responded (in the line, no direct quote here) ' you need to apply a habanero. Something that stirs you up. Stirring up, that is the job of the guru.' Now why did he use the habanero in the response: because the guy needs to find an antidote compatible with his culture.

It is our job to find ways to get deeper into and apply Dharma in accordance with our cultural background. Not as a concept but on the ground, in the moment.
But maybe then also as a concept: maybe there'll be a western terma revealer finding mantra with (English sounding) syllables or a deity addressing the western issues?

WeiHan, Dharma's aim is not to deny self rather integrate self in the whole other. It's not so much the neither-nor rather than the both-and that causes the confusion. Dharma conforms with the four Seals and the Four Seals only. Challenge with these is: only a Mahasiddha can truly see them. Until then our mirror is tainted and we will need to operate based on trust and compassion. Dharma is beyond comprehension. How can you derive evidence from something that is beyond comprehension? Accept paradoxy! Einstein's relativity theory is being watched bur probably will never be formally proven. Same here. It's my firm belief: paradox is the key.

I think a promotional program for the Dharma is no good idea. Each one has his own pace and karma will show when they get acquainted with the Dharma and whether they develop interest or not. All each of us can do is work on ourselves and as a side-effect hopefully be good example.
Ho! All the possible appearances and existences of samsara and nirvana have the same source, yet two paths and two results arise as the magical display of awareness and unawareness.
HO NANG SRI KHOR DAE THAMCHE KUN ZHI CHIG LAM NYI DRAE BU NYI RIG DANG MA RIG CHOM THRUL TE
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Josef
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Re: The Future

Post by Josef »

WeiHan wrote: Wed Feb 28, 2018 8:53 am How can there ever be many people practising Dharma? Its aim denies a self while human instinct has always been working for the survival of self or at least its own kind. Moreover, it is a fact that the entire basis of Dharma has little or no evidence. It is just a belief system that people has the freedom of choice to take or not take up. Although it won't solve all the "problem", I think buddhist institutions should consider more deeply the required effort to convince more people the truth of some of its beliefs, at least. at least you get more believers to start with.
Evangelism is fundamentally opposed to dharma.
The idea of recruiting more "believers" or followers puts one on the path of the 8 worldly concerns and will only lead to the propagation of the hollow practice of identifying as Buddhist because one likes the idea of Buddhism. This is what we see a great deal of, in America we have a lot of people who call themselves Buddhists but they are a far cry from being Dharma practitioners.
Being humble and actually cultivating the qualities that our commitments and teachers intend is far more valuable than evangelism.
By becoming examples of the power of the teachings we benefit beings and inspire them to cultivate those qualities in themselves.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
WeiHan
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Re: The Future

Post by WeiHan »

weitsicht wrote: Fri Mar 02, 2018 1:02 pm
WeiHan, Dharma's aim is not to deny self rather integrate self in the whole other. It's not so much the neither-nor rather than the both-and that causes the confusion. Dharma conforms with the four Seals and the Four Seals only. Challenge with these is: only a Mahasiddha can truly see them. Until then our mirror is tainted and we will need to operate based on trust and compassion. Dharma is beyond comprehension. How can you derive evidence from something that is beyond comprehension? Accept paradoxy! Einstein's relativity theory is being watched bur probably will never be formally proven. Same here. It's my firm belief: paradox is the key.

I think a promotional program for the Dharma is no good idea. Each one has his own pace and karma will show when they get acquainted with the Dharma and whether they develop interest or not. All each of us can do is work on ourselves and as a side-effect hopefully be good example.
Some teachers humiliated students with sexual abuses and the excuse for that has been "to crush the ego". If it is not about denying the individuality of unique self, then what is the purpose of crushing that ego using humiliating sexual abuse? My choice of words has been intended to be slightly cynical because I intended to wrote "no self" instead of "deny self". "no self" doctrine in Buddhism is a well known fact, on the other hand, you have alot to explain if you say its aim is to "integrate self in the whole".

Evidence is not derived from a doctrine or a theory. They are independent observation that confirms the theory or doctrine. The recent discovery of gravitational waves that won the Nobel prize last year is a strong evidence that affirms Einstein Relativity theory. If Buddha's teaching is true, we should be able to observe some cases for rebirth for example. These cases will then qualify as evidence if they are sufficiently convincing.

I respect your view but there are at least some respected Dharma teachers around that do some work in collecting evidences to show people.
WeiHan
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Re: The Future

Post by WeiHan »

Josef wrote: Fri Mar 02, 2018 5:54 pm
WeiHan wrote: Wed Feb 28, 2018 8:53 am How can there ever be many people practising Dharma? Its aim denies a self while human instinct has always been working for the survival of self or at least its own kind. Moreover, it is a fact that the entire basis of Dharma has little or no evidence. It is just a belief system that people has the freedom of choice to take or not take up. Although it won't solve all the "problem", I think buddhist institutions should consider more deeply the required effort to convince more people the truth of some of its beliefs, at least. at least you get more believers to start with.
Evangelism is fundamentally opposed to dharma.
The idea of recruiting more "believers" or followers puts one on the path of the 8 worldly concerns and will only lead to the propagation of the hollow practice of identifying as Buddhist because one likes the idea of Buddhism. This is what we see a great deal of, in America we have a lot of people who call themselves Buddhists but they are a far cry from being Dharma practitioners.
Being humble and actually cultivating the qualities that our commitments and teachers intend is far more valuable than evangelism.
By becoming examples of the power of the teachings we benefit beings and inspire them to cultivate those qualities in themselves.
If telling people rebirth is real is evangelism, then how do we propagate Dharma?

If making more believers necessarily put one on the path of the 8 worldly concerns, then how do you propagate Dharma? How does one even start practicing if he doesn't even believe some of the basic tenets. I think your concern is one of the possible outcome but not necessarily the case.
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