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Techno2000
Guest
I would like to know what Buddha taught about …Past-life, Rebirth and God.
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Michael_Mayo
Guest
He was not much concerned with them really. More about detachment.
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GEddie
Guest
You’re probably in the wrong place anyway, as this is not a gathering place for Buddhists, although some are here.
ICXC NIKA
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thephilosopher6
Guest
Buddhism does not believe in the existence of the soul and so do not teach the traditional belief of reincarnation like that found in Hinduism. They believe that a kind of mental energy is instead transmitted to another body after death. They prefer to call this rebirth instead of reincarnation. Karma plays a huge role in rebirth. Karma is seen more like cause and effect in Buddhism rather than fate.
As for God, there is no established Buddhist view on this. Many Buddhist are atheist, many are agnostic, many are monotheistic, many are polytheistic, many are pantheistic etc.
You should try researching on your own. This is probably not the best place to learn about Buddhism unless a Buddhist on here would like to explain it.
As for God, there is no established Buddhist view on this. Many Buddhist are atheist, many are agnostic, many are monotheistic, many are polytheistic, many are pantheistic etc.
You should try researching on your own. This is probably not the best place to learn about Buddhism unless a Buddhist on here would like to explain it.
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Slartibartfast
Guest
Hi ,
The best place to look with questions about Buddhism is the Access to Insight website
accesstoinsight.org
Just type Rebirth in the search box.
Until recently, I was a practicing Theravadan Buddhist for eight years or so. Rebirth has always been something of a difficult area in Buddhism. The doctrine of no-self (anatta) is at the core of Buddhism. This often raises the tricky question of what then is reborn. This , conversely, challenged the doctrine of Anatta. Fortunately, the Buddha has often said that some things are beyond our comprehension and it is futile trying to understand them. Therefore it was better to just accept them
The best place to look with questions about Buddhism is the Access to Insight website
accesstoinsight.org
Just type Rebirth in the search box.
Until recently, I was a practicing Theravadan Buddhist for eight years or so. Rebirth has always been something of a difficult area in Buddhism. The doctrine of no-self (anatta) is at the core of Buddhism. This often raises the tricky question of what then is reborn. This , conversely, challenged the doctrine of Anatta. Fortunately, the Buddha has often said that some things are beyond our comprehension and it is futile trying to understand them. Therefore it was better to just accept them
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rossum
Guest
The Buddha taught the path to enlightenment. In summary:
To avoid all evil,
to cultivate good,
and to cleanse one’s mind -
this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
– Dhammapada 14:5
To avoid all evil
Following the Ten Commandments is a close enough approximation.
to cultivate good,
“Love others as you love yourself,” - Bhadramayakaravyakarana sutra, 91. I seem to recall some other person saying something similar as well.
to cleanse one’s mind
Meditate. Either find a Buddhist meditation class, and start with counting breaths, or follow a Christian meditation like Saying the Jesus Prayer.
If you do meditate then please pay attention to Bishop Ware’s advice:
“But those who have no personal contact with starets [a teacher] may still practice the Prayer without any fear, so long as they do so only for limited periods - initially, for no more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time - and so long as they make no attempt to interfere with the body’s natural rhythms.”
That advice applies to Buddhist meditations as well. Buddhism is a very practical religion; it is something you do, not something you believe. Belief without action is useless.
Past lives and rebirth are tied up with karma. In short, actions have consequences:
Mind precedes all conditions,
mind is their chief, they are mind-made.
If you speak or act with an evil mind then suffering will follow you,
as the wheel follows the draught ox.
Mind precedes all conditions,
mind is their chief, they are mind-made.
If you speak or act with a pure mind then happiness will follow you,
as a shadow that never leaves.
– Dhammapada 1:1-2
You cannot avoid the consequences, karma follows you from one life to the next. Buddhism has no equivalent of the forgiveness of sin, so you can’t avoid the consequences that way. If you do the crime then you do the time, hence you need to think very carefully before acting.
Death at the end of one life is one more change in a long series of changes during that life. You are not the same now as when you were born, and the changes will continue in your next life after you die this time. The sequence only stops after you become enlightened and attain nirvana. Then, when you die the next time you will not be reborn and will not die again and again and again.
Buddhism does not accept a soul. We tend to think we have a soul, but we do not; it is just a very common error. A soul has as much reality as the water in a mirage. What passed from your previous life to your current life is not the same as what passes from you-yesterday to you-today and will be different again when it passes from the end of your current life to the start of your next life.
