What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

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Rob_1973_Aus
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What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Rob_1973_Aus »

Greetings and Peace to you all.
This is only my second post but it is something that myself and many others, it appears, to struggle with.
What exactly is 'reborn' after we (this consciousness and this human body) dies?
This is how I see it for now but please correct me or point me toward the right direction if I am completely off track.

Once I die, I feel that my True Mind, which is unchanging, is the only thing to be reborn along with the Karma attached to it from my previous existence(s). All of this life's experiences will be gone as they are impermanent.
Once reborn, just as now, I will have no memory of a past life so to speak. My new body will simply be the vessel to carry around my True Mind just as a car is the vessel that transports me around now - all the wires, systems, fuel etc are not me however I am IN the vehicle itself. (I hope that makes sense.) From about two years of age, I will become aware of myself. (I did in this life anyway...)
Karma will of course play a part in what happens to me in the next life and perhaps it will continue to lead me further into my beliefs as I feel this is exactly how I have come to this point now, as early in my journey as I am.
I have nothing to fear. I don't remember not 'being' before I was born in this life and so I will not fear 'not being' after this body and life ends.
But I do feel, even that it's not the transmission of a soul, my True Mind simply goes on to the next body in the next life as it has done many times before and eventually, I will become enlightened. (Please don't misunderstand me here. I don't mean that pridefully or with arrogance. I just believe that life after life will allow 'me' to gain greater experience on the Path.)

That is how I comprehend it. I welcome all of your input, my friends.
Peace and Happiness to you all.
Rob.
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Wayfarer »

Hey thanks for sharing. You are of course free to hold to the idea of ‘true mind’ but, as this is a Buddhist forum, it ought to be said that Buddhism doesn’t hold to such ideas. The Buddha doesn’t teach that there is ‘a true self’ in the driver’s seat, so to speak. I don’t want to appear discouraging or critical but that is nearer the Hindu view.
'Only practice with no gaining idea' ~ Suzuki Roshi
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by amanitamusc »

Wayfarer wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 8:21 am Hey thanks for sharing. You are of course free to hold to the idea of ‘true mind’ but, as this is a Buddhist forum, it ought to be said that Buddhism doesn’t hold to such ideas. The Buddha doesn’t teach that there is ‘a true self’ in the driver’s seat, so to speak. I don’t want to appear discouraging or critical but that is nearer the Hindu view.
:good:
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

Read up on Yogacara.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Tsongkhapafan »

Rob_1973_Aus wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:18 am Greetings and Peace to you all.
This is only my second post but it is something that myself and many others, it appears, to struggle with.
What exactly is 'reborn' after we (this consciousness and this human body) dies?
This is how I see it for now but please correct me or point me toward the right direction if I am completely off track.

Once I die, I feel that my True Mind, which is unchanging, is the only thing to be reborn along with the Karma attached to it from my previous existence(s). All of this life's experiences will be gone as they are impermanent.
Once reborn, just as now, I will have no memory of a past life so to speak. My new body will simply be the vessel to carry around my True Mind just as a car is the vessel that transports me around now - all the wires, systems, fuel etc are not me however I am IN the vehicle itself. (I hope that makes sense.) From about two years of age, I will become aware of myself. (I did in this life anyway...)
Karma will of course play a part in what happens to me in the next life and perhaps it will continue to lead me further into my beliefs as I feel this is exactly how I have come to this point now, as early in my journey as I am.
I have nothing to fear. I don't remember not 'being' before I was born in this life and so I will not fear 'not being' after this body and life ends.
But I do feel, even that it's not the transmission of a soul, my True Mind simply goes on to the next body in the next life as it has done many times before and eventually, I will become enlightened. (Please don't misunderstand me here. I don't mean that pridefully or with arrogance. I just believe that life after life will allow 'me' to gain greater experience on the Path.)

