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Four Noble Truths |
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Three marks of existence |
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Gautama Buddha |
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Practices and Attainment |
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Buddhahood · Bodhisattva |
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Bhutan · Cambodia · China |
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Comparative Studies |
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Rebirth in Buddhism is the doctrine that the consciousness of a person (as conventionally regarded), upon the death or dissolution of the aggregates (skandhas) which make up that person, becomes one of the contributing causes for the arising of a new group of skandhas which may again be conventionally considered a person or individual. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices The History of Buddhism spans the 6th century BCE to the present starting with the birth of the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama. Foundation to the Common Era Some sources give the date of the Buddha's birth as 563 BCE and others as 624 BCE Theravada Buddhist countries tend to use the latter figure Lists and numbering of Buddhist councils vary between and even within schools Several Buddhist terms and concepts lack direct translations into English that cover the breadth of the original term Background Why the Buddha is said to have taught in this way is illuminated by the social context of the time in which he lived In sramanic philosophy Nirvana (निर्वाण| Nirvāṇa; निब्बान Nibbāna; Prakrit: णिव्वाण The Three Jewels, also called the Three Treasures, the Three Refuges, or the Triple Gem, are the three things that Buddhists take refuge Several Buddhist terms and concepts lack direct translations into English that cover the breadth of the original term According to the Buddhist tradition all phenomena other than Nirvana, ( sankhara) are marked by three characteristics sometimes referred to as the Dharma seals In Buddhist phenomenology and Soteriology, the five skandhas ( Sanskrit) or khandhas ( Pāli) are five "aggregates" Buddhist cosmology is the description of the shape and evolution of the universe according to the canonical Buddhist scriptures and commentaries Dhamma ( Pāli: धम्म or Dharma (धर्म in Buddhism has two primary meanings the teachings of the Buddha which lead to enlightenment The doctrine of pratītyasamutpāda (Sanskrit paticcasamuppāda; rten Karma ( Sanskrit: कर्मन karman, Pāli: कमा Kamma) means "action" or "doing" whatever A number of noted individuals have been Buddhists. Historical Buddhist thinkers and founders of schools Individuals are grouped by nationality except in cases where the Siddhārtha Gautama ( Sanskrit; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual Teacher from Ancient India and the founder A number of noted individuals have been Buddhists. Historical Buddhist thinkers and founders of schools Individuals are grouped by nationality except in cases where the In Buddhism, buddhahood ( Sanskrit: buddhatva. Pali: buddhatta. In the Buddhist context a bodhisattva (बोधिसत्त्व bodhisattva;; Vietnamese Bồ Tát; बोधिसत्त bodhisatta The four stages of Enlightenment in Buddhism are the four degrees of approach to full enlightenment as an Arahant which a person can attain in this life Theravada Buddhism Theravada Buddhism 's teachings on the paramitas can be found in late canonical books and post-canonical commentaries Buddhist meditation encompasses a variety of Meditation techniques that develop Mindfulness, concentration, tranquility and insight In English translations of Buddhist literature, householder denotes a variety of terms Obtaining exact numbers of practicing Buddhists can be difficult and may be reliant on the definition used Buddhist beliefs and practices vary according to region There are distinctions between and within the Buddhism practised in various regions including In South Asia Mahayana Buddhism is the State religion of Bhutan, and Buddhists comprise 98% of its population. History See also History of Buddhism in Cambodia Unconfirmed Singhalese sources assert that missionaries of King Asohka introduced Buddhism into Chinese Buddhism ( Pinyin fójiào refers collectively to the various schools of Buddhism that have flourished in China proper since ancient times Buddhism is a world religion which arose in Bihar, India and is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who is known as the Buddha (literally Among the five official religions of Indonesia, according to the state ideology of Pancasila According to Suharto, Buddhism and Hinduism were Indonesia's classical The history of Buddhism in Japan can be roughly divided into three periods namely the Nara period (up to 784 the Heian period (794–1185 and the post-Heian period Korean Buddhism is distinguished from other forms of Buddhism by its attempt to resolve what it sees as inconsistencies in Mahayana Buddhism Buddhism is the primary religion of Laos. The Buddhism practiced in Laos is of the Theravada tradition Buddhism is the second largest religion in Malaysia after Islam, with 19 Buddhism in Mongolia is essentially Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelugpa school History The history of Buddhism in Burmaextends nearly a millennium Buddha was born in