Expert: Justin Choo - 12/11/2009

Question
Hi, I've asked you a couple of questions before, and I've touched on this subject though never directly, so I would appreciate your opinion.  Buddhism is a beleif in reason.  I can see how karma works in this lifetime.  But to say it works in the next lifetime is to me pure conjecture.  There's no evidence there is a next life.  What then, if I may ask, is your reason why you believe in reincarnation. How can you have reason without proof, its to me, pure conjecture. Thanks

Answer
Hi Marc,

The Buddha warned that the doctrine of kamma cannot be fully understood by mere mortals.  My answer will not convince you if you choose not so.  It will be a never-ending discussion.  In the final analysis, it is up to you to "believe" or "not to believe".  In the practise of Buddhism it is not expected that one must believe everything that the Buddha was purported to have said.  The message of the Buddha is that one should rid oneself of greed, hatred and delusion in order to live a harmless and contented life. That's all.  I hope this you would agree.  Otherwise you would be wasting your time learning something that you don't "believe".  By the way there is a difference between "rebirth" and "reincarnation".  The Buddha actually talked about rebirth.  Rebirth is a continuation of life-flow but not of the exact entity or "soul".  Reincarnation is the rebirth of the same person.

Be that as it may, I shall provide you the relevant links to keep you occupied with ample information/discussion on rebirth and kamma.  You can come back again and let me know your thoughts.  Happy reading!

If you have the time you can google search "rebirth investigation" and you will find a lot of articles on the subject. The most famous and "authoritative" research done was by Professor Ian Stevenson.  Just google search "ian stevenson" and you can read his articles.  He is at wikipedia too @
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Stevenson

One of my Dhamma teacher's blog also has reference @
http://sdhammika.blogspot.com/2009/10/ian-stevenson-and-reincarnation.html

Instead of giving you my answer, I would lead you to this article by Bhikkhu Bhodi @
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/bps-essay_46.html

Bhikkhu Bhodi is a very distinguished American monk.  You can read about him @
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhikkhu_Bodhi

Take care, Marc.  Looking forward to hear from you again soon.

Justin Choo