What is the typical Buddhist belief in the afterlife?
Posted on May 28th, 2010 by admin
I know there are many different varieties of Buddhist practice, but what do the vast majority of them think happens after we die.
My mom is a Nichiren Daishonin Buddhist and she believes in re-incarnation.
My dog died recently and she is hoping he will be re-incarnated as a human being.
I thought re-incarnation was a Hindu thing.
"After-life" is sort of a misnomer. There is nothing after life, some sects of Buddhism simply believe you never truly die, just simply move onto a new form. The idea is that you are composed of atoms, these atoms after your death are recycled and reused in nature, thus that which was ‘you’ is now everything else. There is no "self". Your identity or ‘ego’ dies along with you. We return back to emptiness [all things are made of emptiness, it is that which is the pure true nature of things] So you never actually die because you were never actually ’something’ in the first place. Just a specific configuration of atoms/information that developed the ability to say "ME". [in truth there is no clear distinction between you and the rest of the world, it is all one]
However some sects believe that awareness or consciousness is as much a substance as is atoms/molecules, as such this subjective experience would then also be recycled. So that upon death you may wake up in another person’s bed, with none of your previous memories or inclinations and you would have all of the memories, tendencies, emotions, identity of this new person. This would then be you. So the cycle from this interpretation is that we just keep waking up from dreams over and over again living out new lives thinking they are real. The only way to break the cycle is to achieve Nirvana.
May 29th, 2010 at 1:28 am
They come back.
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May 29th, 2010 at 1:54 am
XXX
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May 29th, 2010 at 2:33 am
Buddhist believe in reincarnation as well. The basic idea is you keep coming back-remain in the cycle of birth- attachment-death, until you achieve enlightenment. The Buddha Siddhartha did this all in the one life. When one becomes enlightened they become a Bodhisattva (I think that means knower of truth) and they can choose to remain and guide others or go beyond this plane to exist in the Buddha Mind or pure consciousness. That is really simplified and some groups may not agree on all points-say the Zen and Chan Buddhists, or other who include a pantheon.
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May 29th, 2010 at 3:14 am
"After-life" is sort of a misnomer. There is nothing after life, some sects of Buddhism simply believe you never truly die, just simply move onto a new form. The idea is that you are composed of atoms, these atoms after your death are recycled and reused in nature, thus that which was ‘you’ is now everything else. There is no "self". Your identity or ‘ego’ dies along with you. We return back to emptiness [all things are made of emptiness, it is that which is the pure true nature of things] So you never actually die because you were never actually ’something’ in the first place. Just a specific configuration of atoms/information that developed the ability to say "ME". [in truth there is no clear distinction between you and the rest of the world, it is all one]
However some sects believe that awareness or consciousness is as much a substance as is atoms/molecules, as such this subjective experience would then also be recycled. So that upon death you may wake up in another person’s bed, with none of your previous memories or inclinations and you would have all of the memories, tendencies, emotions, identity of this new person. This would then be you. So the cycle from this interpretation is that we just keep waking up from dreams over and over again living out new lives thinking they are real. The only way to break the cycle is to achieve Nirvana.
References :