Shakya kingdom which lies in Rupandehi district Lumbini zone of Nepal Historically Buddhism was incorporated into Russian lands as early as the late 16th century, when Russian explorers travelled to and settled in As of 2000 425% of the Singaporeans register themselves as Buddhist by religion General Buddhism in Sri Lanka is primarily of the Theravada school and constitutes the religious faith of about 70% of the populationAccording to traditional Buddhism in Thailand is largely of the Theravada school Nearly 95% of Thailand 's population is Buddhist of the Theravada school though Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including Buddhism came to Vietnam in the first century CE By the end of the second century Vietnam developed a major Buddhist centre in the region commonly known as the Luy Lâu Buddhism in the West broadly encompasses the knowledge and practice of Buddhism outside of Asia. The Schools of Buddhism. Buddhism is classified in various ways History Origin of the school The Theravāda school is ultimately derived from the Vibhajjavāda (or 'doctrine of analysis' grouping which was a continuation Mahayana ( Sanskrit: mahāyāna, Devanagari: महायान 'Great Vehicle' is one of the two main existing schools of Buddhism and a term for Vajrayana Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayana, Mantranaya, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and The Early Buddhist schools are those schools into which according to most scholars the Buddhist monastic Sangha initially split due originally to differences in The term pre-sectarian Buddhism is used by some scholars to refer to the Buddhism that existed before the various subsects of Buddhism came into being Buddhist texts can be categorized in a number of ways The Western terms "scripture" and "canonical" are applied to Buddhism in inconsistent ways by Western scholars Historicity and Background Place in the Canon Various Mahayana Sutras have been included in the Tibetan Canon and the Chinese Canon. The Tibetan Buddhist canon is a loosely defined list of Sacred texts recognized by various sects of Tibetan Buddhism. The cultural elements of Buddhism vary by region and include Buddhist Festivals and Observances Vesak The following is a List of Buddhist topics: A Abhidharma Aggañña Sutta Ahimsa Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices Vijñāna ( Sanskrit; Devanagari: विज्ञान or viññāṇa ( Pāli; Devanagari: विञ्ञाण In Buddhist phenomenology and Soteriology, the five skandhas ( Sanskrit) or khandhas ( Pāli) are five "aggregates" The consciousness arising in the new person is neither identical to, nor different from, the old consciousness, but forms part of a causal continuum or stream with it. The basic cause for this persistent re-arising of personality is the abiding of consciousness in avidya (ignorance); when ignorance is uprooted, rebirth ceases. Root of suffering Avidyā plays a key role in Buddhism and Buddhist doctrine and is the primary cause of suffering in {{IAST|saṃsāra}}.
Although the cessation of a life is not in itself a sufficient condition for the inception of a new life (since arhats, pratyekabuddhas and buddhas pass away without rebirth), the supporting conditions for a new birth are almost always present. In the sramanic traditions of ancient India (most notably those of Mahavira and Gautama Buddha) arhat ( Sanskrit) or arahant A Pratyekabuddha ( Sanskrit) or Paccekabuddha ( Pāli) literally "a lone buddha ", "a buddha on their own" or "a In Buddhism, buddhahood ( Sanskrit: buddhatva. Pali: buddhatta. From an external perspective, each life appears as a link in a beginningless sequence of lives, varying in length and in quality.
In traditional Buddhist cosmology, these lives can be in any of a large number of states of being, including those of humans, any kind of animal, and several types of supernatural being (see Six realms). Buddhist cosmology is the description of the shape and evolution of the universe according to the canonical Buddhist scriptures and commentaries The 31 realms ( Tibetan: rigs drug gi skye gnas) are the six categories of rebirths within the system of traditional Buddhist cosmology. The type of rebirth that arises at the end of one life is conditioned by the karmas (actions of body, speech and mind) of previous lives; good karmas will yield a happier rebirth, bad karmas will produce one which is more unhappy. Karma ( Sanskrit: कर्मन karman, Pāli: कमा Kamma) means "action" or "doing" whatever
In the traditional Buddhist languages of Sanskrit and Pāli, there is no word corresponding exactly to the English "rebirth". Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Pali ( ISO 15919 / ALA-LC: Pāḷi is a Middle Indo-Aryan language or Prakrit of India. A rebirth, that is, the state one is born into, is referred to as jāti, i. In Buddhism, Jāti (the Sanskrit and Pāli word for "birth" refers to the arising of a new living entity in saṃsāra. e. simply "birth", also referring to the process of being born or coming into the world in any way. The entire process of change from one life to the next is called punarbhava (Sanskrit) or punabbhava (Pāli), literally "becoming again"; it is also known simply as bhava, i. Bhava is the Sanskrit and Pāli word for "becoming" in the sense of 'ongoing worldly existence' from the root bhū "to become" e. "becoming". The process seen from a universal perspective, encompassing all living beings, is called saṃsāra.
