Expert: Joe McSorley - 6/20/2011

Question
Hi Justin

I heard a Buddhist teacher say that at death before one enters a new body one can choose the body to enter.  The purpose being is that we have lessons to learn, and we have a choice in which direction to go.  I hope I did not misunderstand what was said, if is so I am sure you will correct me.  Anyway what I am confused about is that if rebirth is instantaneous how can one have the time to do this, and what would prevent one from taking the most easiest route?

George

Answer
  Dear George,
   I don’t know if you intended this question to come to me.  My name is not Justin.  If I assume you did want me to answer it here is my take on reincarnation.
   You raise a very valid question about reincarnation because it is a problematic idea.  Although many sects teach reincarnation Zen does not teach about reincarnation and admonishes that if it is true then it is of the utmost importance that you awaken in this life due to the fact that you might not be human again.  If the self is truly empty then there must be no soul in Buddhism for if there is a soul then the self is not empty.  What then reincarnates?  Yet, there are Buddhists who will argue this point and not see their self-contradiction. There are Pali writings ascribed to the historical Buddha that seem to imply ‘atta’ as soul.  This assumes that the Buddha actually said this and why this idea would not be in the Four Noble Truths is beyond me.  This is why my concentration is Zen.  We can become completely bogged down by all the nuances of ancient writings or we can work towards our own awakening.  Whether there is or is not a soul does nothing to alleviate suffering in this lifetime.  It’s been postulated by the Tibetans that we start from perfection, fall, and then strive to regain it through reincarnation.  I was in a lecture with one of Trunpa’s associates who postulated this.  My teacher replied, “ How does one fall from perfection?”  This fellow would not address the problem but I took another tack.  I agreed with him that this happened and then asked how one regains perfection.  He told me and when he was finished I said, “ So when one does all of this they regain perfection identical with original perfection?”  He said, “Yes”. And then I said, “ So then you fall again and start over” He exclaimed, “ No, you can’t fall from it”.  I said,” But you already said we did and it’s identical with original perfection, this is contradictory and problematic”.  He was very upset for he had no answer.  So this type of reasoning can go on forever but it does not help personal awakening.
  This idea of the aggregates somehow reincarnating in another person, in part or whole is also problematic.  There is a Tibetan concept that some people are the composite reincarnation of different lamas.  I don’t see where there can be any comfort in this plus it leaves the idea of a personal identity as utterly confused.  In terms of self-identity there is a famous Buddhist story that goes like this: a man comes to study with the historical Buddha and is having a difficult time understanding its ideas.  The Buddha welcomes him but does not face his questions rather he asks him about his journey to meet him.  The Buddha asks ‘how did you get here’ and the man replies ‘ on a chariot’, the Buddha then says ‘I’m sorry but I don’t know what a chariot is, can you describe it to me?’ The fellow proceeds to tell him how a chariot is constructed and its layout from axel, wheels, buckboard, shroud to harness and horses.  The Buddha takes this in and says ‘ so all of these things together make a chariot?  When is it no longer a chariot?  When you take away the wheels is it no longer a chariot or the buckboard or the axel?  At what point does it become or not become a chariot?  This is a conglomeration of things you call a chariot but what really is the chariot?’  The man is puzzled by this and ponders it but the Buddha says ‘who are you, your thoughts, desires, senses, memories?  Remove what and you are no longer you?  When do you become you or not you by this composite of aggregates?’  Now this plunges the man into a deep inquiry of who the self really is.  Any particular aggregate that reincarnates somewhere else is not the true self, when you break down the components of self, who are you?


  As a result of all of these problems I can’t find any strong rational base for reincarnation.  If you want to go under the idea that matter can neither be created or destroyed then you can see we are somehow, in part, reconstructed as something else, perhaps as fertilizer for flora we have become alive again but I don’t see any self-identity here.  
  Please do not waste your time with concepts like this for they accomplish nothing. But all of this begs the most important question; who are you?  Who is it that perceives an ‘I’, was born, fears death and contemplates all these things?  If you know the source of this sense of I then you know the root of all being and are free from the constraints of birth and death. This is to face the problem in the moment and not as any theoretical idea. Know who it is that asks this and you will no longer be concerned with who it is that reincarnates.
 I hope this helps you.  Take care,
         Joe