Religion concerns one's beliefs during life, but for many the reason they gravitate towards one religion or another is because they want to know happens after one's life passes. When we are alive we are all certain of one thing, and that is that one day we will die. But imagine being completely certain of one thing but not knowing anything about that thing. It's like booking a trip and not knowing where you are going, you wouldn't know what to bring or how long you would want to stay. Well for all of us that is our lives. We are preparing for a trip to someplace unknowable. Although all religions share some beliefs in common and even some atheists, the fact is that for many of us, the afterlife is going to be a shock.
There is no proof that I nor Buddha or anyone can provide that will definitively make everyone believe our views on the afterlife. For example, today there are still people that legitimately believe the earth is flat. So the first thing that has to be conquered is the need to see something to believe it. Just like cats can see things we can't, and dogs can smell things we can't, we have to accept the fact that we cannot observe everything that exists. The materialists will maintain that there is no afterlife, this life is all it is, so enjoy as much as you can while alive because there is nothing one's once die. Hence they accuse all religions of being a ploy by those in power to control the public through fear of a divine force and eternal suffering. On other hand, those who are religious will contend that materialists have not faith and are committing a great sin which they will realize upon death with damnation in hell, or at least purgatory.
Then materialists will counter that the fact there is no proof of an afterlife is actually proof there is no afterlife, because if there was a God or a divine being that wants us to act a certain way wouldn't it be prudent just to show himself more than once every few thousand years to tell us himself. However, religious people will contend that the point of religion is to foster faith in one's heart not to blinded tell everyone what to do as that would take away free will. Significantly, an objective observer or scientist would be left with no definitive answer because as stated there is no physical proof who is right at this point in time.
So to solve this riddle Buddhist need to rely on logic and reason rather than on arguments and evidence. The Buddhist conception of afterlife is actually not an afterlife, as Buddha has maintained that death is merely a change like any other change we go through during our lives, in essence there is actually no end to life. The Buddha explains that the body is like clothes, when it's new it is pretty and nice, but as it gets old it gets damaged and unattractive, but just like clothes it is merely a covering and not the person within. Similarly, our body is nothing more than a covering that will age and have to be discarded, but what is inside is not. Now one might argue and say without the body there is no "person." But this line of thinking is flawed. Although Buddhism does not believe in a permanent soul it does believe in a mind. A mind is different from a soul because a mind is not permanent, in common parlance a person can change his mind, but a person cannot change his soul. But can there exist a mind without a body. The answer is yes. If someone was to ask you if the mind is in the body then where would you answer the mind to be? But if we were to remove that part would the mind likewise be gone? Clearly one can have a heart transplant and maintain his mind, so it is not located in that vital organ. The only possible conclusion would be it is the brain, but similarly there are people born with no brains, there are people that are in comas, there are people declared brain dead that come back to life, and in the future there is a great chance our brains will be enhanced with bio-mechanical constructs to enhance our processing power. So if the mind is the equivalent to the brain, then how does one account for all those scenarios. As such, the mind cannot be the same as the brain, so the human mind cannot be located inside the human body. Then the question becomes where is it then? But that is like asking where something is located on the internet. It is both located wherever it is downloaded but also not.
So how does the mind play into the afterlife then? Our mind is not our soul. When we discuss soul we are talking about something innate and personal to us that although can evolve does not change, like our personality. Our mind on the other is not something we consider personal since we can have a similar mind as someone else in that we think the same about things. With that said when a being dies it's because the four elements that brought forth the body; water, heat, wind and earth has separated, and when a person is born, it is because the four elements have joined together. In addition to the four physical elements, a being consists also of the karma and the mind. We sometimes see child savants or geniuses that defy logic in their abilities. Their DNA cannot explain it and their upbringing cannot explain it. This is because the cause of this resides within the mind of the child, with knowledge and understanding gained from prior lifetimes, which can now resurface in a new form. And the karma of the being will take effect over the course of its life. So when we say that we reincarnate it is true in that our mind and karma are reborn but it is also not true in that our personalty and feelings are not.
After death all beings are reborn, until they are able to break the cycle or birth and death. Where that rebirth takes us depends on our karma. If one commits horrible atrocities during his life he will be reborn in hell. Now some might argue that if what is reborn is not the person's soul it is unfair, but that misses the point. Just as in this life we have no idea why we are born rich or poor, pretty or ugly, the people born in hell do not know why they are in hell, but they do experience the suffering that is a result of their negative karma. The forms that the minds and karma take in hell are not made up of the four elements, so it is unknown what they actually look like, although many sutras do describe horrible figures undergoing various kinds of sufferings.
