As in, whether Buddhist doctrine makes allowances for the possibility of someone recalling past lives, even though this person engages in no actual Buddhist practice. — baker
You can't say something has powers or energies but it isn't a power, energy or force. — Apollodorus
Reincarnation is no more consoling than whatever the alternatives are. — Nils Loc
- same issue as @Apollodorus has with the confused "intelligent energy".But I think the soul could more easily be conceived in terms of a field that acts as an organising principle - analogous to the physical and magnetic fields that were discovered during the 19th century, — Wayfarer
I wonder how you would research that. — Wayfarer
Any chance of expanding on that a bit? — Apollodorus
I don't know whether you are countering my claim, or agreeing with it. Sounds like countering, but you are actually agreeing. — god must be atheist
Perhaps the brain may not be so much the source of consciousness as a window onto it, an intersection point. — Pantagruel
Here's the question again: what is it that is reincarnated? — Banno
There are many unanswered questions about consciousness, but that doesn't mean that consciousness doesn't exist, or that consciousness isn't more than brain activity. — Sam26
My personal experience with "accounts" of life-after-death was the Christian doctrine of Resurrection. It had the same general effect as Reincarnation -- a second chance for Justice and Happiness -- but in a one-shot deal. No need to try over & over to get it right. And no need for "philosophical justification", because it was based on faith in "reliable accounts", by witnesses to Jesus' revival after a gruesome death. Eventually though, I concluded that the testimony of those obviously biased witnesses was not "reliable". That's because they had an ideology (belief-system) to sell, and "the advertisement spoke well of it".For example, there are some reliable accounts of telepathy, clairvoyant dreams, etc. that a strictly materialist view of the mind is unable to explain.This doesn't prove reincarnation but it suggests that our mind or consciousness is not necessarily limited to the physical body. — Apollodorus
The bottom line is that I don't put much stock in second-hand "accounts" and hear-say anecdotes about events that I have never observed in my own experience. — Gnomon
This is the crux of the matter, so it speak, and it's telling that no one has yet proposed a coherent, evidence-based, 'transmigratory (metempsychotic)' candidate."What gets reincarnated" that also belongs to the self? — 180 Proof
It makes for standard Hare Krishna doctrine:The soul is a form of intelligent energy. An immaterial substance that has the power of knowledge and action, of being aware of itself and of other things and of acting upon or interacting with itself and other things.
— Apollodorus
I think you’d have a fair amount of difficulty supporting that with reference to original sources. I personally believe the notion of an ‘immaterial substance’ is incoherent, as no such ‘substance’ can be detected by means of the senses or instruments. — Wayfarer
/.../ The “soul” is defined as a non-material, eternal spiritual entity present within any living being. The symptom of the presence of the soul within a body is consciousness. The soul continues to exist after the destruction of the body and it existed prior to the creation of the body. The material body develops, changes and produces by-products [offspring] because of the presence of the soul within. The material body deteriorates in due cause of time and when it is no longer a suitable residence for the soul it is forced to leave the body. This we call death.
/.../
https://krishna.org/the-scientific-theory-of-the-soul/
I answered your question. Why did you ignore it?Here's the question again: what is it that is reincarnated? — Banno
But you're like someone who claims to want to learn and talk about "gravity", and then insists on categorically ignoring all physics books about gravity.I'm interested in the philosophical implications, and that means sorting out the conceptual stuff. — Banno
Thanks for the find!"There are six kinds of people who recollect these past lives. They are: other sectarians, ordinary disciples ..." - Visuddhimagga XIII 15 — Apollodorus
What makes all this into woo-woo is that so many people insist on being Humpy Dumpty -- "When I use a word" -- they say in a scornful tone -- "it means exactly what I choose it to mean!!" — baker
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