What to believe

[squirell nutkin]

Originally Posted by Griff

Whether it happens or not doesn't matter really does it? I don't think it changes my approach and any hope for revenge on evil doers isn't a healthy way to live. I see the idea of reincarnation as a result of the same attachment Buddhist teaching asks us to avoid. Maybe I've become too attached to the idea that when the lights go out they stay out.

That's very Zen, Griff. Most non Buddhists think of Buddhism as being a single religion when in fact there are probably as many schools or variations of Buddhism as there are in Christianity. Perhaps the biggest difference being that you don't have the Zen schools (yes there are many) warring with the Tibetan Schools (also many) like you have the Catholics and Protestants doing.

I say your point is Zen because when it comes to things like re-incarnation, the Zen school is more about "This Very Moment" What will you do NOW?

When I first started studying with my teacher I asked him "What about reincarnation?"
"What about it?"
"Do we die and get reincarnated?"
"Who is it that dies?"
and so on, always bringing you back to right now.

Many people's ideas of "Karma" and reincarnation as being a form of payback are misinterpretations based on distortions from the lens of the Judaeo-Christian ideologies.

There isn't a divine judge meting out punishment in Buddhism. (Avoiding a long discussion of the various deities in Tibetan, of which I know next to nothing) In Zen, at any rate, living a moral and ethical existence does not require the existence of a god.