Key Elements Of Buddhism Views On The Afterlife

Spirits are known as the souls of a people that are intangible and immortal. Buddhism affiliates spirits as souls of people who are in the constant cycle of reincarnation and suffering. It is a believed that the souls of people are what carry them throughout the universe in the cycle as Buddhists believe in a constant state of change and that the physical existence and identity is never permanent; thus, everyone is associated with a spirit in this cycle of reincarnation. However, some spirits in Buddhism are also seen as deities which are those who attained a level of enlightenment yet instead of enlightenment, they stay to

Not everybody has the same beliefs about certain things. The world is a big place with billions of people and a lot of them have their own beliefs. One belief about death is the way Buddhism people see it and their belief is reincarnation. Today, Buddhism is found in Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and China and in India, Sri Lanka Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, Cambodia, also in the European countries and the USA. It is believed that the Buddhist population of the world is over five hundred million. Five hundred million people believe that if you die it is not the end of your life but the beginning of a new one. Your new life would be reborn in one of six realms which are: heaven, human beings, Asura, hungry ghost, animal and hell. This all depends on the karma of your life; the better your karma is, the better your reincarnation would be, and that is called the

After watching the movie “Unmistaken Child”, we can see the idea of people being reincarnated after they die. This process claims that after a person dies they begin a new life through a different physical body but hold their same ideas from their previously lives. It was believed to be an involuntary process that people would experience and only those who reached enlightenment could choose their form in the next life. The movie is based around one of the most revered Tibetan masters name Geshe Lama Konchog who passes away. Before he does his disciple Tenzin Zopa request that he come back to him in this world and he told him that it would depend on their prayers. The funeral of his master was a fire sacrifice. His body was set on fire and prayers were recited to

Plato says “Sleep comes after being awake and being awake comes after sleep. Likewise just as death comes from life so must death return to life again.”(Tolstoy) Plato is explaining that life is like a rotating wheel with only two parts. You will live and then you will die but then there has to be something after that which is life again and the circle restarts, and this process never stops. Plato says “They have stayed for certain appointed periods, some longer, some shorter, they are sent forth again into the generation of living things.” “The inhabitants of the upper realms live there longer than those of the lower realms and without the pains, but they are only more like the Immortals, not actually immortal themselves. When they have to fall down, they are forced to fall back again and are assigned to an appropriate status, depending on their nature and according to their deeds” (hellenismo). It may take years for a person to be reincarnated. And who or what you are reincarnated into depends on the nature of the spirit and what you need to do in your next life. Plato says it’s not by chance you get a certain body or born into a certain family it’s for a reason... “ Famous philosophers socrates and pythagoras also believe what plato believed. They believe reincarnation is real. In Hinduism, it is believed that an enduring soul survives after death, spends a variable amount of time in another realm, and then becomes associated with a new body.”. “Hinduism includes the concept of karma, the idea that the conditions into which one is born are determined by one's conduct in various previous lives”. Buddhists believe also that once some has dies they reincarnate but they believe that who you reincarnate to is based on your karma except for the Dalai Lama. They believe that the Dalai Lama doesn’t get karma because of their “devotion to complete compassion for all sentient beings”

Buddhist believes that all people are reborn over and over again until they reach spiritual enlightenment and then Nirvana. In Buddhism good deeds are rewarded by receiving a better rebirth. Karma dictates a person’s rebirth including their financial state, appearance, class, health, species, and intelligence. Buddhist ultimate goal is to strive for Nirvana. Nirvana is the state that exists beyond the cycle of reincarnation, freedom from Karmic suffering, and provides a state of heavenly paradise.

Buddhists believe that they have no identity. That there is no constant substantial self. They believe that after death, the spirit is recycled. During this formation, the personality is disintegrated and only certain memories, personal traits, and skills would be recycled to create a new person and when death approaches, then the process starts all over again (Rivas, T., 2005).

The Buddha described reincarnation as lighting successive candles using the flame of the preceding candle. Although each flame is casually connected to the one that came before it, it is not the same flame. When one personality dies, a new one comes into being. Buddhism teaches that what is reborn is not the person but that one moment gives rise to another and that this momentum continues even after death. Instead of a fixed entity, what is reborn is a “stream of consciousness,” whose quality has been conditioned by karma. It is similar to Hinduism in that karma determines the circumstances of subsequent lives, so there is continuity between personalities but not persistence of identity. Circumstances of rebirth are not seen as rewards or punishments from a controlling God but are the natural results of various good deeds and misdeeds. The cycle of rebirths involves suffering and continues until all cravings are lost and nirvana is achieved.

