Buddhism: A matter of life and death and life

Karma is the force that is created as a result of our actions and thoughts. The force of karma is what perpetuates the cycle of cause-and-effect, giving rise to the endless, and beginningless flow of life, in which different variations of life forms are manifested.

Rebirth is not just a religious theory. It is not an escape, or a psychological comfort when the unforgiving moment of death befalls us. It is a precise science that explains our existence from the past into the future.

What value does rebirth bring to our lives? What meaning does rebirth add to our existence?

With rebirth, our existence has continuity…life is no longer limited to a short span of a hundred years or so. With rebirth, life is unlimited in hope and possibilities. Within the cycle of rebirth, death is the beginning of another existence. Living and dying, dying and living, existence continues uninterrupted while possibilities are unbounded.

This can be compared to a flaming torch. When one stick of wood is exhausted, it is replaced with another. Each stick may have slightly different components, yet the flame continues to burn.

Birth, ageing, sickness, and death are the most impartial jury. Cause and effect, as well as the cycle of rebirth, are not controlled by some god-creator. Our circumstances, be they good or bad, are determined by one’s past deeds or karma. Our stored karma interacts with ripened conditions, and manifests in varying types of either painful or blessed effects. Therefore, rebirth liberates us from the hands of a divine power, for it is our own karma that controls rebirth.

Happiness and fortune are the products of our own doing…misery and tragedy are also of our own creation.

A creator cannot protect us from the consequences of our own crimes. Gods cannot take away our merits, either. With rebirth, there is no such thing as luck. We are the creators of our own future.

But even if we stubbornly refuse to believe in rebirth, we can still see its cycle all around us. Some people find anguish at the thought of being reborn again; to them, it is best if death is the final chapter of their lives. Buddhism does not believe that death is the finalé, but is, in fact, the beginning of another life.

One may ask: if rebirth really exists, how come I cannot recall anything in my past life?  Buddhism teaches that people lose all memory of previous life because of the “confusion of rebirth”, and that after death, one passes through the stage of “intermediate being”.

This intermediate being lives and dies in seven-day increments. After it dies, it can be reborn again. It can, at most, live for seven, seven-day periods, or a total of forty-nine days. Some may live only for two or three seven-day periods. Irrespective of the number of periods, at the end of this stage it will be reborn, and it is because of this intermediary state that we forget our previous lives, not even recalling what realms we lived in previously.

One of the fundamental teachings of Buddhism is that “all dharmas (teachings and doctrines) do not have a substantial self”, that they are selfless. If this is the case, how can there be rebirth? Are these dharmas not in conflict with each other?