That is how I comprehend it. I welcome all of your input, my friends.
Peace and Happiness to you all.
Rob.
Hi Rob,

What is reborn is self. Self, body and mind are all impermanent, being dependent on causes and conditions. What is reborn is 'I'. Everybody uses this term as in 'I am happy, I am going to the shops'. There is a self that exists ('mere I') and a self that does not exist, the inherently existent I . The inherently existent I is a sense of a solid, independent I that doesn't depend upon our body and mind. Such an I could never exist, but our ignorance manufactures it moment by moment. It is by grasping at such a non-existent I that we create contaminated karma and remain in the cycle of rebirth, samsara, for life after life. It is one of the aims of Buddhism to realise that such an independent or inherently existent I does not exist. When we realise this, we do not cease to exist, we simply realise that, paradoxically, there is an I that exists but that it cannot be found by wisdom. It's a mere projection or imputation by mind, mere name.

So the answer to your question is that 'I' is reborn from life to life. There is a continuum of I which has a sense of identity depending on the type of rebirth that we take - human, animal, god, hell being and so on.
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Grigoris »

Johnny Dangerous wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 8:42 am Read up on Yogacara.
Thing with Yogacara and Shentong is that this True Self is not an "I" as such. It has a number of characteristics, but they are not even vaguely related to the five skandha that we normally consider as an "I".
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by takso »

Buddhism rejects the term ‘transmigration’ or ‘reincarnation’ altogether, but why? Literally, ‘trans-’ is a prefix meaning through or across. And transmigration denotes the movement or conveyance from place to place. If we mention that a soul would transmigrate from a body to another new body, it means the same ‘unchanging’ soul does the movement or conveyance throughout the time stream (past, present and future). However, in a conventional reality, no ‘unchanging’ soul would transmigrate from one body to another and on this pretext, Buddhism upholds the term ‘rebirth’ or ‘re-arising.’ The Buddha sees in no transmigration of all things or matters but instead, the constant and continuous transformation of all things or matters via the process of permeation (diffusion). Just like the orientation of energy in the cosmos i.e. energy would only transform - to transform is to change, to change is to become, and to become is to reborn. So energy is ever ‘reborn’ all the time in the dependent nature. By understanding well and observing thoroughly into the characteristics of energy, one could gain insight into the nature and its orientation.

In the case of rebirth, an individual soul does not migrate from a physical body into another one. No, it just won’t fit at all. Every individual or thing that exists would not be the same - it could only be in a similar condition e.g. twins are similar but never the same individuals (likewise, no two minds are the same). Every individual is unique respectively and no individuals would be the same even though they do share some sort of the same genes before time. For example, you may have heard in various stories whereby a spirit or ghost has the ability to possess into the body of an individual but it never absolutely overtakes the soul of the possessed individual. This is because one cannot simply exchange the soul at one’s whim and fancy. Even individuals with the most powerful magic charm could not perform this feat. Another example will be the human organ transplant cases, whereby the new recipients need to take immunosuppressive drugs to treat any transplant rejections – live long.

In Buddhism, rebirth refers to evolving consciousness or stream of consciousness of a person (upon death) and the new consciousness arising in the same person (in the new person) is neither identical to, nor entirely different from, the old consciousness, but forms part of a causal continuum or stream with it. The basic cause for this persistent re-arising of personality is the abiding of consciousness in ignorance; when ignorance is uprooted, rebirth ceases. For example, a flame is transferred from one candle to another, or a fire spreads from one field to another. In the same way that it depends on the original fire, there is a conditioned relationship between one life and the next; they are not identical but neither are they completely distinct.

And it is possible for rebirth to take place from a single source into different identities at any various point of time, just like how the genetic lineage works for generations. This is how we explain the destiny of being siblings, being life partners, being close friends in one’s lifetime. Somehow or somewhere before time, the so-called relevant individuals are inherited from the similar sources of predecessor. Thus in the present lifetime one has the opportunity to meet and know with the relevant beings and not the other non-relevant beings (as per the law of attraction).

