Afterlife (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, December 02, 2011, 17:03 (4718 days ago) @ xeno6696

MATT: He [Buddha] taught that the wheel of repetition could be broken by solid realizations in the present. While I can't put words into the mouth of Shakyamuni... modern Buddhist thought does not seem to believe in anything other than the present. […] Samsara and Karma, from the writings of Llama and Hanh only speak of death and rebirth within our own life... I've seen nothing to suggest a thought of a literal death and rebirth in the traditional Hindu sense...which makes sense because Shakyamuni preached severance from reincarnation.

Thank you for your patient explanations. I don’t want to take up too much of your time on this, but I’m still puzzled by the apparent shift from the traditional concept of rebirth/reincarnation. I don’t understand how it could have become so ingrained if the Buddha himself and his disciples never taught it. The “wheel of repetition” was traditionally that of samsara, and “severance from reincarnation” meant an end to this cycle of literal death and rebirth, which only happened when the person achieved enlightenment. The current view as you’ve described it seems to be that the whole process can only take place during this lifetime, and death and rebirth are, presumably, just images for every day-to-day experience – like saying each passing second is a death and each new second is a rebirth. So it’s now or never for enlightenment.

This may be so, but it doesn’t seem to be the view of the current Dalai Lama. You say “he *never* makes mention of an afterlife in a non-allegorical sense, and all of his discussions in regards to reincarnation and the wheel of Dharma are always focused on your life here and now... never on a future life.” A statement made on his own website on 24 September this year, sets out his thoughts on the subject:

www.dalailama.com/messages/tibet/reincarnation-statement

“In order to accept reincarnation or the reality of Tulkus [reincarnations of spiritual masters], we need to accept the existence of past and future lives. Sentient beings come to this present life from their previous lives and take rebirth again after death.”

“To reject past and future rebirth would contradict the Buddhist concept of the ground, path and result.”

“There are many different logical arguments given in the words of the Buddha and subsequent commentaries to prove the existence of past and future lives.”

“There are people who can remember their immediate past life or even many past lives.” (Interesting in view of earlier discussions.)

The context of all this is the huge problem now created by the Chinese insistence on choosing his successor. I’m not doubting what you say about other commentators (he mentions one school himself), but his article suggests that perhaps the issue is not quite as cut and dried as you think.