Originally posted by AndrewPKYap:
From earliest ancient times, the Hindus, then the Jews, suggested
that man has a soul, an Atman, a spirit that remains when the body
disintegrate.
Buddhists even, cannot imagine that man is non-existing because
they suggest that karma is brought forward into a future life and
non-existence actualizes only on the attainment of nirvana.
Now I see why your threads are always 10~20+ pages long
All planned
well...
Buddhism has NEVER suggested that an agent or self passes on to the
next life.
"Mere suffering is, not any sufferer is found
The deeds exist, but no performer of the deeds:
Nibbana is, but not the man that enters it,
The path is, but no wanderer is to be seen.
No doer of the deeds is found,
No one who ever reaps their fruits,
Empty phenomena roll on,
This view alone is right and true.
No god, no Brahma, may be called,
The maker of this wheel of life,
Empty phenomena roll on,
Dependent on conditions all."
- Visuddhimagga XVI 90
---------
So if there is no self, does that mean our actions are of no
consequence the next moment, the next day, or the next life?
No! Karmic conquences happen nonetheless. That is why we must be
careful of what we do.
Then who is to receive the karma? 'Who' is based on a fundemental
false assumption that there must be an entity or a self to
'receive' karma. Karmic consequences simply arises without a
receiver.
Birth and rebirth happens, but not the reincarnation of a soul.
Becoming happens all the time, but there is no 'what' or 'who' that
becomes. There is simply arising and subsiding, self1, self2,
self3, self4, 'self' conventionally meant to be mental and karmic
factors, but never is there a fixed self or owner of those factors
to be found.
As Thusness wrote three years ago trying to explain certain
texts,
Life (Self) is nothing other than
the continuous flow of the Now Moment.
The Now Moment ceases as it arises. This moment must completely
ceased
and serves as the CAUSE for the next moment to arise.
Therefore Self is a process of series Self1, Self2, Self3, Self4,
Self5, Self6...etc
A fixed entity 'Self' does not exist, what really exists is a
momentary Self.
Under deep meditation, one is able to observe and sense the karmic
and mental factors from moment to moment,
it is these factors that are succeeded from moment to
moment and life and life but not a fixed entity.
When the karmic and mental factors subsides, it is known as "The
True and Only (and Inherently egoless) Conscious Light
(Itself)".
