前提：我是个糟糕的佛教徒，很多关于佛教的学问都是一问三不知，什么四圣谛、八正道、五蘊等等我真的背不起来，不过我会明白其道理。身为佛教徒的我，自认对佛教的学问很差、对佛教里该有的实践更是差、差、差！简单说，我给我自己不及格。虽然很糟糕，但我跟佛教很有缘分，心里深处总会有股微薄的声音告诉我去接近佛教…因此我会尽力自己去看些佛书来了解佛教。我希望可以和大家分享一些我这"学佛之路“上的点点滴滴。
其实学佛很简单，像阿公阿嬷那样诚心念阿弥陀佛就可以了。但是要真正去明白佛教的理论和精华是很不容易的事。我个人觉得佛教不适合全部人…因为它有些东西很难去解释、甚至去明白…我觉得没有一定的智慧是不行的，因为佛学的理论不能神化，所以需要逻辑性的去问、去答。有时候，我读了又读，最终只能说我“知道”，可是我还是 “不明白”。譬如说大家都知道光速很快，可是为什么它那么快呢？
我就是哪个从小就喜欢问“为什么”的人，所以当了科学家，也跑去看佛书了…
一直以来，我都以为人死后灵魂就会离开身体，然后会“过堂”，“法官”应该是耶稣，阎罗王，阿拉，等等其中一位吧。之后不是去天堂或地狱，就是去投胎… 这样说大概是99％的人会认同的吧。几天前我念了一本书"Question Time by Venerable Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda"，作者（达摩难陀）生前是马来西亚佛教大长老，小弟我也很幸运的听过一次他的讲座。书里谈到佛教所说的轮回不是一个灵魂从一个身体转去另一个身体，而是一个“神识”（精神、意识）不停地经历生老病死。
达摩难陀书里写的是：" The Buddha taught clearly that we are reborn, not reincarnated, as there is no soul migrating upon death to another body to "re-become"
" Buddhism clearly teaches that there is no such thing as a soul which enters a "body". Both are nothing more than rapidly changing processes - mind & matter. They have extremely short life spans - no more than the duration of an 'in breath' or an 'out breath'. The rapidity of the process gives rise to the illusion of a permanent entity we call a self. So in our ignorance, we say a soul leaves a body at death. Actually, it is a process which simply continues when the physical body ceases to function.
读到这里时，相信很多人像我一样觉得一头雾水。没灵魂，那我是啥？我在网络“跑”了几回，发现以下这文章是最简单去“知道”这整回事的解说。记得我说“知道”和“明白”的分别吗？为了要确定大乘小乘佛教说明一样，也多“跑”了几趟，这（link）是星云大师的解说，还有这（link）是圣严法师的解说。
翻了好多本书，我只能说我“大概明白”这一回事。人们所谓的灵魂是不变的，也就是说这灵魂可以永远的存在（可以上天堂或地狱，然后永远在那…要不就是从一个身体跑去另一个身体）。佛说“无我”，并非说“我”不存在，而是“我”是暂时性的… 也就是说一切是“无常”的。达摩难陀的另一本书（What Buddhist Believe)和以下的文章都有提到的是佛教没有完全否定灵魂的存在，而是否定一个永远的灵魂。“佛陀的沉默”提到佛陀不回答的十个问题：
一、有关宇宙的问题
1．宇宙是永恒的吗？
2．宇宙不是永恒的吗？
3．宇宙是有限的吗？
4．宇宙是无限的吗？
二、有关心理学方面的问题 （以下“心”就是所谓的“灵魂”）
5．身与心是同一物吗？
6．身是一物，心又是一物吗？
三、佛陀悟证的境界问题 （如来＝佛）
7．如来死后继续存在吗？
8．如来死后不再继续存在吗？
9．如来死后是既存在亦同时不存在吗？
10．如来死后既不存在亦同时非不存在吗？
佛陀为什么不回答以上这些形而上学的问题呢？主要原因是这些问题与佛陀的教诲没有多大关系。最容易解释的方法就是以下这个故事：
佛陀时代，一位比丘名叫曼童子，有一天，他午后静坐时，忽然起来去到佛所，行过礼后在一旁坐下，就说：“世尊，我正独自静坐，忽然起了一个念头：有十个问题你从来没有给我们明确的解释。每当人们向您问起这些问题时，您总是将之搁置一边，沉默不语。我不喜欢这种做法。世尊，今天您若跟我解释清楚这十个问题，我将继续修梵行；如果世尊仍对这些问题保持沉默，我便会失去信心，不再修梵行。如果世尊知道世间是永恒的，就请照这样给我解释。如果宇宙不是永恒的，又为什么？如果您对这些问题也不知道，就直接说：‘我不知道。’”
佛陀说：“你这愚蠢的人啊！你当初出家修行就是为了了解这些形而上学的问题吗？你跟随我修梵行时我答应过你将会回答这些问题吗？”曼童子回答说：“世尊，没有。”佛陀说：“在你还没有得到如来的答案之前就要死掉了。曼童子，假使有一个人被毒箭所伤，他的亲友带他去看外科医生。假如当时那人说：我不愿把这毒箭拔出来，除非我知道是谁射我的，他是刹帝利种姓、婆罗门种姓、吠舍还是首陀罗种姓；他是高、是矮还是中等身材；他的肤色是黑色、白色、棕色还是金黄色；他来自哪一个城市或乡村。我不愿取出此毒箭，除非我知道我是被什么弓所射中，弓弦是什么样的；哪一型的箭；箭是哪种毛制的；箭簇又是什么材料所制……曼童子，这人在未弄清这些答案之前早就死了。同样，如果有人说，我不要跟随世尊修梵行，除非他回答我，宇宙是否永恒等问题，此人还未得到如来的答案就已告死亡了。”由于人生是短促的，如果某人整天为这些形而上学的问题所困扰，穷追不舍，追根穷源，这便误入歧途，终将一无所获。
Reincarnation in Buddhism - What the Buddha didn't teach
by Barbara O'Brien
Source: http://buddhism.about.com/od/karmaandrebirth/a/reincarnation.htm
Would you be surprised if I told you that reincarnation is not a Buddhist teaching? If so, be surprised -- it isn't.
