Do Buddhists believe in life after death?

Answer 1

Buddha would say nothing for or against life after death.

Reincarnation is often taught in Buddhism, but they also say there is no permanent self that moves from life to life.

Buddhism focuses on the present life...what you can do right now, so they do not worry about what comes after the death of the body.

Buddhists believe that there is no soul, only a conciousness that is made up of frames (snapshots of emotions, feelings, thought) The energy of this conciousness moves from body to body like a flame from candle to candle, until that conciousness reaches 'nirvana', when it becomes at 'blissful peace' with the universe.

Answer 2

Buddhists believe that there is a deeper, more complete understanding of reality than the one we think of and participate in every day. The everyday life we experience is really no more than a dream, and what we think of as our "selves" is really just an illusion. When our bodies die, our mind-streams persist, like a river running through several countries. When we die, its like the river passing through one country's boundary into another. The river- or the mind-stream -doesn't change. After death our mind-streams continue on, and after a time, become incarnated into a different body, with a different sense of self than the previous one. It isn't that you, with your sense of being this person or that person gets reincarnated into a different body, but that your mind-stream, which has no illusion of self does.
reincarnation

Answer 3

Some believe that you are reincarnated, but most would say that they don't know, that no one can ever know and that whats important is what you do know, this life, and that you should be happy and help others in this life.

Answer 4

When you die, you are reincarnated into a new body in one of 31 levels depending on how good you are. 26 of the levels denote the realms of the Divas (gods). The other 5 realms are as follows: Human Titan (bloodthirsty giants) Hungry Ghost Animal Hell Some beliefs exclude the realm of Titans.

Answer 5

Buddhist do not share the "one life then death" perspective of the Abrahamic religions. Life and death are a cycle which continues for countless reincarnations until enlightenment is achieved. At that point the person can opt to go to Nirvana and be relieved of the burden of awareness of self, or return to the cyle of death and rebirth to aid others to find enlightenment.

Answer 6

Buddhists do not believe in an after-life as described in Abrahamic faiths (Judaism Christianity and Islam), in which a select few, who have been deemed worthy, will spend eternity adoring an all powerful deity. Buddhist believe in the concept of rebirth, but we do not believe in a complete never changing soul of a person that gets reborn (transmigration) into a new body. Instead we believe that our current consciousness is an aggregation of our past actions and consciousness and other factors. When we die the consciousness that arises in a new person is neither identical nor entirely different from that the previous one but the two form a continuum or stream.

Think of it this way. Imagine all the consciousness of the world is an ocean. The ocean moves around due to different actions and forms waves. Those waves are like people. They arise, stay for a while and then rejoin the ocean, only to arise somewhere else in a slightly different manner. That's how we view rebirth.

But the ultimate goal of the religious life for Buddhist and Hindus, who we share this belief, is to escape the cycle of death and rebirth. Buddha asserted that what keeps us bound to the death/rebirth process is desire, desire in the sense of wanting or craving anything in the world. Hence, the goal of getting off the Ferris wheel of reincarnation necessarily involves freeing oneself from desire. Nirvana is the Buddhist term for liberation. Nirvana literally means extinction, and it refers to the extinction of all craving, an extinction that allows one to become liberated, happier and at peace.

Answer 7

The Christian afterlife is seen as a place where each person retains individuality and an interaction with the deity and other "souls". There is no eating drinking or sex (probably not a lot of fun either).In Buddhism the state of Nirvana is a loss of individual existence. The existence of an individual existence is seen as the final conceit. There is no "I " involved in your existence in Nirvana. Prior to enlightenment the being is reborn to a continuing cycle ro experience where the skill of learning to lead a life devoid of desire are learned. Even after enlightenment there is no need to go to Nirvana. Mahayana Buddhism allows the enlightened to voluntarily return to the cycle of life and death and rebirth to help others attain enlightenment.

Answer 8

Most people have the position that the Christian afterlife is seen as a place where each person retains individuality and an interaction with the deity and other "souls". There is no eating, drinking or sex (probably not a lot of fun either).In Buddhism the state of Nirvana is a loss of individual existence. The existence of an individual existence is seen as the final conceit. There is no "I " involved in your existence in Nirvana. Prior to enlightenment the being is reborn to a continuing cycle ro experience where the skill of learning to lead a life devoid of desire are learned. Even after enlightenment there is no need to go to Nirvana. Mahayana Buddhism allows the enlightened to voluntarily return to the cycle of life and death and rebirth to help others attain enlightenment.

Answer 9

There is life and death not only in Buddhism, but in every religion and every corner of this world. Obviously, wherever there is life, there is death, everything that is born must die. This is the rule of the world. The mountains don't die, the oceans don't die because they are not born, they are part of what we call nature. Therefore, we human beings, birds, animals, all of us who take birth, we experience death, we lose our breath, because life and death is a journey we enjoy when the Divine manifests as us on this journey to experience our karma, our own past actions. This is what Buddhism teaches us, that we have to escape from the cycle of death and rebirth by realizing the Divine truth of who we are and why we are here.

Answer 10

They believe in rebirth, but not of the soul as they do not believe in this. Rebirth rather is feared and therefore it is in the persons best interest to reach enlightenment and therefore Nirvana.