A belief in "Reincarnation...is not Buddhism" according to Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh

[Gypsyblue]

There's a terrific interview with a real hero of mine, Thich Nhat Hanh, in the January 2012 issue of Shambhala Sun. Thay (Vietnamese for "teacher") is, along with the Dalai Lama, one of the two most respected Buddhists practitioners and teachers on the planet and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968 by Dr. Martin Luther King, just before Dr. King was assassinated. He's the author of numerous books and one of my favorites is "No Death, No Fear".

Thich Nhat Hanh was asked: Do you have to believe in reincarnation to be a Buddhist?

His answer was: "Reincarnation means there is a soul that goes out of your body and enters another body. That is a very popular, very wrong notion of continuation in Buddhism. If you think that there is a soul, a self, that inhabits a body, and that goes out when the body disintegrates and takes another form, that is not Buddhism."

My question to you all is: What does Thich Nhat Hanh know that we don't know? What is he pointing to with this answer?

I'll tell you what I think: I think that we are all one Being and that there is absolutely no separate soul or self. If anything, perhaps my body is taking an incarnation in my soul - which is the same soul you "have" and everyone and everything "has".

But I also think that we get hung up in false notions trying to answer questions that are unanswerable. One would be: How did this all start?

[Andrew]

Hi GypsyBlue! Welcome back! Of course, you are correct that there is objectively no such thing as the Self, because we are truly tiny parts of God/Mind, and, in our truest state, we shared Mind's awareness and being, rather than having our own separate being. However, for the purposes of this life, and your time spent in the afterlife levels, you do objectively exist. In the grand scheme of things, you are a part of God, you are God, but, in the smaller scheme of things, you are you and everyone else is a different person. In the afterlife, especially in the higher levels, it is easier to tell that we are all connected and are the same Mind, but our minds (lowercase) appear as different until we are ready to accept them as joined.

Remember that there is no time though, and creation was ended as long as it began, so essentially, we are all already perfect and complete spiritual beings, no matter how far behind in our lessons we appear to be now.

Thich Nhat Hanh seems to be saying that the belief in reincarnation is not the same as the Buddhist belief, which most people regard as the same thing. Thus, the question answers itself - the belief in reincarnation is not a requirement of (and may even be a hinderance to) Buddhism. For our purposes in this world and the next, there is a soul, and that soul does indeed inhabit the body, leave when it dies, and take another form. There is plenty of evidence of that. But, as I say above, in the Greater Reality, we are all one. Think of God/Mind as a giant, wooden door. We are all little splinters from that. When we do finally accept this, and become spiritually perfect enough to lose the ego, then we will see that we don't lose anything in being part of God, in being God, because we have His Awareness.

Does that help to answer your question? I tried to tie together what I no about the afterlife based on evidence, what I know about eastern religion (which isn't a lot, mind you), and what information you've given here.

[Birki]

Hi GypsyBlue! I agree with both of you. I also think perhaps he is hinting at moving from body to body is not the point of a soul, not the reason for Buddhism. The fact that we reincarnate is true, but it just a mechanism for helping us grow spriritually. There is no point to reincarnation in and of itself. I do agree that in the end we are all one, but here on earth the connection isn't always as obvious.

[Roberta Grimes]

There's a terrific interview with a real hero of mine, Thich Nhat Hanh, in the January 2012 issue of Shambhala Sun. Thay (Vietnamese for "teacher") is, along with the Dalai Lama, one of the two most respected Buddhists practitioners and teachers on the planet and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968 by Dr. Martin Luther King, just before Dr. King was assassinated. He's the author of numerous books and one of my favorites is "No Death, No Fear".

Thich Nhat Hanh was asked: Do you have to believe in reincarnation to be a Buddhist?

His answer was: "Reincarnation means there is a soul that goes out of your body and enters another body. That is a very popular, very wrong notion of continuation in Buddhism. If you think that there is a soul, a self, that inhabits a body, and that goes out when the body disintegrates and takes another form, that is not Buddhism."

My question to you all is: What does Thich Nhat Hanh know that we don't know? What is he pointing to with this answer?

I'll tell you what I think: I think that we are all one Being and that there is absolutely no separate soul or self. If anything, perhaps my body is taking an incarnation in my soul - which is the same soul you "have" and everyone and everything "has".

But I also think that we get hung up in false notions trying to answer questions that are unanswerable. One would be: How did this all start?

Thank you for pointing us all to this question, dear Gypsy. One of the things that I find most wonderful is the way the afterlife evidence keeps reaffirming the teachings of our wisest advanced beings - your Thay and my Jesus among them. Advanced beings who are no longer in bodies and have been channeled seem to affirm what Thay says. They tell us that (a) something that looks like reincarnation does happen, but it is not as we imagine it; (b) our lives are more like a bucket out of which each lifetime is dipped and back into which each lifetime is poured; and (c) since time is not real, our lifetimes are not sequential, and in fact it is best to think of them as all happening at the same time.

... Even that, of course, is not quite right. One of the hardest tasks we face is trying to make sense of a reality which truly is beyond our grasp while we are limited by our human experiences and by our material brains. It is impossible for us really to understand these concepts, and it took me a long time to accept that fact! Imagine that your beloved dog could talk, and he was being interviewed about your life. He watches you constantly - he knows you so well! - but how much does he understand about what it is to be human? Eat-run-sniff-squirrel!-nap-sniff-run... that is his life. That is the prism through which he is going to see yours. And so it is with us: we have a human and materialistic prism, and everything that the Wise Ones tell us and all the amazing evidence we can find is going to be viewed through that unfortunate prism.

All of that being said, I agree with you, dear Gypsy. Based on everything that I have managed to learn - and trying hard to get beyond my prism! - I am confident that there is just one Mind. Self is an illusion, as is everything else that we think of as real. All that exists is infinitely powerful and infinitely loving eternal Mind, and each of us is part of Mind. We are all forever safe in God. Silly us - we only think we are here!

... And as for how all this got started, shall I bring up A Course in Miracles again? (Imagining a torrent of tomatoes being thrown ;-).)

[Andrew]

Thanks, Roberta, for better saying what I had tried to say above!

I personally find the A Course in Miracles explanation both satisfying and likely, but it doesn't seem to sit well with many of the members here.

[Gypsyblue]

Thank you Roberta. Your "bucket" metaphor is original and refreshing - I liked it very much!

[Roberta Grimes]

Thank you Roberta. Your "bucket" metaphor is original and refreshing - I liked it very much!

Heh - thanks, dear GypsyBlue, and I wish I were so clever! That metaphor came from an advanced being who was channeled in the early part of the 20th century ;-)!

[Andrew]

I love the bucket metaphor too! We tend to see things as black and white - we're either here or there - but really the afterlife is filled with gray areas. Just because we're on earth, doesn't mean we're not in the afterlife. And then, when you take time out of the equation, you see that the Self is just an illusion and that, while in that illusion, we are everywhere at once.