Beings can also be born in the heavens. Heavenly forms are described in beautiful terms, and since their forms do not consists of the four elements their lifetimes are much longer as their bodies do not disintegrate like ours, and their life spans are many times ours. However, once one's good karma is exhausted in the heavenly realm the being will have to be reborn in a lower realm again. It is said that people we see around the world who are extremely attractive are beings reborn from the heavenly realms.
For many people who die the realm they will be reborn in is the ghost realm. The ghost realm, while not the suffering of hell, is still a painful existence. Again there is no four elements so the ghosts do not have bodies like ours. However, they still suffer hunger like us, but with no physical form their hunger can never be satiated. Depending on the country of origin of the Buddhist teachings there are different beliefs about what constitutes the ghost realm, but the only thing definitively stated in the original sutras is that the realm exists and that the ghosts suffer from hunger, which is why it is sometimes called the hungry ghost realm.
While not impossible for a person to be reborn as an animal, it is unlikely. The animal realm is populated by mindless or meagerly developed mentally beings, as a human it is more likely that the mind has been developed. So even if there have been bad karma, the realms of hell and the hungry ghosts is more likely. The workings of karma are incomprehensible by all, except the Buddha, and it is important to know that there are no absolutes.
In these realms there are also different stages. Just as in the human world there are different levels of existence, in the other realms there are different levels. In addition, there are other realms of beings that are unfamiliar to this world, but such makes sense as this world is only one of countless worlds.
There is one more realm that beings can be reborn, however, such a rebirth is not based one one's karma but rather one's earnestness to the study of Buddhism. This is to be reborn in the Pure Lands of the Buddhas. In the Pure Lands being will never regress to the other realms and will continually study the dharma until they become enlightened beings themselves. There all rebirths are within the same realm. There is no classes or discriminations as all beings look the same. As the physical is unimportant there. There are many sutras that describe in detail the characteristics of the Pure Lands, the most often cited pure land is that of Amitabha Buddha in the West.
The Buddhist afterlife is characterized by not having an eternal hell or heaven, and having minds and karma rather than souls as what is reborn. In this way Buddhists treat life and afterlife as one, with the goal being the same of seeking the truth. This is why for Buddhists the primary interest of any life is the acquisition of wisdom and the production of positive karma because such will set us up with the best chance to advance our study in the next life. The Buddha famously said not to worship the body for the body is small vessel unable to carry much, but rather to develop the mind because the mind can carry the truth which is unlimited.
There is no proof that I nor Buddha or anyone can provide that will definitively make everyone believe our views on the afterlife. For example, today there are still people that legitimately believe the earth is flat. So the first thing that has to be conquered is the need to see something to believe it. Just like cats can see things we can't, and dogs can smell things we can't, we have to accept the fact that we cannot observe everything that exists. The materialists will maintain that there is no afterlife, this life is all it is, so enjoy as much as you can while alive because there is nothing one's once die. Hence they accuse all religions of being a ploy by those in power to control the public through fear of a divine force and eternal suffering. On other hand, those who are religious will contend that materialists have not faith and are committing a great sin which they will realize upon death with damnation in hell, or at least purgatory.
Then materialists will counter that the fact there is no proof of an afterlife is actually proof there is no afterlife, because if there was a God or a divine being that wants us to act a certain way wouldn't it be prudent just to show himself more than once every few thousand years to tell us himself. However, religious people will contend that the point of religion is to foster faith in one's heart not to blinded tell everyone what to do as that would take away free will. Significantly, an objective observer or scientist would be left with no definitive answer because as stated there is no physical proof who is right at this point in time.
So to solve this riddle Buddhist need to rely on logic and reason rather than on arguments and evidence. The Buddhist conception of afterlife is actually not an afterlife, as Buddha has maintained that death is merely a change like any other change we go through during our lives, in essence there is actually no end to life. The Buddha explains that the body is like clothes, when it's new it is pretty and nice, but as it gets old it gets damaged and unattractive, but just like clothes it is merely a covering and not the person within. Similarly, our body is nothing more than a covering that will age and have to be discarded, but what is inside is not. Now one might argue and say without the body there is no "person." But this line of thinking is flawed. Although Buddhism does not believe in a permanent soul it does believe in a mind. A mind is different from a soul because a mind is not permanent, in common parlance a person can change his mind, but a person cannot change his soul. But can there exist a mind without a body. The answer is yes. If someone was to ask you if the mind is in the body then where would you answer the mind to be? But if we were to remove that part would the mind likewise be gone? Clearly one can have a heart transplant and maintain his mind, so it is not located in that vital organ. The only possible conclusion would be it is the brain, but similarly there are people born with no brains, there are people that are in comas, there are people declared brain dead that come back to life, and in the future there is a great chance our brains will be enhanced with bio-mechanical constructs to enhance our processing power. So if the mind is the equivalent to the brain, then how does one account for all those scenarios. As such, the mind cannot be the same as the brain, so the human mind cannot be located inside the human body. Then the question becomes where is it then? But that is like asking where something is located on the internet. It is both located wherever it is downloaded but also not.