Ultimately, it is the wonder of nature that every created object or thing is neither identical to, nor entirely different from each other. This is how the conventional reality works i.e. not in-linear but in inter-dependence, inter-woven and inter-relation since the dawn of time in a very comprehensive and complicated network of existence. At the end of the day, the inter-connectedness of all things or matters in the nature is what the principle of emptiness is all about - as per the teachings of the Buddha.
~ Ignorance triumphs when wise men do nothing ~
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Rob_1973_Aus »

Wayfarer wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 8:21 am Hey thanks for sharing. You are of course free to hold to the idea of ‘true mind’ but, as this is a Buddhist forum, it ought to be said that Buddhism doesn’t hold to such ideas. The Buddha doesn’t teach that there is ‘a true self’ in the driver’s seat, so to speak. I don’t want to appear discouraging or critical but that is nearer the Hindu view.
Hi again, Wayfarer. I guess I used a word (True Mind) as a bad descriptor. I was close to saying Buddha Nature. I just can't put a label on the *insert what it is here* that goes into the next life. Karma must, as I understand it but what else? Is it strictly Karma only and if so, then why would a new being have to deal with whatever misdeeds I myself made in this life? This is where I find myself struggling the most. Everything else that I don't understand is like water off a duck's back but I really am stumped when it comes to what exactly is reborn.

Have a Peaceful day, my friend.
Rob.
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Wayfarer »

Rob_1973_Aus wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 11:39 am I guess I used a word (True Mind) as a bad descriptor. I was close to saying Buddha Nature. I just can't put a label on the *insert what it is here* that goes into the next life. Karma must, as I understand it but what else? Is it strictly Karma only and if so, then why would a new being have to deal with whatever misdeeds I myself made in this life? This is where I find myself struggling the most. Everything else that I don't understand is like water off a duck's back but I really am stumped when it comes to what exactly is reborn.
It's a very difficult question. Believe me, there are many long threads on this forum with debates and arguments about this very issue.

The basic idea is, there is not some changeless core of being, something which remains the same while everything else changes. The fundamental principle of Buddhism is called 'dependent origination'. It means that everything arises, dependent on causes on conditions. Karma is a simple example of that - violence and hatred result in violence and hatred, forgiveness and forbearance result in peace of mind. But when you drill down, the complexities are mind-boggling. In fact the Buddha said, never try and figure out the details, it's a fool's errand. But we can all learn from the principle. That is why karma has become part of the culture - on one level it's quite common-sensical.

In any case, in each life, causes are initiated which ripple forth through time. Those causes can themselves manifest in the form of a new birth, and from the perspective of the being who is born, those causes then become part of 'the self'. They are what the being thinks of as 'I and mine'. But, is there really 'a self' apart from that network of causes and web of relationships that takes form? That is the question, and it's a deep question.

The other principle about the Buddha's teaching, is that nearly always, the motivation for considering this question is, basically, self-centred. 'What will become of me? Will I be OK? Will I continue to be? Will I cease to be?' A big part of the teaching is learning to abandon such self-centred orientation - but again, it's no easy task. Abandoning the idea of 'me and mine' is letting go of the very thing which drives continued re-birth.

Have a read of Ven. Thanisarro's online article, The Truth of Rebirth and Why it Matters for Buddhist Practice. It's a deep article, take it slowly, and if you have questions on it, by all means ask them here.

:namaste:
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Rick »

Rob_1973_Aus wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:18 amWhat Exactly is 'Reborn'?
Hi Rob!

Up until fairly recently I thought rebirth was metaphorical at best, hogwash at worst ... until I ran into some msgs here that got me to think-feel that some form of actual rebirth was not that far-fetched but possible, maybe even probable. The key for me was being able to entertain the notion that some kind of mental process can survive physical death. If that's true, rebirth begins to seem not that weird at all, but natural.

I read something recently <can't remember where> that described the mind of a dying unenlightened person and how, upon death, there was a huge rush of terror at having no body, no center, no 'I' ... accompanied by a rush of desire to have a body/center/I ... and how this overpowering desire led to finding a suitable embryo-vehicle to re-claim these things. Imagine suddenly finding yourself underwater with no sense of where down or up was, unable to breathe, everything dark, swimming madly for <what you hoped was> the surface/rescue.

