What do you believe happens to your "soul" when you die, is there a heaven or what? I'm in a world religions class right now and I'm having a hard time understanding what happens when a person dies.
Thank you for your help.
2007-09-16 09:47:57 · 8 answers · asked by Agnostic 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
To Tessssss: Are you sure? That sounds like Hinduism, Samsara is the cyclical existance (reincarnation) that you seem to be speaking of. I know that Buddhists don't believe in the Atman or "soul" in the same way Hindus do.
2007-09-16 09:56:50 · update #1
Again... I think there are people that are confused between hinduism and buddhism. Thanks to Girl Wonder, you really seem to know your stuff and this is similar to what I've learned in college. I don't know if buddhists would do this, but do they have any kind of belief or notion as to what "you" are doing after you die and become one again with everything, are "you" aware are there other souls wherever you are or no, because there are really no other souls because everyone and everything are really one entity. Wouldn'd that be lonely after death if you are aware of your surroundings...whatever they may be. Sorry I guess I just cant get it into my Western programmed mind, I'm just really trying to understand it, I know that's probably not good to even try to understand it because it defeats the whole purpose.
2007-09-16 10:03:36 · update #2
Most Buddhists don't believe in a soul at all. Buddhists, at least those in the branch I'm studying, believe that our soul, our individuality, is an illusion. We are part of the universe, or rather, we are the universe, and the universe is us. I'm you. You're me. I'm also the tree outside and the cup sitting next to me and the keyboard I'm typing on and my cat sleeping on my bed. And so are you.
So when we die, it's like when a bubble on a river pops. It returns to the water, though truly, it was never apart from it. When we die, we return to the universe, though truly, we never left.
But really, such questions are not very important to Buddhists. Buddhism focuses on the right now.
2007-09-16 09:53:11 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Buddhism teaches that when a person dies they are reborn and that this process of death and rebirth will continue until Nirvana is attained.
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. Buddhism 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 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.
http://www.buddhanet.net/
2007-09-16 15:37:10 · answer #2 · answered by wb 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Take the first two answers, mash them together. That is your answer. Life is an illusion, when you die, you are reincarnated according to your deeds in your last life, and you continue doing this (Samsara, wheel of life, death, and reincarnation) until you attain enlightenment, having experienced all aspects of the world, and realizing that it is a falsehood. From there, death leads you to Nirvana, freedom from samsara, from the world, into the emptiness that is the real.
2007-09-16 09:56:25 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Buddhists believe in reincarnation, but the ultimate goal of Buddhism is for a being to become enlightened, thus liberating their soul from birth and death. Cross referencing this idea with Christianity, a fully awakened, liberated spirit would be equal to being in heaven with God. The only difference being that Buddhism implies that one follows the law and truth of reality through a rational comprehension and understanding of nature, rather than being saved by Jesus.
2007-09-16 09:59:12 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
Your Soul is to be experienced NOW. It is the Life in you. The name and story so covers the Life or Light that it is in unawareness. Heaven and Hell are in mind and not Life,Soul or Awareness. Death is simply mis-identification with body and mind. Neither is the Life. Awareness becoming aware of itself is the underlying idea!
2007-09-16 09:58:44 · answer #5 · answered by Premaholic 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You get reincarnated. If you were good this life, you get reincarnated as a human. If you weren't, you get reincarnated as something else.
Some Buddhists say that people like Hitler were reincarnated as a cockroach.
2007-09-16 11:04:29 · answer #6 · answered by WTP 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
we believe you get reincarnated, for the next life. if you've been a good person then you'd be reincarnated into another person or a lovely animal. and if you;ve been bad you might get reincarnated into somthing not so great like a .... fly?. well the point is our "soul" gets reborn into anoter thing in the next life.
2007-09-16 09:52:49 · answer #7 · answered by Tesssss 1 · 0⤊ 3⤋
the buddha taught their is no soal, we are rebourn but not as us its very complex have a look at my blog on karma and possibilities/karma2
2007-09-16 10:51:22 · answer #8 · answered by manapaformetta 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