So how does the mind play into the afterlife then? Our mind is not our soul. When we discuss soul we are talking about something innate and personal to us that although can evolve does not change, like our personality. Our mind on the other is not something we consider personal since we can have a similar mind as someone else in that we think the same about things. With that said when a being dies it's because the four elements that brought forth the body; water, heat, wind and earth has separated, and when a person is born, it is because the four elements have joined together. In addition to the four physical elements, a being consists also of the karma and the mind. We sometimes see child savants or geniuses that defy logic in their abilities. Their DNA cannot explain it and their upbringing cannot explain it. This is because the cause of this resides within the mind of the child, with knowledge and understanding gained from prior lifetimes, which can now resurface in a new form. And the karma of the being will take effect over the course of its life. So when we say that we reincarnate it is true in that our mind and karma are reborn but it is also not true in that our personalty and feelings are not.
After death all beings are reborn, until they are able to break the cycle or birth and death. Where that rebirth takes us depends on our karma. If one commits horrible atrocities during his life he will be reborn in hell. Now some might argue that if what is reborn is not the person's soul it is unfair, but that misses the point. Just as in this life we have no idea why we are born rich or poor, pretty or ugly, the people born in hell do not know why they are in hell, but they do experience the suffering that is a result of their negative karma. The forms that the minds and karma take in hell are not made up of the four elements, so it is unknown what they actually look like, although many sutras do describe horrible figures undergoing various kinds of sufferings.
Beings can also be born in the heavens. Heavenly forms are described in beautiful terms, and since their forms do not consists of the four elements their lifetimes are much longer as their bodies do not disintegrate like ours, and their life spans are many times ours. However, once one's good karma is exhausted in the heavenly realm the being will have to be reborn in a lower realm again. It is said that people we see around the world who are extremely attractive are beings reborn from the heavenly realms.
For many people who die the realm they will be reborn in is the ghost realm. The ghost realm, while not the suffering of hell, is still a painful existence. Again there is no four elements so the ghosts do not have bodies like ours. However, they still suffer hunger like us, but with no physical form their hunger can never be satiated. Depending on the country of origin of the Buddhist teachings there are different beliefs about what constitutes the ghost realm, but the only thing definitively stated in the original sutras is that the realm exists and that the ghosts suffer from hunger, which is why it is sometimes called the hungry ghost realm.
While not impossible for a person to be reborn as an animal, it is unlikely. The animal realm is populated by mindless or meagerly developed mentally beings, as a human it is more likely that the mind has been developed. So even if there have been bad karma, the realms of hell and the hungry ghosts is more likely. The workings of karma are incomprehensible by all, except the Buddha, and it is important to know that there are no absolutes.
In these realms there are also different stages. Just as in the human world there are different levels of existence, in the other realms there are different levels. In addition, there are other realms of beings that are unfamiliar to this world, but such makes sense as this world is only one of countless worlds.
There is one more realm that beings can be reborn, however, such a rebirth is not based one one's karma but rather one's earnestness to the study of Buddhism. This is to be reborn in the Pure Lands of the Buddhas. In the Pure Lands being will never regress to the other realms and will continually study the dharma until they become enlightened beings themselves. There all rebirths are within the same realm. There is no classes or discriminations as all beings look the same. As the physical is unimportant there. There are many sutras that describe in detail the characteristics of the Pure Lands, the most often cited pure land is that of Amitabha Buddha in the West.
The Buddhist afterlife is characterized by not having an eternal hell or heaven, and having minds and karma rather than souls as what is reborn. In this way Buddhists treat life and afterlife as one, with the goal being the same of seeking the truth. This is why for Buddhists the primary interest of any life is the acquisition of wisdom and the production of positive karma because such will set us up with the best chance to advance our study in the next life. The Buddha famously said not to worship the body for the body is small vessel unable to carry much, but rather to develop the mind because the mind can carry the truth which is unlimited.