Reincarnation in Buddhism

[mulyo13]

Originally Posted by DoctorStrange

Has it always been part of the teachings of Buddhism ? Or did that come later ?

I remember debating on some things spiritual (quite a while ago), and people did not believe me when i said reincarnation is part of Buddhism. I knew this to be true, but when i looked it up, i found a certain portion of Japanese Buddhists believe in reincarnation, and that was the only "evidence" i had to confirm my point.

Here's some answers from master Deshimaru(Japanese Soto Zen tradition)



You often say that practicing zazen is getting into one's coffin. What is death, really, in Zen?
Good question. Zazen and death are not the same. Death means not breathing anymore, while in zazen you concentrate on breathing. No relationship. Have you read the Genjokoan? It explains the relationship between zazen and death very precisely. You must read it. You will understand. Firewood becomes ashes; the ashes cannot become firewood again and the firewood cannot see its own ashes. It's the same relationship as that between life and death. And yet I say: zazen is the same as getting into one's coffin, living Nirvana, like death. Nirvana is the finish of everything - ku, non-shiki. Activity stops. The complete stop means death. The total cessation of the three actions defines death. But Hinayana Buddhism is wrong when it says that in order to get to nirvana one must stop eating, stop breathing. Illusions disappear in those conditions, no doubt, but one is almost dead. Buddha tried those methods and discarded them. Professor Akishige says that "when consciousness ceases the body is close to the state of death." Tranquil. But that is not the normal condition of consciousness either. You grow weak, and a little peculiar. Being close to death is not hishiryo consciousness. For one day, two days, a few days, it is possible to stop eating; during his period of austerity Buddha ate a single grain of rice each day. But I never said that one had to practice the condition of death. Nobody would want to follow that. Do not be anxious. You must eat, but be able to reduce the amount of food you need. Dogen wrote, "An empty stomach is not the normal condition," because then both body and consciousness become weak. The brain grows tired and a special form of consciousness develops that can lead to hallucinations. I have had the experience myself. The mind takes complete control over the body. In Zen, trying to achieve some special conditions is not the way. True, nirvana is also a balance of mind and body. But eating is necessary. When I am teaching I say that you should become as though you were getting into your coffin. The words can jar people. It's not necessary to get into a real coffin. You can imagine it: ``nothing"


This morning you said that the spirit of Master Yamada, who has just died, was in this dojo. What do you think about life after death?
It is a problem with which many people are preoccupied. To cover it thoroughly I should have to give a two hour lecture. What happens after death? This is a religious problem, and it is not necessary to think too much about it. People who don't want to die are always worried about it. In Buddhism you will find no commentary on after-death. "Here and now" is what is essential. Metaphysical issues cannot be settled one way or the other. Their premises can be neither confirmed nor disproved; nothing can be decided about them. What does the mind become after death? Nobody has come back to tell us. So we must not be too attached to death. That is the sense of Dogen's famous saying, "The firewood cannot see its ashes." Firewood stands for life and ashes for death. "The ashes cannot see the firewood." You can also compare life to the images forming on the television screen, death to the interruption of the images when you turn the set off. If we look, our vision is a subjective vision. If we turn the button, the image disappears.


But do you think the soul lives on after death?
What do you think? That is a very complex problem, one that is creating difficulties for modern science. I cannot deny it, but I cannot believe it either. Science cannot find a soul in the brain or heart or in any other part of the body. And yet the action of our consciousness goes on. Our karma, our actions, the action of our karma continue. If you hit someone the action continues. When we think, the karma of that thought continues. When you turn off your television set the image disappears from the screen but it continues over the waves. It's the same. The world of now and the spiritual world are reversed, become opposite, but continue. It is a problem which is at once easy and hard. But if I explain it, you are likely to misunderstand. I do not believe that the soul goes up to heaven or down to hell. It cannot get out of the coffin to go anywhere. But the influence of consciousness goes on. There is the story of the master and the disciple who were going to a funeral. The disciple pointed to the coffin and said, "Is that living or not?" And the master answered, "I cannot answer, I say nothing!" The master was clever, neither negative nor positive. To think "I'll go to heaven and be with my family again" is imagination. But to answer "You're a fool to believe that" is no good either. It is better to say nothing. I have my own ideas, but if I make categories in regard to this matter what I say will be generalization, whereas in reality I should have to give a different answer to each person. The problem is a very deep one, touching upon the essence of religions. You must not make categories; the problem is different for each person.


