Buddhism And Reincarnation Essay

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Ramakrishna Paramhansa says, “Just as only honey will drop from the honey-comb, only good actions will ensue from the self”. Buddhism started in South Asia and people have strong beliefs in reincarnation. Buddhism believes that the accumulated karma in this life will bring forward to the next life, thus karma determines an individual’s status in the next life. Different from Hinduism, Buddhism strongly opposes the idea of soul and self, they believe that self is impermanent and is only an illusion which leads to the notion of renunciation. This paper discusses the two important notions of karma and anatman in Buddhism, and emphasises the process of reincarnation without one’s soul. Reincarnation is crucial in Buddhism religion, and the ultimate of reincarnation is nirvana. …show more content…

Keown states in his article that “karma is not a system of rewards and punishments meted out by God but a kind of natural law skin to the law of gravity. Individuals are thus the sole authors of their good and bad fortune” (Keown 37). In other words, the status of one’s next life is not determined by God, instead, it is determined by oneself. People also believe that the status of this life is determined by the accumulated karma from previous life, only good actions will result in moving upwards. In Buddhism, people believe that karma also determines one’s physical appearance and personalities (Keown 37), thus, many people think a beautiful person is warm-hearted sometimes. However, Buddhism believes that “karma does not determine precisely what will happen or how anyone will react to what happens” (Keown 39). People consider that winning a prize or losing a wallet are all about fortune, karma does not affect small things like these. Overall, karma plays a crucial role in reincarnation which determines one’s social status, physical appearance and

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