“All the elements of reality are soulless.”
When one realises this by wisdom,
then one does not heed ill.
This is the Path of Purity.
– Dhammapada 20:5-7
Buddhism is not strictly atheist, there are many gods mentioned in the scriptures. However, those gods are not important, and none of them can save you. The major function of gods in Buddhist scriptures is to applaud at the right places when the Buddha is speaking. It is possible to be a Buddhist and to completely ignore the gods. No god can attain enlightenment for you, it is something you have to do for yourself, just as each god has to work for his or her own enlightenment.
HTH
rossum
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paziego
Guest
I am not a Buddhist, nor do I have Buddhist background (just to clarify). But my understanding is that what passes on in rebirth is mental consciousness. Now this mental consciousness has content (thoughts, ideas, desires) but the contents of this thought are not us. So what is reborn is a pure faculty, and a blank slate which just happens to have chronological continuity with your past ‘self’.Hi ,
The best place to look with questions about Buddhism is the Access to Insight website
accesstoinsight.org
Just type Rebirth in the search box.
Until recently, I was a practicing Theravadan Buddhist for eight years or so. Rebirth has always been something of a difficult area in Buddhism. The doctrine of no-self (anatta) is at the core of Buddhism. This often raises the tricky question of what then is reborn. This , conversely, challenged the doctrine of Anatta. Fortunately, the Buddha has often said that some things are beyond our comprehension and it is futile trying to understand them. Therefore it was better to just accept them
And even then we shouldn’t think of this faculty as us, as it is defined by what it is at each moment. That is, ‘me’ desiring pizza on Saturday is not the same ‘me’ writing an essay on Monday night. The connexion, other than causal, between these mental moments is an illusion. Like seeing a line of ants from a distance and perceiving it as a single line, believing the line to be a single entity. So passing from the last moment of one life to the first of another is no different from the constant eradication of self that any change of thought brings.
Is that correct, rossum?
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Techno2000
Guest
Excellent rossum… what is the difference between Reincarnation and Re-birth ?The Buddha taught the path to enlightenment. In summary:
To avoid all evil,
to cultivate good,
and to cleanse one’s mind -
this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
– Dhammapada 14:5
To avoid all evil
Following the Ten Commandments is a close enough approximation.
to cultivate good,
“Love others as you love yourself,” - Bhadramayakaravyakarana sutra, 91. I seem to recall some other person saying something similar as well.
to cleanse one’s mind
Meditate. Either find a Buddhist meditation class, and start with counting breaths, or follow a Christian meditation like Saying the Jesus Prayer.
If you do meditate then please pay attention to Bishop Ware’s advice:
“But those who have no personal contact with starets [a teacher] may still practice the Prayer without any fear, so long as they do so only for limited periods - initially, for no more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time - and so long as they make no attempt to interfere with the body’s natural rhythms.”
That advice applies to Buddhist meditations as well. Buddhism is a very practical religion; it is something you do, not something you believe. Belief without action is useless.
Past lives and rebirth are tied up with karma. In short, actions have consequences:
Mind precedes all conditions,
mind is their chief, they are mind-made.
If you speak or act with an evil mind then suffering will follow you,
as the wheel follows the draught ox.
Mind precedes all conditions,
mind is their chief, they are mind-made.
If you speak or act with a pure mind then happiness will follow you,
as a shadow that never leaves.
– Dhammapada 1:1-2
You cannot avoid the consequences, karma follows you from one life to the next. Buddhism has no equivalent of the forgiveness of sin, so you can’t avoid the consequences that way. If you do the crime then you do the time, hence you need to think very carefully before acting.
Death at the end of one life is one more change in a long series of changes during that life. You are not the same now as when you were born, and the changes will continue in your next life after you die this time. The sequence only stops after you become enlightened and attain nirvana. Then, when you die the next time you will not be reborn and will not die again and again and again.
Buddhism does not accept a soul. We tend to think we have a soul, but we do not; it is just a very common error. A soul has as much reality as the water in a mirage. What passed from your previous life to your current life is not the same as what passes from you-yesterday to you-today and will be different again when it passes from the end of your current life to the start of your next life.
“All the elements of reality are soulless.”
When one realises this by wisdom,
then one does not heed ill.
This is the Path of Purity.
