Expert: Joe McSorley - 12/26/2002

Question
Dear Mr.McSorley,
  I have read through the "Tibetan Book of the Dead", briefly, and also some of "Luminous Emptiness" by author Francesca Freemantle.
  I was raised as a Protestant Christian but am very open to other's views,(who knows where they might overlap).
  I found the subject of the "dharmas" and the "rainbow body" fascinating. I am a firm believer in the afterlife.
  My question is concerning the descriptions of the afterlife, travelling through the various dharmas,and descriptions of the peacefull and wrathfull dieties seen after physical dissolution.
  I assume these descriptions of the afterlife were given by the dying. Not trying to be cynical, I am just curious as to how the dying can come back and tell of the experiences in these books AFTER their demise.
  I may may have overlooked an explanation in these books or might it be that the descriptions of the afterlife may have been conceived through the living during meditations. I thank you for any response. Sincerely. Mike Eidson.

Answer
Dear Mike,
    Sorry for the delay in answering.  You bring up some good points which I find problematic in some of the Buddhist sects.  For the most part an afterlife is not spoken of in Buddhism and is not even considered.  Buddhism is non-theistic and there is no soul.  It is a common expression to say that the self has no real substance.  What this means is that there is not eternal part to the self, no unchangeable substance, that we are a compilation of attributes that we define as a self.
   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?  Are you  your thoughts, desires, senses, memories?  Remove what part 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.
Technically speaking Buddhism is not a religion; it is not theistic and does not have an external means of salvation.  In Buddhism one's awakening and redemption is all through self-effort alone.  Historically speaking Buddhism came about because of the life of the Prince Siddhartha, who when coming upon suffering, sickness and death, wanted to find an answer to the cause of suffering for humans.  He tried to lose himself in the pleasures of the world but found no solace.  He then became an ascetic and this too yielded no answers.  After many years of searching and frustration he finally sat under a tree and declared that he would not move until he understood the solution.  According to legend, several days later as he glanced up at the morning star his mind became clear and he was enlightened.  From this he postulated the Four Noble truths of Buddhism:
Life (human) is dukkha . (Suffering, with no apparent cause), There is a cause for the suffering. ( avidya or ignorance.), the cause can be abated, and there is a path ( Margo yoga).  What the crux of this is that our minds do not see reality clearly, we do not know who we are, both to ourselves and in relation to the universe.  The cause for this is ignorance of ourselves as egos that blinds us to seeing beyond ourselves.  This can be remedied.  And there are many ways to do this, such as yoga, contemplation, self-examination, etc.  When one realizes the true nature of reality, often called ‘seeing things as they are', one has an identical experience to the historical Buddha so there is no hierarchy.  The word ‘buddha' means ‘awakened one' so anyone can become a buddha.  As Buddhism evolved through the centuries there have been many different sects arising.  Therevada is not unlike western religions as they revere the historical buddha as godlike and pray to him.  They have many rituals and prayers, gods, saints and icons.  Mahayana and Zen Buddhism do not ascribe to these practices and strive for a direct awakening.
    
    This is the essence of Buddhism; to know the self that is asking the question.  There is no positing of a soul or an afterlife but the demand to know who we are, here and now.  When this is known then we know ourselves not to be an alienated individual self but as an expression of the entire universe in the eternal now.  We know ourselves prior to birth and death, free from both.  So this is the end of the cycle of life and death and thus no afterlife.
  When I have questioned Tibetan Buddhists about the self having no substance and wondered how they substantiate claims of reincarnation or an afterlife I do not get a clear answer.  As, you said, it is also problematic that they talk about what happens after death while alive.  Anything that might have arisen during meditation can possibly due to illusion or ego wanting.  As you put it, they may have been “conceived” during meditation.   There is an old Zen story where an emperor asks a Zen master “ what happens after death?” and the master replied “ask a dead master!”
 Dharma's are truths and to consider them as things of substance would be incorrect.  They are truth in the way myths convey a truth.  They say something about the nature of humanity and reality.  In Buddhist mythology there is the story of Mara, the equivalent of a devil, comes to him to tempt him while in meditation. ( sound familiar?  And hundreds of years before Christianity, so again, a myth conveying a truth)  The Buddha ignores him and deepens his meditation.  Mara tries harder and harder but eventually fades away for it was just a construct of the Buddha's mind.  He had to quiet his mind so that it stopped creating Mara.   There are many who read these stories and miss the point.  They think that Mara or other deities are real when they are not.  They are all creations of aspects of the human mind and human desire. When the mind is illuminated, they disappear.
  So, in general, other than in a few sects like Tibetan or Pureland, there is no afterlife in Buddhism.  In the Buddha's teachings themselves there is not a mention of ‘later' but of now.
  I hope this helps you.  Take care,
           Joe