Buddhism: Details about 'Rebirth Buddhism'

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Rebirth in the context of other religions and other Buddhist beliefs

One of the features that distinguishes the Middle Eastern religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) from the Indian religions (most notably Hinduism and Buddhism) is the view of life and death. For the religions of the Middle East, life and death are linear: a being is born, lives, and then dies, at which point their soul or other death-surviving component, transmigrates to a domain that is not normally accessible to living beings and generally remains there indefinitely, or until some future at the end of the world. (There are exceptions to this rule, such as the dibbukim of Judaism, but those are in fact exceptions rather than the rule.)

For the religions of India, existence is cyclical. A being is born, lives, dies and then is re-born. For Hinduism, this process is known as reincarnation and provides a framework that is consistent with its other beliefs. There is a permanent self (atman, which would equate to the soul in western philosophy) which survives death and comes back into flesh (reincarnates) as another living being, based on its karmic inheritance.

For Buddhism, this theory is inconsistent with its primary philosophy which postulates that

  • there is nothing that is permanent and survives death (anicca)
  • there is no ultimate self (anatta)

Buddhism was founded in the context of Hinduism. The Buddha was born and grew up in a Hindu society, where belief in reincarnation was integral to the religious and cultural composition of that society. Yet the mechanics of reincarnation cannot be so easily explained, given the above principles of Buddhism.

The Buddha set out the law of dependent origination which seeks to explain the complex steps that lead from death to a new life, using the term rebirth rather than reincarnation. Thus it can be seen that rebirth is a derivative view of reincarnation that maintains consistency with the remainder of Buddhist belief.

At the same time (and paralleled in other terminology definitions, such as Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha) there

is another, more refined view of rebirth which describes the cycle of death and rebirth in the context of consciousness rather than bodily birth and death.

Rebirth as Buddhist Reincarnation



It is sometimes said that it is our saṃskāras, or volitional tendencies, that are reborn. According to this view, we have tendencies to act and think in particular ways. But again, how is it that saṃskāras can be transferred from one being to another? Perhaps still more difficult to understand is how a being in one life can reap the consequences of the conduct of another who is now dead.

These questions were problematic for the early Buddhists, and they came up with many theories to respond to them. The Puggalavāda school believed in a personal entity (puggala) that transmigrates from life to life to provide the link of personal continuity that allows for karma to act on an individual over time. The medieval Pali scholar Buddhaghosa posited a `rebirth-linking consciousness' (patisaṅdhi), 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. 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. Another school, the Sautrantika, made use of a more poetic model to account for the process of karmic continuity. 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



The being in this intermediate state was known as a gandhabba (Sanskrit gandharva), and for pregnancy to occur a gandhabba is propelled towards rebirth through its desire for sex. The gandhabba witnesses its potential father and mother in sexual union and (if it is male) experiences lust for his mother and hatred towards the father, whom he sees as a rival (and vice versa). (Modern technologies, such as in vitro fertilization and cloning, would seem difficult to accommodate into this account.) Through its desire for sex, the gandhabba interposes itself between the parents. It then installs itself in the womb until birth takes place. Not all gandhabbas are conscious of their actions, for example, it might enter the womb to shelter from a chaotic storm.


Rebirth as Cycle of Consciousness


The explanation of rebirth as a cycle of consciousness is much more 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.



Vicki MacKenzie, Reborn in the West, HarperCollins, 1997. ISBN 0722534434
Martin Willson, Rebirth and the Western Buddhist, Wisdom Publications, 1987. ISBN 0861712153
Nagapriya, Exploring Karma and Rebirth, Windhorse Publications, Birmingham 2004. ISBN 1899579613

Sources that identify rebirth with reincarnation

  • Punarbhava

Reinkarnasi Kelahiran semula Wedergeboorte (boeddhisme) Renascimento (budismo)

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Rebirth_%28Buddhism%29". A list of the wikipedia authors can be found here.