Samsara

• What continues after death?

  Some argue that our consciousness/ mind may live on but is not certain.
• Theravada response on rebirth:

  • we are born in deep consciousness and our analysis of the mind is immediately transferred straight after death.
• Mahayana responses to Rebirth:

  • Tibetan Buddhism: that when one dies you are daydreaming between one life and the next.
  • This can last up to 49 days. The visions are resulted from karma. This is known as the BARDO.
• Meditation role in preparation for death and rebirth:

  • help one to control their mind and to let go (anatta)
  • help to develop peace and calm
  • helps one to prepare for the moment of death or the Bardo.
• Skeptics of karma:

  • no clear proof
  • it is difficult to predict the time between an action and its karmic effect.

  Buddhists would say:

  • immediate karmic consequences of an action plants a seed (Bija) in the mind.
  • Karmic seeds are stored away in the unconscious mind (alaya Vijana)
• Problems with the traditional views of karma:

  • How long are you there for
  • In what form do you exist and if you are not reborn in the human realm then which 5 realms would you move to.
  • The Tibetans view on rebirth (Bardo) of the consciousness mind stream sounds similar to an eternal soul/ self.
  • The rebirth process seems unfair if you have to now have someone else's karma from a previous existence.
  • Rupert Gethin argues: rebirth in the different realms is determined by ones karma, which is directly determined by ones psychological states.
• Punabhava: rebirth nit just after death but also in the next life and future to come.
• Buddhist wheel of life (6 Realms):

  • Heaven
  • Hungry ghosts
  • Beings in hell
  • Humans
  • Titan realm
  • Animal realm

  To break free from the wheel of life (Samsara), you must free yourself from the 3 root poisons through attaining nibbana, through the enlightened mind.
• Candle analogy explains the process of rebirth:

  Energy has allowed the other candle to light the otehr candle. There is a causal connection as one candle is used to light the other, the 2 flames are not the same. They are similar but yet different flames. This is also seen in karma as there is a psychological link transferred from moment to moment. Karmic energy is transferred after death to a new life. Only affects you in this life, secular Buddhists would object.