Interested in Becoming a Buddhist

Do Buddhists believe in reincarnation?

Does Buddhism have "beliefs" at all? Aren't the four noble truths beliefs?

 

Typically, yes. But you have to understand you can take buddhism without taking reincarnation. Reincarnation was a type of scientific fact of the ancient eastern world which was incorporated into a lot of their culture and philosophies.

See, ancient peoples noticed that there were many, many human beings who were being born all the time. But they were confused; where were all the "new souls" coming from? They couldn't agree on a plausible natural mechanism which could continuously pump out new souls. Then they realized; these souls are not new at all; as soon as one person dies, their soul transmigrates into another body being born that instant. This solved the problem. of course back then they didn't have the kind of demographic data and analysis we have today, nor was their population booming like it is today, so it made sense and agreed with observation.

Later on some moralism slowly creeped into this cosmological view, and people agreed that if you were good in your life, when you died, you would transmigrate into a person who's life would be full of fortune and blessings. If you were a bad person in life, you might reincarnate as a snail. This was especially bad because in order to "move up" in reincarnations, you had to lead good, virtuous lives. But imagine trying to do that as a snail, or a worm, or a frog. clearly if you got bumped down far enough it would take you thousands of lifespans to regain your standing as a person.

The Buddha's thoughts on reincarnation is that this is essentially part of the torture; we keep coming back, and coming back, and coming back, and for what? he thought that if we could really WAKE UP and become free of attachments, that that was SUCH a virtuous and enlightened life to lead, that you would actually break out of the wheel of rebirth, and never be reborn again; your spirit would enter the realm of Nirvana, which is sometimes considered a place like heaven, but what the buddha really meant was that your spirit would be extinguished and you would find peace from eternal rebirth.

Consider however that buddhism works perfectly well without the concepts of rebirth or karma.

Buddhism at its core does not have beliefs, only observations. The four noble truths are not beliefs, any more than "When we are hungry, we eat" is a belief. They are observations of reality. Look at them. The first one, "there is suffering in life" . . . no belief is required to understand and agree with this. No invocation of deity or cosmological myth; only a hard look at real life. Buddhism is a scientific philosophy, by which I mean it is based on observations and experiments. Like anything in life, lots of people have slowly morphed it into a religion full of rituals, sacred texts and chants, sacred people and ideas about souls and the afterlife.

You need to understand that those are all IDEAS. The buddha was not interested in ideas at all; they are just things to get attached to. He explained that nothing should be believed based on authority, tradition, or any other reason, than because you looked into it and found that it was indeed the case.

-Thich Nhat Hanh (another AMAZING source of information on buddhism next to Alan Watts)

 

Thanks for your insight! I'm confused about something: Buddhists believe in complete and total surrender to the Now. Complete non-resistance to the Now, complete non-resistance to what IS. What if you're being raped?? You shouldn't put up resistance? What if you get AIDS?

 

That's a good book. It reminds me to appreciate all of life's moments as they come.

 

Mengzi it is.

If you want to become a buddhist learn buddhism.

If you want an enlightened view of your life, be honest.

 

Reincarnation is a fascinating subject.....and if true proves that nothing ever dies.I am a skeptic, though.

 

I've never thought of myself as a Buddhist bit I guess in a way I have been practicing Buddhism for several years as I meditate, try to live intentionally, and practice emotional detachment, so ill try to give this a shot

I dont think buddhism has anything to do with submitting to the will of another, like in your rape example. Its more about the ability to detach. Life is hard for everyone, for some life is brutally harder than others. Buddhism offers a path where one does not have to be defined by their hardships, where one can step away from the negative feelings associated with a difficult life situation and learn to enjoy the small beauty presented in life sometimes.

I'm not sure what you mean by the aids thing, but the same can be said of any life threatening or life altering illness. If you can step away from the despair and hopelessness you can learn to appreciate that which is right in front of you - the beauty of nature, the laughter of a child, whatever floats your boat and whatever is available in that particular moment of time from which you can glean happiness.

Life is really about each moment and I think Buddhism teaches one to not live in the past moment, to leave the emotions of yesterday with yesterday and focus on today.

 

It is kind of irrelevant if you can't remember.

 

Some people can remember with hypnosis and things, so they claim...I have had deja vu experiences about being in Scotland at a castle....before.Trickery of the mind, well, maybe....as I said, I am a skeptic.

 

Memories are living tissue period. You may recall past things because our memory is grown throughout our ecological development. Our mammal brain sits atop our lizard brain which sits atop pre-vertibrate chordata. We may be confused though about our role in life at this very moment much less certain about how you figure in past events. A past life is not going to help you avoid someone hitting you beyond instinctive reflex but your current learning might.
Perhaps not irrelevant but not practically relevant now other than the relative peace of mind in considering that death has no power over life.

 

is there a void in transition

just kidding

What I meant about being honest is being honest with yourself about what you see and what you don't see. For example you may react to hearsay as though the event happened to you or necessarily happened in the way that was described.This creates unintended consequences. You might have a mental/emotional response to hearsay that is out of proportion to real events and this creates unintended consequences It is hard to relinquish habit and easier to not get caught up. There is no anxiety that is not quelled about whether a thing is true or not by recognizing you don't know. Here is another example of common distortions or dishonest representations of our conditions. Perhaps you just broke up with someone and you think to yourself you are alone, even though in fact you are with a crowd of people. Seems silly but that lie becomes motive for further deliberations. You feel sorry for your self based on genuinely and patently false statements. Real events always support their constituents, what is not real does not exist.

 

Some people become so good at this that they are able to accept 10 minutes ago as ancient history that cannot be changed. This can make them look stoic or indifferent from a Western point of view.

 

You are using words like "surrender" and "non-resistance" but these are much too strong. This is not some conflict to fight. It just means to *be present*. Don't be lost in your head thinking about past or future, just be here now. If you are being raped, hopefully you are not stuck thinking about the future AIDS test you will undergo, and instead notice that right now, you can crush his testicles with your foot and escape. Living in the now does not mean you are "surrendering" to it; in fact it's the opposite, it empowers you to create the now that you wish the now to be

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CCmfcG0oziw/UrWuS6kiUsI/AAAAAAAACMA/8PHtYPy08Es/s1600/dalai-lama-science.png

 

Pretty much everything thrown out by the mind is distorted in some way.

 

Don't know if that is a particularly useful view in that even this statement should be considered suspect according to it's own definition. It is sufficient to say that limited perspectives can be deceiving. One such perspective is that now is a discrete moment.

 

Now as a discrete moment is the only true perspective. Thoughts and images produced by the mind come from memory. They are only true if seen for what they are.