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Question My understanding is that Buddhists believe that the self does not really exist, but that reincarnation does. If the self does not exist, what is it that Buddhists believe is reincarnated?

Accepted:
December 8, 2005

Comments

Excellent question. The first thing to say is that there are many schools of thought within the world of Buddhist philosophy, and there are divergences of views within Buddhism on this question. I will give you two answers, each of which is adopted by a significant number of Buddhist philosophers.

The second thing to say is that in the context of Buddhism, as opposed to other "orthodox" or "Hindu" schools of philosphy originating in India, it is better to talk of "rebirth" than "reiincarnation," since, as you point out, there is nothing that gets placed into another body.

Now, when Buddhist philosophers say that there is no self, they mean that there is no single, continuing substance or subject of experience that remains the same throughout one's life, like a soul, or as Indian philosphical schools call it, an "atman." Instead, Buddhist philosophers argue, a person is consituted by, or posited as an entity based upon, a set of causal processes involving a physical body, sensations, perceptions, dispositions, and conscious thoughts, all interacting, but all constantly changing, and each comprising a series of causally interrelated momentary events, with no single thing remaining in existence for more than a moment. Your body now is subtly different from the one you had a moment ago, on this view (older, minus a few cells, plus a bit of this or that, etc.) but causally connected to it; the thoughts you are having now are different from, but caused by, the ones you had a moment ago, etc... What we call a single person is in fact a series of momentary phenomena liniked by these causal processes. That is the core of a Buddhist metaphysics of personal identity and, plus or minus a bit, is shared by all Buddhist philosophical schools.

From this perspective, we can now put one answer to your question: You are being reborn every moment. Rebirth consists in the arising of a new psychophyiscal complex that can be regarded as the stage of a person as a consequence of a preceding one. Rebirth between biological lives on this view is just a matter of a slightly different causal chain, in which the arising of a psychophysical complex is caused by a psychophysical complex comprising a different physical body. Just as some of the causes and effects of your thoughts and actions occur in other bodies (as when you are told something by someone else, or tell someone else something) sometimes, when a biological body dies, many Buddhists (but not all) believe, the effects of the final personal states associated with that body may take place in a body yet to be born. No single thing continues or gets reincarnated; instead, there is, on this view, a continuation of a causal chain.

The other view that is worth mentioning is this: Some Buddhist philosophers think that of the constituents comprised by the conventional person, one causal continuum, that of conscious thoughts, or mind, is most central to one's identity, and that that continuum, while still not a substantial entity, but only a continuum of causally connected entities, is the one that is continued in another body after a body with which has hitherto been associated dies, and that that gives a strong basis for asserting that in an important sense, two distinct incarnate lives are lives of the same person. But even in this case, there is no commitment to a permanent self.

Question My understanding is that Buddhists believe that the self does not really exist, but that reincarnation does. If the self does not exist, what is it that Buddhists believe is reincarnated? Accepted:December 8, 2005

Question My understanding is that Buddhists believe that the self does not really exist, but that reincarnation does. If the self does not exist, what is it that Buddhists believe is reincarnated?

Accepted:
December 8, 2005