Perhaps these powerful and self-driven mental patterns of fear, disorientation, and desire for security and I-ness are <some of> what gets reborn.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily ...
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

Johnny Dangerous wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 8:42 am Read up on Yogacara.
In short, Yogacara posits an 8th consciousnesses that goes from one life to another.
Buddhism rejects the term ‘transmigration’ or ‘reincarnation’ altogether, but why? Literally, ‘trans-’ is a prefix meaning through or across. And transmigration denotes the movement or conveyance from place to place. If we mention that a soul would transmigrate from a body to another new body, it means the same ‘unchanging’ soul does the movement or conveyance throughout the time stream (past, present and future). However, in a conventional reality, no ‘unchanging’ soul would transmigrate from one body to another and on this pretext, Buddhism upholds the term ‘rebirth’ or ‘re-arising
This is modern day spin that is incorrect. Buddhism teaches reincarnation.
——————————
The difference between Buddhism and Hinduism is that Hindus think that there’s something that doesn’t change between lives. Buddhists say if that were true then there would be a limit on the potential transformation.

The previous Kalu R gave this example. Take a creature that reincarnates as a fish, then an elephant, and then a bird. Which is its “true identity”? If it’s true identity was as a fish, then the elephant would have to live underwater. If its true identity was as an elephant then the bird could not fly.

Reincarnation says there is continuity.
No-self says there is unlimited potential for change.
The two ideas are compatible.

Buddhahood is this unlimited potential to manifest as anything without having any limitations due to causes and conditions. What Buddhist reincarnation suggests is that our true nature is, on a fundamental level, freedom.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by justsit »

smcj wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 2:30 pm ]
This is modern day spin that is incorrect. Buddhism teaches reincarnation.
——————————
The previous Kalu R gave this example. Take a creature that reincarnates as a fish, then an elephant, and then a bird. Which is its “true identity”? If it’s true identity was as a fish, then the elephant would have to live underwater. If its true identity was as an elephant then the bird could not fly.

Reincarnation says there is continuity.
No-self says there is unlimited potential for change.
The two ideas are compatible.
My understanding is that reincarnation implies continuity of the same being, with transmigration of the same self after death. Whereas rebirth is continuity of existence, but not one individual's specific existence. The "I" is not reborn.

So, as I have been taught, in vajrayana some high lamas reincarnate with a continuation of consciousness. Otherwise, there is only rebirth. I've never heard that all beings reincarnate.

Then again, I'm a beginner and may have this wrong.
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

i used to be able to post a link to buddhistgeeks.org where Stephan Batchelor explains there’s no difference between reincarnation and rebirth in Pali. They are the same term. Unfortunately that page has been taken down now.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Jeff H »

I think Wayfarer is providing some very good direction for your inquiry. I’d just like to offer a narrative I use to try and understand the process.

Nothing lasts for two moments.

Every instance of anything we can know in conventional reality arises, abides, and abates in a moment. That applies to all material and conscious phenomena. The process of arising-abiding-abating creates an effect which is a new instance of arising-abiding-abating. The new instance is similar to but distinct from its cause, the previous instance.

That process is called subtle impermanence and its largely undetectable in everyday life. The similarity of consecutive but distinct instances creates the illusion of duration over time. In the case of a person, such subtle impermanence leads to a personal identity that we believe persists throughout the coarser impermanence of changes from infant to elder. At death, the chain of consecutive instances has changed so significantly that the personal identity is lost altogether.

At that point the material body decomposes and transforms into other forms of matter and energy. The consciousness, now completely stripped of physicality and conventional knowledge, also continues the arise-abide-abate process which includes craving renewed physicality and knowledge. It is that craving that is “reborn” in newly conditioned circumstances.

Craving is conditioned by all one’s karmic actions in the previous life and handed off from one distinct instance of consciousness to the next. Each moment of the new life is completely distinct from its predecessor and yet informed by it.

And so it goes until we can break the chain of craving.
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

Grigoris wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 10:29 am
Johnny Dangerous wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 8:42 am Read up on Yogacara.
Thing with Yogacara and Shentong is that this True Self is not an "I" as such. It has a number of characteristics, but they are not even vaguely related to the five skandha that we normally consider as an "I".
.....Thats why I said to read up on it.
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Daizan »

Grigoris wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 10:29 am
Johnny Dangerous wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 8:42 am Read up on Yogacara.
Thing with Yogacara and Shentong is that this True Self is not an "I" as such. It has a number of characteristics, but they are not even vaguely related to the five skandha that we normally consider as an "I".
The five skandha are a description of suffering and not an I.
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Grigoris »

Daizan wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 5:09 pm
Grigoris wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 10:29 am
Johnny Dangerous wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 8:42 am Read up on Yogacara.
Thing with Yogacara and Shentong is that this True Self is not an "I" as such. It has a number of characteristics, but they are not even vaguely related to the five skandha that we normally consider as an "I".
The five skandha are a description of suffering and not an I.
I did not say they were an "I", I said they "normally considered" to be an "I".

