Title - Study of Rebirth Linking on Buddhism

Department - Abhidhamma
Student Name - Ven. Indācāra
Register No - SBA-TL-000115
Submitted Date - 25.9.2020

Study of Rebirth Linking on Buddhism

Introduction
In regard to this title, there are many different views and ways on the basic
of dissimilar religion. However here I would like to present about it by means of
Buddhist view. Moreover it is very popular all over the world because it is relevant to
everyone and on top of that it is applicable to animals and Devas as well. On this
paper Rebirth Linking means that a person who is death will be reborn the next life.
On the other hands, we can say a life after death. Here some religions do not
believe in a life after death as previously I sad there are some different views.
Body
As for Buddhism, Rebirth Linking or life after death simply is a true. What is
more Buddha teaches that when a person dies they are reborn and that this process
of death and rebirth will continue until Nirvana is attained. This raises the question:
"What is the person?" Most religions believe that the core of the person, the real
person, is the soul, a non-material and eternal entity that survives in the afterlife.
Buddha on the other hand says that the person is made up of thoughts, feelings and
perceptions interacting with the body in a dynamic and constantly changing way.
At death this stream of mental energy is re-established in a new body. Thus
Buddha is able to explain the continuity of the individual without recourse to the
belief in an "eternal soul", an idea which contradicts the universal truth of
impermanence. Different Buddhist traditions explain the process of rebirth
differently. Some say that rebirth takes place immediately, others that it takes 49
days. Some say that there is an intermediate state (antarabhava) and others that
there is not. All agree however that the circumstances into which one is reborn is
conditioned by the sum total of the kamma created in the previous life.
 Critics of the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth say that if there is no soul, only a
changing stream of mental energy, then there could be no identity and thus to talk
of a person being reborn or experiencing the results of good or bad actions done in
the past, is meaningless. However this criticism fails to understand the phenomenon
of identity in change. Even within a single life we can notice a person change,
sometimes quite dramatically, and yet still be able to recognize them as the same
person. This is possible because different aspects of the person changes at different
velocities. For example, the complexion and amount of wrinkles on a person's face
may change with age while the general shape of the face changes little.
Again, a person may change their beliefs while holding them with the same
intensity as they held their former ones or perhaps retain the same beliefs but in a
more moderate way than before. To use a simile - the Ganges River is changing
every moment and over the centuries its width, its course, the quantity and quality
of the water it contains have all changed and yet it can still be recognized as the
same river. Thus the idea of a dynamic personality does not contradict the idea of
identity.
Other critics claim that rebirth was not a part of the Buddha's original
teachings or that the Buddha copied the idea of rebirth from the Hindu doctrine of
reincarnation. Both these claims are contradicted by the evidence. The doctrine of
rebirth is an integral part of the earliest records of the Buddha's teachings as
preserved in the Pali Tipitaka and there is no evidence that it is a later interpolation.
An examination of pre-Buddhist Hindu literature shows that the idea of reincarnation
or rebirth was not widely accepted. It is not mentioned in either the Vedas or the
Brahmana Sutras. Several Upansads teach it while others condemn it as heresy. So
the idea was apparently current before the Buddha but it was not widely accepted
and it was certainly not a part of orthodox Hinduism, something that only happened
much later, probably as a result of Buddhist influence.
In a way, the Buddha taught that human beings are each born an infinite
number of times, unless they achieve Nirvana. In the Dhammapada the Buddha
states:
 Did the Buddha teach that consciousness continues after the death of the
body? The answer to this question is important for the question of how to relate to
the teaching of rebirth, since it affects what we suppose the Buddha was teaching
when he taught about rebirth. ‘From the point of view of empirical science,
consciousness depends on physical conditions, namely, the brain. When the brain
dies, so consciousness ceases. This in fact is also exactly what the Buddha said.’ I
went on to write that the Buddha disagreed with a monk called Sati who said that
consciousness continued from life to life, just the same, the Buddha told Sati that
consciousness is dependently-arisen.
Some respondents to this blog post, however, have disagreed with what I had
written, saying that it is not correct to take the Buddha’s words to mean that the
Buddha believed that consciousness was dependent on the brain. Some people, it
would seem, believe that consciousness can somehow exist without a physical basis
and hence that it can survive death, and that this is what makes rebirth possible. But
did the Buddha teach this? In conversation with Sati, the Buddha tells the monk:
‘Monks, consciousness is named after whatever condition it arises dependent on.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as presented above, there are many different views and ways
on the basic of dissimilar religion and it is very popular all over the world because it
is relevant to everyone. And then, the question of human destiny after death is
probably one of the most critical questions we can raise. Nowadays it has become
fashionable to dismiss this question as unimportant. But if we reflect on the extent
to which our views influence our action we will see that it is quite essential to gain
some understanding of the complete context in which our lives unfold. What is why I
wish everyone could get the next good life after death by doing good deed in this
life.

Reference books
The Theravada Abhidhamma by Y. Karunadasa
A Manual of Abhidhamma By Narada Maha Thera
Abhidhamma Studies by Nyanaponika