Buddhism is seen as a way of life rather than a form of religion that needs to be closely followed and constantly practiced. The idea of “enlightenment” carries through one’s entire lifetime in an attempt to reach nirvana, which is an end to all suffering. A person’s lifetime is spent being faithful and relying on karma to eventually achieve nirvana and enlightenment, in which people embark on the path of awakening. The awakening is a very crucial aspect of the Buddhist religion, as it was Buddha’s own personal awakening and understanding of how the world works, in which he passed it on to be believed and understood by others. It’s closely related to other religions in the way that rebirth and reincarnation are the beliefs surrounding the idea of the afterlife, however Buddhism in particular is an anatta tradition, or ‘not-self,’ which often sets it apart from other religions.This complex ideal entails that one’s external self, consciousness, feelings

Buddhism began in the fourth and fifth centuries before Christ by Siddhartha Gautama. The teachings of Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Gautama, are the major beliefs of Buddhism. Buddhism is a belief and religion based on an assortment of customs, principles, and practices. The name Buddha means the awakened one. Buddha’s teachings were of the termination of suffering, attaining nirvana, and absconding from the cycle of suffering and rebirth. Buddhism has spread all across Asia and throughout the world, now with between two hundred thirty million and five hundred million followers. Buddhism is largely based around the belief of Karma. Karma is the “action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation” (Dictionary.com) or “the cosmic principle according to which each person is rewarded or punished in one incarnation according to that person’s deeds in the previous incarnation.” (Dictionary.com) In simpler words, how you live your life now determines how you will come back when your current soul expires. Buddhists live their lives in hopes of achieving to be placed in the highest state known as Heaven. The after-life stems from Karma and leads into Rebirth. Rebirth is a course of action where humans proceed within multiple lifetimes in one or more of the six states of after-life. Each lifetime begins with birth and ends with death. Buddhists believe that we should not fear death because

Hinduism believes that realizing the soul is the embodiment of Brahman is essential to being released from the cycle of rebirth, Samsara. Hindus understand that the soul, atman, is permanent and only inhabits a physical shell which dies and passes the soul on to the next mortal shell, which can be better or worse than the previous depending on karma. With that said, Hindus believe in rebirth until one realizes the ultimate divine at which point they would be free from the punarjanma, the transmigration of the soul, liberating their souls to achieve moksha. Buddhism, on the other hand, challenges Atman with the belief in Anatman, which is non-self. Buddhists believe that the world is constantly changing, nullifying the concept of the permanent soul, Atman. There is no reason the soul remains unchanged in a perpetually changing environment.

Buddhism stands as a philosophy and a religion founding itself on the theory of a possible eternal soul. Until awakening is achieved, this eternal soul is locked in the vicious cycle of rebirth (Samsara). According to the Four Noble Truths preached by the Buddha, life is a perpetual suffering caused by desire and attachment, and freedom from suffering is only possible by practicing the Eightfold Path. The World is suffering in a succession of temptations and negative experiences from birth to death. Therefore Buddhism advises on searching to go beyond suffering, and only aspire to rest, nothingness, and liberation, into a final state called Nirvana. Happiness or Nirvana can eventually be achieved in a hereafter, another life, if man abandons any desire or perspective of action within his present life, in order to go past suffering.

Buddhism believes in escaping the cycle of rebirths not through coming to an ultimate soul (it doesn't believe in this), but through Nirvana the ultimate relinquishing of attachment to materialism by transcending response to earthy feeling. In this way, one ends suffering by escaping the cycle of rebirths. and reincarnations. Karma from past life can affect the happenings in a present one according to both Hinduism and Buddhism, but Buddhism believes that one can escape this karma and cycle of rebirths by practicing the 8-fold path which culminates in Nirvana. With this Nirvana too, one gains a spirit of meditation or blissful mindfulness which is the epitome of the Hindu Moksha. (The Buddha Garden.)

Buddhism’s liberation from samsara is known as "nirvana" which literally means "blowing out" or "extinction," like quenching a flame. In Buddhist teaching, humans are bound to samsara through the flames of anger, ignorance and desire. So when one attains nirvana, one quenches anger (which focuses on the past), ignorance (which focuses on the present) and desire (which focuses on the future). In Buddhism, humans escape life and death by quenching all the anger, ignorance and desire while the physical body may still be alive. This is why Buddhists speak of rebirth rather than reincarnation. Nirvana is

In the western world, a dominant belief is that after life, a person’s soul is sent to a place of eternal bliss, heaven, or a place of eternal damnation, hell. To Buddhists, this concept is not the norm. Buddhists believe that a person is reincarnated into another life form, either human or animal. What life form a person is reincarnated as is determined by the person’s karma. The concept of karma not only affects reincarnation, but also what path a person’s life takes. While much of the concept of karma is believable and comprehensible by a person of any denomination, some aspects are dependant upon a belief in reincarnation and that a person will eventually be punished for his sins or rewarded

There are many religions that have different beliefs about dying. Buddhist?s do not believe in life after death meaning heaven. Buddhist?s believe that when one dies he is reborn again and this continues until the person reaches Nirvana. Nirvana is