Is there Buddhism without reincarnation?
There is a kind of American Buddhism that has been developing. There have been a number of recent books by authors like Jack Kornfield that present Buddhism for Westerners. There is even scientific research showing the psychological and physical benefits for meditation.
Out of curiosity and because there are aspects of Buddhism that I find appealing, I attended a meditation session given by a local Buddhist group.
There were no people there of Asian ancestry. The literature that was given out emphasizes the “experiential” aspects fo Buddhism. It hardly seemed to be like a religion at all. Being an atheist in search of a secular equivalent of religion, this suits me fine, but it still seems a little weird.
For something to be called a religion it should require a leap of faith of one sort or another. As I understand it, the leap of faith in Buddhism is the belief in reincarnation and this belief is as fundamental to Buddhism as belief in salvation is to Christianity.
Buddhists believe in separate physical and spiritual selves and their objective is to split the spiritual off from the physical. If you do not succeed in doing this in one lifetime you get to do it again in succeeding lifetimes until you get it right. Once you become pure spirit, you are permitted to enter Nirvana.
This is no more or less absurd to me than any other religious belief, but it seems to me that you can’t have Buddhism without it and that those who claim to be doing so are creating something entirely new and should own up to it.
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Buddishm is not a religion. It is a belief. Buddhism and reincarnation is one piece which cannot be seperated. No scientific evidence have proven reincarnation to a false fact and neither have it proven it is correct.
Long before making it to the West, Buddhism shook out into various schools that have somewhat different takes on doctrinal matters such as rebirth. But it’s important to understand that doctrine plays a much different role in Buddhism than in Western religions. None of what Westerners take for doctrine in Buddhism actually constitutes articles of faith. No beliefs are necessary, to say the very least (many Buddhists would say that any beliefs at all act as a hindrance). This is not a belief system such as we’re familiar with; it’s a method, a practice, for reaching an understanding of the underpinnings of reality for oneself. There is faith involved, but not faith in the sense of believing this or that doctrine; the faith is in the efficacy of the method.
There are plenty of references to rebirth in classical Buddhist writing. Buddhism developed in the context of Brahmanist Indian culture, where rebirth was taken for established fact. Most Buddhists, including American Buddhists, would probably be inclined to sympathize with the idea of rebirth. But having said all that, the notion of rebirth is entirely beside the point in the actual practice of Buddhism. Believing it or not believing it changes nothing as regards the work that makes Buddhism Buddhism. The same could be said of any other aspect of Buddhist doctrine.
Your statement about separate physical and spiritual selves, and becoming pure spirit, leave me completely baffled. In my 2 decades of Buddhist practice, this is the first time I’ve seen these presented as Buddhist ideas, and they completely contradict both my own experience and what writings I’m familiar with.
American Buddhism does, in many cases, look different from Buddhism elsewhere, but that’s largely the nature of Buddhism itself. In every step of the way from India outward, Buddhism acquired the flavor of its new cultural context. The forms of Buddhism practiced in Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and Tibet look just as different from each other as from American Buddhism. The overriding concern is that the core of the practice remains intact through all these peregrinations. A great deal of effort and vigilance goes into making sure that, no matter what changes in the external trappings, the essential process of discovering truth remains the same.
I always think of Buddhism as a way of life, of being…not as a religion. Since I’m almost entirely unfamiliar with Buddhism, though, I’m not sure if that’s correct. Harp?
Harp, I misspoke when I mentioned physical and spiritual selves. It would be more accuate to say that in order to enter Nirvana a person has to be free of physical cravings. It is the physical cravings that keep the soul earthbound.
Buddha wrote about reincarnation and Nirvana. I would be very surprised if reincarnation is not believed in the places where Buddhists are most heavily concentrated – Tibet, China and parts of Southeast Asia.
Harp, that was excellent to read. I lurved you for it but I’m over my limit.
@augustlan
Buddhism doesn’t feel like a religion to Westerners because there’s no God concept, and Westerners don’t quite know what to do with that. There is however a rich, even exuberant, body of ritual, iconography and liturgy associated with Buddhism, which are things we associate with religion here, not to mention the tradition of ordained priesthood (hard to understand outside of the context of religion). I once heard religion defined as being about getting beyond entanglement in ourselves, and I guess it’s in that sense that the religious nature of Buddhism is best understood, since that certainly is its emphasis.
@LostInParadise
Reincarnation absolutely is the prevailing belief in most Buddhist countries. But that doesn’t mean that it’s essential to Buddhism. Yes, the Buddha talked about rebirth, and yes, he talked about karma as the driving force of rebirth. But the practice Buddha prescribed is not a matter of manipulating karma and rebirth in order to climb some spiritual ladder, it’s about leaving karma and rebirth behind altogether, because they belong to the world of delusion.
In classical Buddhist teaching, karma and rebirth are caused by our mistakenly clinging to the idea of a separate self (“soul” is a problematic translation). Our attachment to that delusion causes us to act in ways that put into motion the chain of causes and effects (karma) that leads to endless rebirth. This is Buddha’s explanation of our predicament, and needs to be understood as such. It has nothing to do with the remedy for the predicament, because that involves letting go of self (and so karma and rebirth) once and for all.
It’s a bit like going to a doctor because you don’t feel well. The doctor examines you and explains that you’re infected with microbe X and writes you a prescription for an antibiotic that will rid you of that bug. His explanation might satisfy your curiosity, but it’s not necessary for you to believe his explanation in order to feel better; you just have to take the medicine. The faith is in the medicine, but to have faith in the medicine it helps to hear the doctor tell you why he’s giving it to you. Likewise, practicing Buddhism diligently would have its salutary effects whether or not the Buddha had ever talked about karma and rebirth; but humans are hungry for reasons, so a bit of theory may help make the medicine go down.
I am a Buddhist, and I think it’s important for us to remember that one of Siddhartha Gautama’s core teachings was that we must question everything we’re taught, and his statements are no more or less credible than those of you or me.
Many people forget that Siddhartha gautama was a Hindu. It is my opinion that he WAS freed from suffering, but that his ideas of suffering as rebirth/karma were held over from his hindu beliefs.
I do not consider Buddhism to be a ‘religion,’ (at least not as Siddhartha intended it) because a religion deals with BELIEF, while as Buddhists we must be skeptics and believe nothing unless we experience it firsthand. Belief is the basis of religion and experience is the basis of practice…
Buddhism, as I approach it and as I know Siddhartha imagined it, is a practice and not a religion. You can be a fullhearted Buddhist and a fullhearted Atheist—in fact, id consider belief in nothing but scientific facts and logic to be more buddhalike than writing karma-doctrines for life.
And I strongly recommend the book ‘Buddhism without beliefs’ to you all.
Buddhism is a religious tradition. It has many beliefs, including reincarnation and rebirth. Because the whole thing is that contradictory, just like all other religions. But basically Harp said it all very well.
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