according to Buddhism is there any difference between the expressions "reincarnation"and "rebirth"?

Answer 1

Rebirth is about being born out of the material human being awarness and within your consciousness becoming aware of your Spiritual being. Being born back into your True Spiritual Self. Reinecarnation is being born again in another material body. Totally different!

Answer 2

They are COMPLETELY different. The buddha developed the concept of 'rebirth' as a means to remedy the problems of reincarnation. Reincarnation is all about the extension of the self - the ego - as a soul that lasts forever. The buddha saw that the very concept of a separate ego/self was the problem and, very important, it is an illusion (therefore, our identity with this individual psychological self and body is not correct and neither is a perception that some selfhood goes from physical form to physical form). Rebirth is not about the transmigration of a unique soul. It's very very difficult to explain and get across because it can only be understood from the perspective where we don't see ourselves as these individual bodies/personalities. If we try to understand it from the limited perspective of our ego/self being real, we're apt to think that the metaphor used to describe rebirth (one candle lighting another candle) suggests annihilation (but those who have an enlightenment experience see themselves as everything so ... annihilation and eternalism only apply to an illusory ego/self). Because I'm stuck in the perception that I'm an ego, I see (probably incorrectly) that rebirth says that our actions do have effects past this lifetime (e.g. I have children, I physically abuse my children & the dysfunction lasts past my death, etc.). But, despite my lack of understanding, it's important to emphasize that reincarnation and rebirth are completely different.

Answer 3

According to Buddhism?

No...no difference.

However...Buddhism has no unequivocal equivalent for resurrection as expressed in Christian scriptures. So we must not confuse reincarnation which is physically an entire different person but according to Buddhists the same person spiritually whereas resurrection is the raising of the same person physically as well as spiritually.

Answer 4

The difference is very subtle.
Re-incarnation is carrying over of most of the qualities, whereas rebirth is an attempt to start afresh to carry out unfulfilled desires.

Answer 5

;incarnation is rising from the dead after death while rebirth is the act of being baptized to take away your sins, like to b e baptized in one religion, that is really the meaning of rebirth according to the bible

Answer 6

well they mean, basically the same thing. and im learing about that in school, so i'd have to say NO.

Answer 7

The belief that at death the soul leaves the body and reanimates a new one. Reincarnation is a fundamental belief in Hinduism and several other religions but it is rejected by Buddhism which denies the existence of a soul.
Buddhism teaches that when a person dies they are reborn and that this process of death and rebirth will continue until Nirvana is attained.
Buddhism 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 Buddhism 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.
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Buddhism offers the explanation of where man came from and where he is going. When we die, the mind, with all the tendencies, preferences, abilities and characteristics that have been developed and conditioned in this life, re-establishes itself in a fertilized egg. Thus the individual grows, is re-born and develops a personality conditioned both by the mental characteristics that have been carried over and by the new environment. The personality will change and be modified by conscious effort and conditioning factors like education, parental influence and society and once again at death, re-establish itself in a new fertilized egg. This process of dying and being reborn will continue until the conditions that cause it, craving and ignorance, cease. When they do, instead of being reborn, the mind attains a state called nirvana and this is the ultimate goal of Buddhism and the purpose of life.

QUESTION: How does the mind go from one body to another?
ANSWER: Think of it being like radio waves. The radio waves, which are not made up of words and music but energy at different frequencies, are transmitted, travel through space, are attracted to and picked up by the receiver from where they are broadcast as words and music. It is the same with the mind. At death, mental energy travels through space, is attracted to and picked up by the fertilized egg. As the embryo grows, it centres itself in the brain from where it later "broadcasts" itself as the new personality.

QUESTION: Is one always reborn as a human being?
ANSWER: No, there are several realms in which one can be reborn. Some people are reborn in heaven, some are reborn in hell, some are reborn as hungry ghosts and so on. Heaven is not a place but a state of existence where one has a subtle body and where the mind experiences mainly pleasure. Some religions strive very hard to be reborn in a heavenly existence mistakenly believing it to be a permanent state. But it is not. Like all conditioned states, heaven is impermanent and when one's life span there is finished, one could well be reborn again as a human. Hell, likewise, is not a place but a state of existence where one has a subtle body and where the mind experiences mainly anxiety and distress. Being hungry ghost, again, is a state of existence where the body is subtle and where the mind is continually plagued by longing and dissatisfaction.
So heavenly beings experience mainly pleasure, hell beings and ghosts experience mainly plain and human beings experience usually a mixture of both. So the main difference between the human realm and other realms is the body type and the quality of experience.

QUESTION: What decides where will be reborn?
ANSWER: The most important factor, but not the only one, influencing where we will be reborn and what sort of life we shall have, is kamma. Means 'action' and refers to our intentional mental actions. In other words, what we are is determined very much by how we have thought and acted in the past. Likewise, how we think and act now will influence how we will be in the future.
The gentle, loving type of person tends to be reborn in a heaven realm or as a human being who has a predominance of pleasant experiences. The anxious, worried or extremely cruel type of person tends to be reborn in a hell realm or as a human being who has a predominance of painful experiences. The person who develops obsessive craving, fierce longings, and burning ambitions that can never be satisfied tends to be reborn as a hungry ghost or as a human being frustrated by longing and wanting. Whatever mental habits are strongly developed in this life will continue in the next life. Most people, however, are reborn as human beings.

QUESTION: So we are not determined by our kamma. We can change it.
ANSWER: Of course we can. That is why one of the steps on the Noble Eightfold Path is Perfect Effort. If depends on our sincerity, how much energy we exert and how strong the habit is. But it is true that some people simply go through life under the influence of their past habits, without making an effort to change them and falling victim to these unpleasant results. Such people will continue to suffer unless they change negative habits. The longer the negative habits remain, the more difficult they are to change. The Buddhist understands this and takes advantage of each and every opportunity to break mental habits that have unpleasant results and to develop mental habits that have a pleasant and happy result. Meditation is one of the techniques used to modify the habit patterns of the mind as does speaking or refraining to speak, acting or refraining to act in certain ways. The whole of the Buddhist life is a training to purify and free the mind. For example, if being patient and kind was a pronounced part of your character in your last life, such tendencies will re-emerge in the present life. If they are strengthened and developed in the present life, they will re-emerge even stronger and more pronounced in the future life. This is based upon the simple and observable fact that long established habits tend to be difficult to break.
Now, when you are patient and kind, it tends to happen that you are not so easily ruffled by others, you don't hold grudges, people like you and thus your experiences tends to be happier.
Now, let us take another example. Let us say that you came into life with a tendency to be patient and kind due to your mental habits in the past life. But in the present life, you neglect to strengthen and develop such tendencies. They would gradually weaken and die out and perhaps be completely absent in the future life. Patience and kindness being weak in this case, there is a possibility that in either this life or in the next life, a short temper, anger and cruelty could grow and develop, bringing with them all the unpleasant experiences that such attitudes create. We will take one last example. Let us say that due to your mental habits in the last life, you came into the present life with the tendency to be short-tempered and angry, and you realize that such habits only cause you unpleasantness and so you make and effort to change them. You replace them with positive emotions. If you are able to eliminate them completely, which is possible if you make an effort, you become free from the unpleasantness caused by being short tempered and angry. If you are only able to weaken such tendencies, they would re-emerge in the next life where with a bit more effort, they could be eliminated completely and you could be free from their unpleasant effects.