Buddhism Religion Beliefs & Practices : Buddhism and Reincarnation :
One of the fundamental principles of Buddhism is reincarnation. The teaching of Buddhism tells us that individuals may undergo several cycles of birth, living, death and rebirth before he or she can have a perfect existence and eventually ascend into the highest plane where he or she can obtain complete freedom, which is also known as “Nirvana”.
Unlike the teachings of the Christina community where when a person die, his or her spirit will immediately either go to heaven or to hell, the teaching of Buddhism strongly suggest that a person should be given many chances to prove him or herself worthy of eternal life. According to the Buddhist belief, when a person dies and he or she is not yet really to ascend into a higher form, he or she will be remanded to earth and take on another form. A true Buddhist would classify the concepts of birth from reincarnation. For a true Buddhist, reincarnation would mean that an individual recurs repeatedly. On the other hand, a rebirth would mean that a person who died will be given another life but such life may not mean he or she assumes the same entity. Rebirth is a process, which is considered as analogous to the changing of leaves of plants. Where the old leaf falls off, a new leaf will replace it. According to the teachings of Buddhism, in rebirth, the new entity that is born is like the new leaf, which may look exactly the same as the old leaf, but it could never be the same as the old leaf.
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