Could someone please simply explain the fundamental beliefs of Life, Death and so forth in Buddhism?
2007-01-31 14:38:22 · 5 answers · asked by Yahoo Sucks 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Simply.
Buddhists believe that we are meant to keep improving as beings. To that end we are reborn in different forms, depending on how well you did. They believe there is a balance to life and actions that we should strive to achieve, and that the good and bad things you do have repercussions that return to you, as part of this great balance.
This is a really limited explanation of the concept, the actual religious doctrine, if it can be called such, is way more intricate .
2007-01-31 14:47:12 · answer #1 · answered by Gordon M 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
When the life force -- heat and consciousness -- ceases to exist, then that is called death. Death can occur: 1) when one's own kamma is exhausted, 2) when one's own life span is exhausted, that is, the span allotted for that particular life (one can only live so long and after that one has to die). 3) when both kamma and life span are exhausted together, or 4) when life ends due to accidental, unnatural causes. These are the ways that death can come.
So death in Buddhism is not the end of total existence. Death is just closing one chapter and the next chapter is opened immediately after that. These two always go immediately together-death and rebirth.
2007-02-01 02:05:41 · answer #2 · answered by Anger eating demon 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
LIFE IS UNCERTAIN - DEATH IS CERTAIN
http://www.buddhanet.net/extra_1.htm
As long as this kammic force exists there is rebirth, for beings are merely the visible manifestation of this invisible kammic force. Death is nothing but the temporary end of this temporary phenomenon. It is not the complete annihilation of this so-called being. The organic life has ceased, but the kammic force which hitherto actuated it has not been destroyed. As the kammic force remains entirely undisturbed by the disintegration of the fleeting body, the passing away of the present dying thought-moment only conditions a fresh consciousness in another birth.
It is kamma, rooted in ignorance and craving, that conditions rebirth. Past kamma conditions the present birth; and present kamma, in combination with past kamma, conditions the future. The present is the offspring of the past, and becomes, in turn, the parent of the future
2007-01-31 17:02:34 · answer #3 · answered by sista! 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism
2007-01-31 14:44:44 · answer #4 · answered by S K 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You may wish to explore more on this website:
www.thubtenchodron.org
2007-01-31 14:47:44 · answer #5 · answered by dora_chan 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