Quote:
Originally posted by scottmandue
Could you point me in the direction on some books that connect Buddhism and reincarnation?
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My father, a lifelong Baptist, recently expressed an interest in Buddhism.
I bought him a book called "Buddhism Plain and Simple" by Steve Hagan - that was recommended to me.
This was a great success and my father has since sent this book to all his friends and quotes from it constantly. It's a slim volume that you can find at Amazon and it lives up to its title. I can also recommend "Buddhism - its not what you think" by the same author.
As to reincarnation - Buddha did not teach anything like this. Reincarnation is a Hindu concept.
Buddha did teach about the notion of "rebirth" which essentially involves the concept that everything continually changes and is renewed or "reborn".
The notion that you might die and disappear only to emerge as something else again begs the question: What is it that remains? What is it that provides the continuity between the two beings?
Buddha took the view that once we understand that everything is in constant flux, and once we understand this clearly, we could no longer take the idea of such continuity and persistence seriously - nor would we need to. The idea is to live increasingly in the moment
In fact a key to understanding Buddha's notion of enlightenment and emptiness is understanding that nothing is permanent from moment to moment - much less from "life" to "life" - as in the concept of reincarnation.
Sorry for rambling.