"Reincarnation" normally is understood to be the transmigration of a soul to another body after death. There is no such teaching in Buddhism. One of the most fundamental doctrines of Buddhism is anatta, or anatman -- no soul or no self. There is no permanent essence of an individual self that survives death.
However, Buddhists often speak of "rebirth." If there is no soul or permanent self, what is it that is "reborn"?
What Is the Self?
The Buddha taught that what we think of as our "self" -- our ego, self-consciousness and personality -- is a creation of the skandhas. Very simply, our bodies, physical and emotional sensations, conceptualizations, ideas and beliefs, and consciousness work together to create the illusion of a permanent, distinctive "me."
The Buddha said, “Oh, Bhikshu, every moment you are born, decay, and die.” He meant that, every moment, the illusion of "me" renews itself. Not only is nothing carried over from one life to the next; nothing is carried over from one moment to the next.
This takes us to the Three Marks of Existence, in particular anicca, "impermanence." The Buddha taught that all phenomena, including beings, are in a constant state of flux -- always changing, always becoming, always dying.
What Is Reborn?
In his book What the Buddha Taught (1959), Theravada scholar Walpola Rahula asked,
"If we can understand that in this life we can continue without a permanent, unchanging substance like Self or Soul, why can't we understand that those forces themselves can continue without a Self or Soul behind them after the non-functioning of the body?
"When this physical body is no more capable of functioning, energies do not die with it, but continue to take some other shape or form, which we call another life. ... Physical and mental energies which constitute the so-called being have within themselves the power to take a new form, and grow gradually and gather force to the full."
Zen teacher John Daido Loori said,
"... the Buddha’s experience was that when you go beyond the skandhas, beyond the aggregates, what remains is nothing. The self is an idea, a mental construct. That is not only the Buddha’s experience, but the experience of each realized Buddhist man and woman from 2,500 years ago to the present day. That being the case, what is it that dies? There is no question that when this physical body is no longer capable of functioning, the energies within it, the atoms and molecules it is made up of, don’t die with it. They take on another form, another shape. You can call that another life, but as there is no permanent, unchanging substance, nothing passes from one moment to the next. Quite obviously, nothing permanent or unchanging can pass or transmigrate from one life to the next. Being born and dying continues unbroken but changes every moment."
Thought Moment to Thought Moment
The teachers tell us that "me" is a series of thought-moments. Each thought-moment conditions the next thought-moment. In the same way, the last thought-moment of one life conditions the first thought-moment of another life, which is the continuation of a series. "The person who dies here and is reborn elsewhere is neither the same person, nor another," Walpola Rahula wrote.
This is not easy to understand, and cannot be fully understood with intellect alone. For this reason, many schools of Buddhism emphasize a meditation practice that enables intimate realization of the illusion of self.
Karma and Rebirth
The force that propels this continuity is karma. Karma is another Asian concept that Westerners (and, for that matter, a lot of Easterners) often misunderstand. Karma is not fate, but simple action and reaction, cause and effect. For a more complete explanation, please see "Karma for Buddhists 101: Introduction to the Buddhist Understanding of Karma."
Very simply, Buddhism teaches that karma means "volitional action." Any thought, word or deed conditioned by desire, hate, passion and illusion create karma. When the effects of karma reach across lifetimes, karma brings about rebirth.
The Persistence of Belief in Reincarnation
There is no question that many Buddhists, East and West, continue to believe in individual reincarnation. Parables from the sutras and "teaching aids" like the Tibetan Wheel of Life tend to reinforce this belief.
The Rev. Takashi Tsuji, a Jodo Shinshu priest, wrote about belief in reincarnation:
"It is said that the Buddha left 84,000 teachings; the symbolic figure represents the diverse backgrounds characteristics, tastes, etc. of the people. The Buddha taught according to the mental and spiritual capacity of each individual. For the simple village folks living during the time of the Buddha, the doctrine of reincarnation was a powerful moral lesson. Fear of birth into the animal world must have frightened many people from acting like animals in this life. If we take this teaching literally today we are confused because we cannot understand it rationally.
"...A parable, when taken literally, does not make sense to the modern mind. Therefore we must learn to differentiate the parables and myths from actuality."
What's the Point?
People often turn to religion for doctrines that provide simple answers to difficult questions. Buddhism doesn't work that way. Merely believing in some doctrine about reincarnation or rebirth has no purpose. Buddhism is a practice that enables experiencing illusion as illusion and reality as reality.
The Buddha taught that our delusional belief in "me" causes our many dissatisfactions with life (dukkha). When the illusion is experienced as illusion, we are liberated.
As always, if you have questions or want to discuss this or other Buddhism topics, please visit the Buddhism forums.