From an interior perspective, a person who remembers or imagines a past life is likely to think of it as representing a continuity of existence between lifespans, i. e. , that the same person (however defined) was formerly one person (with a certain name and body) and is now a different person (with another name and body). This perspective is objectionable from the point of view of Buddhist philosophy on two counts. First, because it seems to postulate an enduring, self-existing entity that exists separate from the elements of mind and body, contrary to the Buddhist philosophical position of anātman. In Buddhist phenomenology and Soteriology, the five skandhas ( Sanskrit) or khandhas ( Pāli) are five "aggregates" In Buddhist philosophy, anatta ( Pāli) or anātman ( Sanskrit) refers to the notion of "not-self" Second, because it overlooks the characterization of this process as one of constant change, both within and between lives, in which the newly-arising life is conditioned by but in no respect identical to the predecedent life.
Nonetheless, the Buddha is represented using language reflecting the interior perspective in stories about his past lives in both jātakas and sūtras. Siddhārtha Gautama ( Sanskrit; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual Teacher from Ancient India and the founder The Jātaka Tales ( Sanskrit जातक and Pali, Malay: jetaka Lao: satok refer to a voluminous body of Folklore -like literature For instance, "At that time I was the Brahmin, the Great Steward. . . " (Mahāgovinda-sutta, DN. 19) or "Six times, Ānanda, I recall discarding the body in this place, and at the seventh time I discarded it as a wheel-turning monarch. . . " (Mahāsudassana-sutta, DN. 17). This can be regarded as a concession to the needs of conventional speech.
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Rebirth as cycle of consciousness
Another view of rebirth describes the cycle of death and rebirth in the context of consciousness rather than the birth and death of the body. In this view, remaining impure aggregates, skandhas, reform consciousness into a new form. In Buddhist phenomenology and Soteriology, the five skandhas ( Sanskrit) or khandhas ( Pāli) are five "aggregates"
Buddhist meditation teachers suggest that through careful observation of the mind, it is possible to see consciousness as being a sequence of conscious moments rather than a continuum of awareness. Meditation is a mental discipline by which one attempts to get beyond the conditioned "thinking" mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness Each moment is an experience of an individual mind-state: a thought, a memory, a feeling, a perception. A mind-state arises, exists and, being impermanent, ceases following which the next mind-state arises. Thus the consciousness of a sentient being can be seen as a continuous series of birth and death of these mind-states. In this context rebirth is simply the persistence of this process. Clearly this explanation of rebirth is wholly divorced from rebirth which may follow bodily death.
The explanation of rebirth as a cycle of consciousness is consistent with other core Buddhist beliefs, such as anicca (impermanence), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness) and anatta (non-self). Furthermore it is possible to observe a karmic link between these mind-states.
In the practice of Vipassana meditation, the meditator uses "bare attention" to observe the endless round of mind-states. Vipassanā ( Pāli) or vipaśyanā (विपश्यना Sanskrit) means Insight into the impermanent nature or Anicca, This observation derives insight and understanding from seeing this cycle of birth, death and rebirth without interfering, owning or judging the individual states of mind that arise and pass away. This understanding enables them to limit the power of desire, which according to the second noble truth of Buddhism is the cause of Dukkha (suffering, unsatisfactoriness) thus making possible the realisation of Nibbana. So it can be concluded that the understanding of rebirth in the context of the cycle of consciousness is an invaluable and practical component of the fundamental aim of Buddhism.
Rebirth as Buddhist reincarnation
Within Buddhism, the term rebirth or re-becoming (Sanskrit: punarbhava; Pali: punabbhava) is preferred to "reincarnation", as the latter is taken to imply there is a fixed entity that is reborn. Pali ( ISO 15919 / ALA-LC: Pāḷi is a Middle Indo-Aryan language or Prakrit of India. However, this still leaves the question as to what exactly the process of rebirth entails.
