Like many other religious sects of ancient India, early Buddhist talked about rebirth. But they did not agree with those who believed in the existence of a self or a soul, either in this life or the next. What they proposed in its place was the operation of the Law of Karma.
Every thought, word, or deed, they held, has repercussions, and what is reborn are the effects of thoughts, words, and deed generated by belief in a self soul.
Buddhist call this avidya: "ignorance." It is ignorance that is "reborn." Like a grain of sand placed inside an oyster, a single thought of "self" gathers around it a whole universe of iridescent luster. But nothing actually passes from one life to the next. It is just that one thought of ignorance leads to another thought of ignorance, but the particular thought involved in rebirth is the belief in a self.
---Red Pine---
No comments:
Post a Comment