When we talk about rebirth, people often think in terms of past lives, future lives—in what you could call a metaphysical way, beyond the scope of our everyday vision and perceptions. That perspective is understandable, and yet when the term “rebirth” or “the cycle of birth and death” (called the bhavacakka in the Suttas) is referred to, it is not always referring to a sequence of events over a number of lifetimes. …