– Dhammapada 20:5-7
Buddhism is not strictly atheist, there are many gods mentioned in the scriptures. However, those gods are not important, and none of them can save you. The major function of gods in Buddhist scriptures is to applaud at the right places when the Buddha is speaking. It is possible to be a Buddhist and to completely ignore the gods. No god can attain enlightenment for you, it is something you have to do for yourself, just as each god has to work for his or her own enlightenment.
HTH
rossum
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patrick457
Guest
You’ve touched on a very important point here.
This is the main difference between Western (i.e. Abrahamic) and Eastern views of religion. The three Abrahamic religions are really creedal, doctrinal: what you believe in takes pride of place. That’s why we have concepts of ‘orthodoxy’ and ‘heterodoxy’ or ‘heresy’. It’s not coincidental IMHO that Judaism, Christianity and Islam has a clearly-defined canons of scripture: a distinction exists between ‘canonical’ and ‘apocryphal’.
Eastern belief systems, which include Indian ones like Hinduism or Buddhism, on the other hand, lay more emphasis on correct praxis (the things performed - what you do) than spelling out the doctrines in a clear-cut way. That’s why Hinduism can accomodate conflicting stories and theologies (and to an extent, Buddhism as well). That’s why ‘orthodoxy’ or ‘heresy’ is a rather vague or even non-existent concept in most Hindu or Buddhist contexts.
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rossum
Guest
Different people have different definitions. The Buddhist version differs in that there is no single unchanging soul/atman passing through multiple lives. The Hindu or Jain version is like a necklace with multiple beads (lives) on a single piece of string (one soul). The Buddhist version still has the beads, but they are on a chain. No single link of the chain extends the whole length of the necklace. Each link is different and is attached to the previous link and to the next link.
rossum
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Techno2000
Guest
If one said… Buddha taught Reincarnation… that would be wrong ?
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rossum
Guest
That depends on what the person in question thinks “reincarnation” is. If it includes a permanent unchanging soul, then the Buddha did not teach that. That which reincarnates is constantly changing in the manner of Heraclitus’ river.
Buddhism emphasises change. Anything that we think of as unchanging actually isn’t; our idea of it is mistaken. We live in a world where change is ubiquitous, with merely a thin veneer of apparent stasis laid over it. Other religions tend to see the opposite: a world of stasis with a thin veneer of apparent change laid over it.
rossum
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Techno2000
Guest
So is Re-Birth like… Born again in Christianity.
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rossum
Guest
No, there is no soul in Buddhism while there is in Christianity.
Many of the underlying assumptions of the Abrahamic religions do not apply in Buddhism. There are some similarities, especially in the moral area, but the underlying philosophy is not the same. Ideas like sin, salvation, redemption, forgiveness etc. are either absent or very different.
For example, in Christianity Jesus’ resurrection is seen as a success and a vindication. In Buddhism is is seen as a failure. Living again after death shows He did not attain nirvana. The Buddha died for the last time at the end of his life and was not reborn. That is a measure of his success.
For a Buddhist an infinite life implies infinite suffering, whether in heaven or in hell.
rossum
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openmind77
Guest
Not really. Reincarnation and Rebirth essentially mean the same thing, the difference is defining what it is that is reborn. Hindus say it is a permanent soul that is reborn in a new body. Buddhists say something more difficult to understand. But here is the Dalai Lama’s take on reincarnation: dalailama.com/messages/statement-of-his-holiness-the-fourteenth-dalai-lama-tenzin-gyatso-on-the-issue-of-his-reincarnation
BTW, I personally believe that Jesus taught the concept of reincarnation and that teaching was expunged at the Council of Nicaea.
We will learn the truth regarding reincarnation (one way or the other) when the Christ returns and corrects all such misunderstandings.
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Techno2000
Guest
Thank you, rossum… I was hoping you would show up on my Thread
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Servant19
Guest
Not sure what you make of all that TechnoThank you, rossum… I was hoping you would show up on my Thread
I especially loved your very direct way of trying to refute Baha’i teaching in this matter.
The fact is, that just because Buddhism doesn’t teach about the existence of a soul, it still teaches the constantly changing human being through a “not fully defined” inner reality.
When we look at what being “born again” is in Christianity, we fundamentally see the soul being filled with the grace of Jesus, which “changes” mans inner reality from one state to another.
This is essentially the same thing as the “change” that rossum talks about.
Just because different wording and definitions are used does not in any way mean that they are completely different concepts.
They are…
.
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