Expert: Joe McSorley - 3/20/2006

Question
*According to many beliefs the soul is eternal, but then doesn't it cease to exist after Nirvana, how then is the sould eternal?

*Is there any referece to Jesus in the Pali scriptures?

Answer
Dear C,
 There is a big argument over this in some Buddhist circles, a few who believe in a soul and others, like me, who do not.  Here is my argument about it.
 The idea of a soul does not exist in Buddhism, it is a creation of the Judeo Christian tradition.  I do not know what constitutes a soul in the West and I have never heard a convincing argument to support a soul.  When someone speaks of the soul going on I often wonder why that has appeal.  We speak of the soul as being ‘other' or outside of us, there is the self and the ‘soul'.  So we say when I die my soul will go to heaven, but what of the rest of us?   So this thing in us goes away but we as an experiential creature dies?  Where's the consolation in this?  Another question I have had regarding the soul is: do we become awakened as a soul?  In other words if I lead an exemplary life by religious standards should I then realize myself as a soul and not as the individual I thought I was?  In the East enlightenment or awakening means to realize self as the Universe, not separate but totally integrated.  It means that the self was an illusion that kept us separate and once the illusion is removed we see self and other as self defining.  It is not that we have a soul that does it but that when our minds are clear it happens, we are the cycle of birth and death and beyond birth and death.
    I have never read any idea of the soul in either Chuang tzu or Lao Tzu in Taoism.  When Chuang Tzu states, “Heaven, earth and I arise simultaneously”  he is speaking of this interpenetration of all things, the yin creates the yang which creates the yin.  It is all the Universe expressing itself through individual form, rising and falling in creation.
 Buddhism states over and over that self is ultimately empty, this leaves no place for a soul.  Even in Tibetan Buddhims where there is this idea of being reincarnated into several other people at the same time has this 'soul' getting split up, so where is there a self?  I cannot find a justification for the idea of an immortal soul in Buddhism.  Nirvana means 'extinction'and it is the extinction of the individual self and awakening to the world.
 There is no mention of the historical Christ in the Pali scripts.  They were written long before he was born.
 I hope this has helped you. Take care,
          Joe