PS In the Vajrayana, the five skandha are the Five Wisdom Buddhas. ;)
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
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"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

It’s like an infinitely variable version of string game Cat’s Cradle. Each formulation of the string is dependent on the previous formulation. But no one formulation of the string is the correct, essential, or unchanging “true self”.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

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Hi Rob, welcome to dharmawheel! Your question is a key one, and my understanding of it has evolved during my time on DW, as it has for others as well.

Birth and death exist only in Mind; therefore, outside Mind there is no birth or death: every second is rebirth and death. When you ask what will happen after ‘death’ is thus a non-question: in fact, you are experiencing it every second. It is only a delusion that you are a continuous stable ‘I’ with some sort of intrinsic experience that does not die and be reborn.

Birth/rebirth is a causal chain that you can find in many sutras:

“Wipe out ignorance and action will be wiped out. Wipe out action and consciousness will be wiped out. Wipe out consciousness and name and form will be wiped out. Wipe out name and form and the six sense organs will be wiped out. Wipe out the six sense organs and contact will be wiped out. Wipe out contact and sensation will be wiped out. Wipe out sensation and desire will be wiped out. Wipe out desire and attachment will be wiped out. Wipe out attachment and existence will be wiped out. Wipe out existence and birth will be wiped out. Wipe out birth and this will wipe out the anxieties and distress of aging and death. This is how one wipes out the chain of causation, thereby attaining emancipation. This is how the Buddha frees himself from earthly desires.”


[...]“As an analogy, a seed is planted in the ground, but fruits appear at the top of the tree. The seed does not go from branch to branch to reach the tree top, nor does anyone place the seed on a branch. One cannot find the seed by cutting open the tree trunk. Even if the tree is chopped down, one still cannot find the seed. The seed cannot be found as the tree is formed and its roots firm. Thus good and evil karmas depend on the body, but cannot be found in the body. As an analogy, the seed is the cause of the flower, but inside the seed there is no flower.

The flower is the cause of the fruit, but inside the flower there is no fruit. As the flower and the fruit grow, neither growth shows its cause. Likewise, because of the body there is karma, and because of karma there is the body. When the flower falls at maturity, the fruit with its seed will appear; when the body expires at maturity, the karmic seed will leave it. As the seed is the cause of flowers and fruits, likewise is the body the cause of good and evil karmas. Karma has no shape, no appearance of maturity, like the shadow of one’s body, with neither mass nor obstruction.

The shadow is not held by or fastened to a person, but it moves along with the person. Never has anyone seen the shadow coming out of his body. Likewise, there are body and karma, but karma cannot be seen as something attached to the body. Yet, without the body, there cannot be karma.”
(Mahayana Sutra on Consciousness)

If you are just starting your journey and seeking some guide posts along the way to help conceptualize rebirth, you can consider rebirth as an ‘echo’ from one life to another. Contrasting it with reincarnation is another good way of conceptualizing it: unlike reincarnation, in rebirth there is no soul that is transmigrating.

So, to answer your question, ‘what is reborn’, yes, something is reborn:

The delusion of an I.
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Re: What Exactly is 'Reborn'?

Post by Wayfarer »

Note that the above post makes reference to 'Mind', whereas in my earlier reply to Rob, I stated that Buddhism doesn't accept the reality of what he termed a 'true mind' that migrates from life to life.

This is a very complicated subject, but the use of 'Mind' in Mahayana Buddhism is derived from what is called the 'mind-only teachings' of Buddhism. These teachings - which are not universally accepted by all Buddhist schools - likewise don't posit an individual mind or soul that migrates from life to life. However they teach that what most of us take to be an external, objective reality, is really 'mere appearance', i.e. something that exists in Mind. An introduction can be found here.

There is a concept associated with Yogacara (mind-only) Buddhism known as the 'mind-stream' (citta santana).
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