The lack of a fixed self does not mean lack of continuity. In Buddhist philosophy, anatta ( Pāli) or anātman ( Sanskrit) refers to the notion of "not-self" One of the metaphors used to illustrate this is that of fire. For example, a flame is transferred from one candle to another, or a fire spreads from one field to another. In the same way that it depends on the original fire, there is a conditioned relationship between one life and the next; they are not identical but neither are they completely distinct. The doctrine of pratītyasamutpāda (Sanskrit paticcasamuppāda; rten The early Buddhist texts make it clear that there is no permanent consciousness that moves from life to life.
Early Buddhists had to deal with the problems of establishing the nature of the causal link between two lives, especially the crucial one of how one being could receive the fruits of the actions of a previous being, now dead, and how saṃskāras, or volitional tendencies to act and think in particular ways can be transferred from one being to another.
The Puggalavāda school (now extinct) believed in a personal entity (puggala) separate from the five skandhas that provided a link of personal continuity that allows for karma to act on an individual over time. The Pudgalavāda or "Personalist" school of Buddhism broke off from the orthodox Sthaviravāda (elders school around 280 BCE In Buddhist phenomenology and Soteriology, the five skandhas ( Sanskrit) or khandhas ( Pāli) are five "aggregates" In Philosophy, personal identity refers to the essence of a self-conscious person that which makes him or her unique The medieval Pali scholar Buddhaghosa posited a 'rebirth-linking consciousness' (patisandhi), which connected the arising of a new life with the moment of death, but how one life came to be associated with another was still not made clear. Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa was a 5th century Indian Theravadin Buddhist commentator and scholar Some schools were led to the conclusion that karma continued to exist in some sense and adhere to a particular person until it had worked out its consequences. Karma ( Sanskrit: कर्म, kárman - "act action performance" Pali: kamma) is the concept of "action" Another school, the Sautrantika, made use of a more poetic model to account for the process of karmic continuity. The Sautrāntika were an early school of Buddhist philosophy. For them, each act 'perfumed' the individual and led to the planting of a 'seed' that would later germinate as a good or bad karmic result.
While all Buddhist traditions seem to accept some notion of rebirth, there is no unified view about precisely how events unfold after the moment of death. Theravada Buddhism generally asserts that rebirth is immediate. History Origin of the school The Theravāda school is ultimately derived from the Vibhajjavāda (or 'doctrine of analysis' grouping which was a continuation The Tibetan schools, on the other hand, hold to the notion of a bardo (intermediate state) which can last up to forty-nine days, and this has led to the development of a unique 'science' of death and rebirth, a good deal of which is set down in what is popularly known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including This is an article on a Buddhist concept For other meanings of the word Bardo, see Bardo (disambiguation The Tibetan word Bardo Also, Rick Strassman's book "The Spirit Molecule" touches on the association between the intermediate state and a possible scientific explanation. Dr Rick Strassman (born 1952 in Los Angeles California, United States) is a Medical doctor specialized in Psychiatry
While Theravada Buddhism generally denies there is an intermediate state, some early Buddhist texts seem to support it. One school that adopted this view was the Sarvāstivāda, who believed that between death and rebirth there is a sort of limbo in which beings do not yet reap the consequences of their previous actions but in which they may still influence their rebirth. Sarvastivada is an early school of Buddhism that held to 'the existence of all Dharmas in the past present and future the 'three times' The death process and this intermediate state were believed to offer a uniquely favourable opportunity for spiritual awakening.
There are many references to rebirth in the early Buddhist scriptures. These are some of the more important: Mahakammavibhanga Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 136); Upali Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 56); Kukkuravatika Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 57); Moliyasivaka Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 36. 21); Sankha Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 42. 8).
