I still am trying to understand the Buddhist approach. If our soul does not continue into the next life, who or what does? You mention the cycle of rebirth. Who or what exactly experiences “re” birth? Atman (self)?
" When we die, the mind, with all the tendencies, preferences, abilities and characteristics that have been developed and conditioned in this life, re-establishes itself in a fertilized egg. Thus the individual grows, is re-born and develops a personality conditioned both by the mental characteristics that have been carried over and by the new environment. The personality will change and be modified by conscious effort and conditioning factors like education, parental influence and society and once again at death, re-establish itself in a new fertilized egg. This process of dying and being reborn will continue until the conditions that cause it, craving and ignorance, cease. When they do, instead of being reborn, the mind attains a state called Nirvana and this is the ultimate goal of Buddhism and the purpose of life. Think of it being like radio waves. The radio waves, which are not made up of words and music but energy at different frequencies, are transmitted, travel through space, are attracted to and picked up by the receiver from where they are broadcast as words and music. It is the same with the mind. At death, mental energy travels through space, is attracted to and picked up by the fertilized egg. As the embryo grows, it centers itself in the brain from where it later “broadcasts” itself as the new personality. " –
Buddhanet.net (Established by a Bhikkhu)
The expression “cycle of rebirth” and “cessation of rebirth” (nibbanna) sound similiar to samsara and mosksa.
It is called Samsara in buddhism also. I tend to leave the terminology off of the message boards though because it is mostly meaningless to people who don’t already have some knowledge of it. For instance, instead of saying sangha, I’ll usually say “monkhood” so that Catholics understand a bit better. I don’t know much about Hindus but I think the goal they have is very similar. They hope to achieve nibbanna. Hindus believe that one must first be reborn into the Priest Caste. The Buddha was the biggest critic of the caste system at the time. He felt that anyone, like himself, could reach nibbanna without having to wait countless lifetimes to be reborn into the priest caste.
The reason why I say that Buddhists do not believe in reincarnation is because that would be fairly misleading as to what the dhamma teaches. Reincarnation is the idea that a permanent “self,” or soul, is reborn into new bodies. This idea of a permanent “self” is missing from Buddhism. The concept is similar but when you factor in the concept of anatta, you see how calling it “reincarnation” could be misleading.
