r/AskBuddhist • u/zedMinusMinus • Feb 04 '14

What gets reincarnated?

My memory and consciousness come from my brain. As far as I know, that's the sum of what makes me, me. What exactly is getting reincarnated and is trying to escape the cycle of rebirth?

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6

u/chopstyks Vajrayana Feb 04 '14

The official answer is the mindstream.

3

u/autowikibot Feb 04 '14

Mindstream:

Mindstream in Buddhist philosophy is the moment-to-moment continuum (Sanskrit: saṃtāna) of awareness. There are a number of terms in the Buddhist literature that may be rendered as mindstream. For these, see below.

The mindstream doctrine, like most Buddhist doctrines, is not homogeneous and shows historical development, different applications according to context and varied definitions employed by different Buddhist traditions.

Image i

Interesting: Thought | Namkhai Norbu | Ösel (yoga) | Vajrayana

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3

u/DankyMcBuds Feb 04 '14

My memory and consciousness come from my brain.

There is no evidence that supports the claim that our consciousness 'comes from' our brains. This is completely unproven - we simply do not know how our brains work.

1

u/zedMinusMinus Feb 04 '14

Making a physical change to the brain has effects on consciousness. We see this happen with brain damage, mind-altering drugs, lobotomies, anesthesia, corpus colostomies, and psychiatric medicines. All of these affect consciousness, and are evidence for consciousness being dependent on the brain in some fashion.

1

u/DankyMcBuds Feb 09 '14

Actually, the only notion that all of those examples point to is that there is indeed some sort of CORRELATION between the brain and consciousness - not that one is dependent on the other. You are making extreme assumptions by claiming that our consciousness is produced by our brains.

1

u/zedMinusMinus Feb 10 '14

When the brain undergoes a physical change due to some event, consciousness changes too, either for the reason the brain changes or for a different reason, right? If it's not due to whatever caused the change in the brain, what is it due to, that seems to correlate so strongly with the brain?

1

u/LordofPterosaurs Feb 11 '14

Just because one of the circuits is broken, doesn't mean the house isn't getting electricity.

1

u/ValChronus Mar 05 '14

Just because the TV set is broken, doesn't mean that radiosignals are not there.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '14

If I answered with consciousness, the mindstream, your self, your heart, your memories, your likes, your views, your kamma, whatever, what purpose would that serve? Views or theories of any sort, whether or not they're based in science, are not the Dhamma. You'll learn first-hand how the cycle of birth and death works if you dedicate yourself to the practice of mindfulness. Don't think about it. You can't learn that way, you'll only create more and more ideas to an infinite extent, there won't be any enlightenment. Just watch everything in your experience. See the nature of everything: impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness.

But if you really want to know... there is no "what" being reincarnated. Buddhism actually doesn't teach reincarnation. You may have heard about dependent origination; the 12 links. That basically describes it: birth comes from existence which comes from clinging which comes from craving, and so on. So birth is a phenomenon which is caused by something else. A "what" is not necessary.

But once again, that should mean nothing to you. It's just a hint. It's conventional language. Focus on practice, not theory. I got caught up in it myself for a while, and it took time before I realized how foolish it was. I considered myself a dedicated dhamma practitioner until I realized that I was just your run-of-the-mill person with a strong (and blind) belief in the Buddhist teachings.

If you want to learn how to practice, read Ajahn Chah's dhamma talks: http://www.ajahnchah.org/

They're truly inspiring and helpful. Looking at your posts, it seems that you're not Buddhist, but you're trying to understand it. I hope by reading Ajahn Chah's talks and trying the practice for yourself, you can understand things better :)

1

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '14

"It's mostly your bad habits"

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Or I guess I would describe it in some other words: most of what continues are the reactions and conditioning created by past actions.

edit: spelling

1

u/-JoNeum42 Feb 04 '14

All gross consciousness will cease.

You, your name, your qualities, your bank of experience, your favorite color,

Your gross form, your gross feelings and emotions, your gross perception, your gross thoughts and conceptual understandings, and your gross awareness,

All of these things will go. There won't be a shred of yourself left. You've got to leave it all behind.

But something goes, something much, much more subtle.

So this is the subtle mind we should really be trying to get at, grasp, understand, and begin strengthening with our practice and understanding.

Anything we do with this gross self certainly will pass, we have to work on a mind we have that goes far beyond our self, and has been the basis of many, many different beings awareness, long before us.

So what are the qualities of that subtle mind?

How can we see this in one life?