Rebirth in the context of other religions and other Buddhist beliefs
In the religions of Middle Eastern origin, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, life and death are believed to be linear: a being is born (usually understood as a new creation), lives, and then dies, at which point their soul or other part that survives death, passes to a domain that is inaccessible to living beings and remains there indefinitely, or until the end of the world. Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. The soul, according to many religious and philosophical beliefs is the self-awareness, or Consciousness, unique to a particular living (Note that reincarnation, in the limited form of gilgul neshamot plays a role in some forms of Judaism. Gilgul, Gilgul neshamot or Gilgulei Ha Neshamot ( Heb גלגול הנשמות refers to the concept of Reincarnation, emanating from the An even more restricted belief in reincarnation (tanasukh) is found in the Druze religion which is derived from Islam. The Druze ( Arabic: درزي derzī or durzī, plural دروز durūz) are a religious community found primarily in Syria, Lebanon )
The Buddha lived at a time of great philosophical creativity in India, and many different concepts of the nature of life and death that were proposed at that time. Some thinkers were materialists, believing that there was no existent consequent upon the end of a life, and that there was an ātman (self) which was annihilated upon death. Others believed in a form of cyclic existence, where a being is born, lives, dies and then is re-born, but in the context of a type of determinism or fatalism, in which karma played no role. Determinism is the philosophical Proposition that every event including human cognition and behaviour decision and action is causally determined Fatalism is a Philosophical doctrine emphasizing the subjugation of all events or actions to fate or inevitable predetermination Others were "eternalists", postulating an eternally existent ātman, comparable to the Western concept of the soul: when a being (or his body) dies, the ātman survives death and is re-embodied (reincarnates) as another living being, based on its karmic inheritance. The Ātman ( IAST: Ātman Sanskrit: आत्मन् is a philosophical term used within Hinduism and Vedanta to identify the Soul Karma ( Sanskrit: कर्म, kárman - "act action performance" Pali: kamma) is the concept of "action" This last belief is the one that has come to be dominant (with certain modifications) in modern Hinduism. Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent.
The Buddha is said to have taught a concept of rebirth that was distinct from that of any Indian teacher contemporary with him. This concept was consistent with the common notion of a sequence of related lives stretching over a very long time, but was constrained by two core Buddhist concepts: anattā, that there is no irreducible ātman or "self" tying these lives together; and anicca, that all compounded things are subject to dissolution, including all the components of the human person and personality. In Buddhist philosophy, anatta ( Pāli) or anātman ( Sanskrit) refers to the notion of "not-self" Impermanence ( Sanskrit: अनित्य anitya; Pāli: अनिच्चा anicca; Tibetan: མི་རྟག་པ་ The Buddha's detailed conception of the connections between action (karma), rebirth, and their ultimate causes is set out in the twelve links of dependent origination. Karma ( Sanskrit: कर्मन karman, Pāli: कमा Kamma) means "action" or "doing" whatever The Twelve Nidānas (from Pali nidāna "cause foundation source or origin" are the best-known application of the Buddhist concept of The doctrine of pratītyasamutpāda (Sanskrit paticcasamuppāda; rten
Commentaries
- Steven Collins, Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravada Buddhism, Cambridge, 1982. ISBN 0-521-39726-X
- Peter Harvey, The Selfless Mind: Personality, Consciousness and Nirvana in Early Buddhism, Curzon, 1995. ISBN 0-7007-0338-1
- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Living Meaningfully, Dying Joyfully: The Profound Practice of Transference of Consciousness, Tharpa, 1999. ISBN 81-7822-058-X
- Glenn H. Mullin, Death and Dying: The Tibetan Tradition, Arkana, 1986. ISBN 0-14-019013-9
- Vicki MacKenzie, Reborn in the West, HarperCollins, 1997. ISBN 0-7225-3443-4
- Tom Shroder, Old Souls: Scientific Search for Proof of Past Lives, Simon and Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-684-85193-8
- Francis Story, Rebirth as Doctrine and Experience: Essays and Case Studies, Buddhist Publication Society, 1975. ISBN 955-24-0176-3
- Robert A. F. Thurman (trans. ), The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Liberation Through Understanding in the Between, HarperCollins, 1998. ISBN 1-85538-412-4
- Martin Willson, Rebirth and the Western Buddhist, Wisdom Publications, 1987. ISBN 0-86171-215-3
- Nagapriya, Exploring Karma and Rebirth, Windhorse Publications, Birmingham 2004. ISBN 1-899579-61-3
External links
- A Buddhist Ethic Without Karmic Rebirth?
- Dhamma Without Rebirth?
- Does Rebirth Make Sense?
- Causal Relationship An analysis of Paṭiccasamuppāda in the Nikāyas
Sources that identify rebirth with reincarnation
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