The principle of reincarnation provides an answer to many of our questions. But Buddhism and Hinduism do not agree on this subject.
It is true that Buddhism was influenced by the old Indian tradition to some degree. But Buddha himself was not so keen on it. You change your incarnation: that is Buddhism's answer. In Zen, there is no reincarnation, for example, a cat turning into a human being or vice versa. That is a theory from the Indian tradition, and not a very important one, even if it did influence Mahayana Buddhism. Does the soul remain after death? It's a problem for one's consciousness. According to modern physiology, the brain and its cells continue to live for two or three days - maybe, in some dead people, consciousness is not completely dead. The last state of consciousness is very important. You continue on from that state of consciousness. What should be your last thought? If you are accustomed to practicing zazen your last breath will be that of a normal consciousness - without consciousness. In times past, when physiology was not so highly developed, imagination played an important part in the work of philosophers and religious figures: reincarnation, the resurrection of Christ. In Christianity, there is eschatology, belief about the last day of the world that has not come yet. But at the death of each individual the world stops, and one can communicate with eternity.


If there's no such thing as reincarnation, why is one's last moment of consciousness so important?
The mushotoku attitude is important. "I must go to heaven, I must get born in another life"; you don't need to think like that. If you think of anything, if you have a desire, then you're still hanging on to your past existence. It's better to be mushotoku unconsciously. True calm, true peace. People tend to attach too much importance to the idea of heaven: "If I die I must go to heaven." It is useless to build such images in your subconscious. Non-consciousness is the highest attitude. If you have a thought, it will not be effaced during that day or two of transition; but if you are in harmony with the cosmic system your activity, your consciousness will quickly return to the cosmos. During zazen you can harmonize with the cosmic system. Psychology defines it as non-consciousness. Buddhism calls it the alaya consciousness; and I am always repeating that you must go back to the normal consciousness. Through zazen you can get there unconsciously; it is the transcendent consciousness, out of which right behavior, right actions can spring. All our cells, all our neurons are activated. Each thing you perceive is felt by your neurons. Nervous energy is transmitted directly to them. Desires arise from perceptions: the desire to continue, the desire to possess. This activity, the activity of living, is incessant. Ideas are constantly arising, the consciousness grows complicated. So we must come back and back to the normal condition. Even when we sleep our consciousness is at work, part of the time; when we sleep completely, that is non-consciousness. Two hours of deep sleep, then dreams start again. It's all very complicated. In zazen, the body has just the right tonus. When you are asleep you are completely relaxed, no tonus at all. But during zazen you can see the dreams come out of the subconscious and you can return to the state of non-consciousness, the existence of which has been established by modern physiology and psychology. But you must not say, "Now I have no consciousness!" because that is conscious, and the state I am talking about is not a conscious one. When I say, "Five minutes more! Concentrate hard!" those last five minutes are very important. At the beginning many thoughts come, but after a while one can reach this state. Some people reach it at the end of five minutes, by concentrating on their posture and breathing out. You must not slump over or hang your head; you must keep the back of the neck well-stretched. When people think, their thumbs droop. You must pull yourself up and be very vigilant.


So you don't believe in reincarnation?
Believe? It is not so important. It is not necessary to believe. To determine whether reincarnation exists or not is a subjective matter. My own ideas on the subject are not entirely negative, but I do not say that "I must believe in it." As far as reincarnation is concerned, nobody has come back from death to tell us about it. But it excites the imagination, and primitive religions had a great many ideas about it. In this area, you cannot decide whether one path or the other is the right one. You can believe or not believe. I have had many metaphysical experiences and I believe in the metaphysical world but you cannot reduce it to some trivial thing. The cosmos is infinite. People write about the metaphysical world but they can only touch upon minute aspects of it, whereas it is infinite. So we cannot talk about it. My experience and that of other people are not the same, and we cannot decide if it is this way or that. Making categories reduces things to trivial dimensions.


If somebody can remember his previous lives, doesn't that imply that something is permanent?
People think of their own egos. They want to understand and cannot understand completely. They think egotistically. If you are not egotistical then the subject is not so crucial; zazen is much more important. Here and now can be far more effective. Master Dogen wrote deeply on this question of before birth, after death. Before birth: a drop of sperm from the father, an ovule from the mother...a drop of blood... That also is ku. It's not worth thinking about, analyzing. Only here and now is important. When you have to die you have to die, and in that moment this life ends. The more egotistical people are, the more they are attached to life and the more they think about death.

source